Stephen Gill (academic)
Encyclopedia
Stephen Gill, FRSC
(born 1950) is Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science
at York University
, Toronto
, Canada
. He is known for his work in International Relations
and Global Political Economy and has published, among others, Power and Resistance in the New World Order (2003, second edition 2008), Power, Production and Social Reproduction (with Isabella Bakker, 2003), Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (1993), American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission (1990) and The Global Political Economy: Perspectives, Problems and Policies (with David Law, 1988).
Gill has been described as one of the Fifty Key Thinkers of International Relations and it is noted that "confining his thought to any discipline or sub-field unfairly diminishes the breadth of his work." His work has been translated into many languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and Finnish. His 2003 book Power and Resistance in the New World Order won the Outstanding Academic Title Award of Choice, the journal of the American Library Association
.
, England
and states that the British class system in which he grew up was one of the most important factors in shaping his political outlook: "This system helped forge a sense of injustice and resistance to illegitimate power that have been driving forces in much of my intellectual and political work." He attended City of Leeds School
before leaving Yorkshire to enter higher education, studying a variety of subjects including English, French, Economics, Industrial Administration, Government and Politics and Education.
Gill cites Stephen Burman (now of the University of Sussex
) and John N. Gray as two of his main influences during his university education. While reading for a doctoral degree in Sociology
at Birmingham University, Gill was encouraged by Burman "to study transnational class formations and to begin to think about world order in a more complex way than orthodox theorizations of International Relations seemed to allow." This perspective has remained a distinctive feature of Gill’s research and he is noted for the breadth of his work, which draws influence from a wide variety of theoretical approaches.
While studying part-time for his doctorate at Birmingham, Gill also held a full-time position as a lecturer at Wolverhampton Polytechnic
(now University), where he formed a close working partnership with David Law, developing a "sociological perspective" on Global Political Economy which would culminate in the publication of their book, The Global Political Economy: Perspectives, Problems and Policies, in 1988. Griffiths et al. note that, "uniquely for its time, [it] gave serious attention to the entire theoretical spectrum of the field, including variants of Marxism
and game theory
as well as making novel arguments about the structural power of capital
."
In 1990, Gill immigrated to Canada "as an intellectual refugee from Thatcherism
" and took up a position as a professor in the Political Science department of York University, Toronto, where he worked with Robert W. Cox
. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
in 2003 and was awarded the title of Distinguished Research Professor in 2005. In 2003 he was elected Vice-President of the International Studies Association
. For the 2009-2010 academic year, he was the Erkko Visiting Professor in Studies on Contemporary Society at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki
.
International Relations scholars, although his work adopts his own distinctive historical materialist
approach as a means of explaining global power
and the changing world order. His work draws on Gramscian
concepts such as American hegemony
(for the Gramscian definition, see Hegemony), cultural hegemony
and historic blocs, organic intellectuals and state-civil society.
, and in particular the ideas of their leading thinkers ("organic intellectuals"). Gill showed how organisations such as the Trilateral Commission
sought to develop a consensus among ruling class elements on how to extend the power of capital, to govern world capitalism
, to defeat communism
and to oppose and undermine state formations that refused integration into the capitalist world market. The book has been praised for its combination of theoretical and methodological innovation and described as a "classic study" of the changing structures of global power since 1945.
The book challenged the conventional wisdom of the 1980s, associated with Yale
historian Paul Kennedy
's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
(1988), which argued that US hegemony was in decline in the 1980s and would likely decline further in the 1990s. Gill argued that US hegemony was reasserted during the 1980s, paving the way for neoliberal capitalism to expand globally in the 1990s under US leadership. Gill argued that a key reason for this was a complex ("historical bloc") of liberal institutions, ideas and elites which was part of a highly developed US-led alliance structure that helped to politically cement the main capitalist states' strategies towards adversaries as well as promoting the globalisation of capitalism. A review by Gaddis Smith
in Foreign Affairs, the journal of the Trilateral Commission’s sister organisation the Council on Foreign Relations
, noted that "the discussion is mercifully free of the polemical, conspiratorial assumptions behind many studies of this subject."
and Giovanni Arrighi
, is considered one of the key texts on Gramscian and Neo-Gramscian theory and has been credited with broadening the audience for Gramsci’s work within the field of International Relations.
’s theories of panopticism
and capillary power. Gill’s concept of market civilization helps to explain the formation of social subjects in the era of neo-liberalism, based on a reading of how market values, market forces and disciplines, privatisation, and the commodification of life forms are becoming increasingly pervasive, working into the very micro-practices of everyday life.
Gill’s collaboration with the noted feminist scholar Isabella Bakker in their edited work Power, Production and Social Reproduction: Human In/security in the Global Political Economy is an attempt to develop a radical re-conceptualisation of political economy. The authors state their aim "is to bring together theories and concepts from Feminist and Radical Political Economy and Critical International Studies, and to harness them to a more encompassing methodological and theoretical perspective with which to study some of the new conditions of existence in the global political economy. It seeks to provide a new approach based on an effort to synthesise the moments of power, production and social reproduction in patterns of intensified globalization." In a review for the journal Progress in Human Geography, critical geographer
Helen Jarvis noted how the book identifies and explains "complex relationships simultaneously at work in global flows (of people and finance) and local practices (of production and social reproduction)," adding that "it moves beyond grand narratives of hegemonic neoliberalism, unraveling hidden circuits of inequality in the social reproduction of daily life."
FRSC
FRSC can refer to:* a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada* a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry* the Federal Road Safety Corps of Nigeria...
(born 1950) is Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He is known for his work in International Relations
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
and Global Political Economy and has published, among others, Power and Resistance in the New World Order (2003, second edition 2008), Power, Production and Social Reproduction (with Isabella Bakker, 2003), Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (1993), American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission (1990) and The Global Political Economy: Perspectives, Problems and Policies (with David Law, 1988).
Gill has been described as one of the Fifty Key Thinkers of International Relations and it is noted that "confining his thought to any discipline or sub-field unfairly diminishes the breadth of his work." His work has been translated into many languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and Finnish. His 2003 book Power and Resistance in the New World Order won the Outstanding Academic Title Award of Choice, the journal of the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
.
Biography
Gill was raised in Leeds, West YorkshireLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and states that the British class system in which he grew up was one of the most important factors in shaping his political outlook: "This system helped forge a sense of injustice and resistance to illegitimate power that have been driving forces in much of my intellectual and political work." He attended City of Leeds School
City of Leeds School
City of Leeds School is a mixed comprehensive school in Woodhouse.-School:The present building was opened to pupils in 1992, although the City of Leeds School has existed on a different site for over 100 years.-Facilities:...
before leaving Yorkshire to enter higher education, studying a variety of subjects including English, French, Economics, Industrial Administration, Government and Politics and Education.
Gill cites Stephen Burman (now of the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
) and John N. Gray as two of his main influences during his university education. While reading for a doctoral degree in Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at Birmingham University, Gill was encouraged by Burman "to study transnational class formations and to begin to think about world order in a more complex way than orthodox theorizations of International Relations seemed to allow." This perspective has remained a distinctive feature of Gill’s research and he is noted for the breadth of his work, which draws influence from a wide variety of theoretical approaches.
While studying part-time for his doctorate at Birmingham, Gill also held a full-time position as a lecturer at Wolverhampton Polytechnic
University of Wolverhampton
The University of Wolverhampton is a British university located on four campuses across the West Midlands and Shropshire. The city campus is located in Wolverhampton city centre with a second campus at Compton Park, Wolverhampton; a third in Walsall and a fourth in Telford...
(now University), where he formed a close working partnership with David Law, developing a "sociological perspective" on Global Political Economy which would culminate in the publication of their book, The Global Political Economy: Perspectives, Problems and Policies, in 1988. Griffiths et al. note that, "uniquely for its time, [it] gave serious attention to the entire theoretical spectrum of the field, including variants of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and game theory
Game theory
Game theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...
as well as making novel arguments about the structural power of capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
."
In 1990, Gill immigrated to Canada "as an intellectual refugee from Thatcherism
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
" and took up a position as a professor in the Political Science department of York University, Toronto, where he worked with Robert W. Cox
Robert W. Cox
Robert Cox is a former political science professor and United Nations officer. He is cited as one of the intellectual leaders, along with Susan Strange, of the British School of International Political Economy and is still active as a scholar after his formal retirement, writing and giving...
. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
in 2003 and was awarded the title of Distinguished Research Professor in 2005. In 2003 he was elected Vice-President of the International Studies Association
International Studies Association
The International Studies Association was founded by a group of scholars and practitioners in 1959 to pursue mutual interests in international studies. Representing eighty countries, ISA has over three thousand members worldwide and is the most respected and widely known scholarly association in...
. For the 2009-2010 academic year, he was the Erkko Visiting Professor in Studies on Contemporary Society at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...
.
Research
Gill is considered one of the leading Neo-GramscianNeo-Gramscianism
Neo-Gramscianism applies a critical theory approach to the study of International Relations and the Global Political Economy that explores the interface of ideas, institutions and material capabilities as they shape the specific contours of the state formation...
International Relations scholars, although his work adopts his own distinctive historical materialist
Historical materialism
Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
approach as a means of explaining global power
Power in international relations
Power in international relations is defined in several different ways. Political scientists, historians, and practitioners of international relations have used the following concepts of political power:...
and the changing world order. His work draws on Gramscian
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...
concepts such as American hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
(for the Gramscian definition, see Hegemony), cultural hegemony
Cultural hegemony
Cultural hegemony is the philosophic and sociological theory, by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, that a culturally diverse society can be dominated by one social class, by manipulating the societal culture so that its ruling-class worldview is imposed as the societal norm, which then is...
and historic blocs, organic intellectuals and state-civil society.
American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission
Gill’s early work, American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission (1991) introduced many of these concepts which were used to theorise and identify the global ruling class formations drawn from politics, the corporate world and civil societyCivil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
, and in particular the ideas of their leading thinkers ("organic intellectuals"). Gill showed how organisations such as the Trilateral Commission
Trilateral Commission
The Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, non-partisan discussion group founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973 to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe and Japan.-History:...
sought to develop a consensus among ruling class elements on how to extend the power of capital, to govern world capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, to defeat communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and to oppose and undermine state formations that refused integration into the capitalist world market. The book has been praised for its combination of theoretical and methodological innovation and described as a "classic study" of the changing structures of global power since 1945.
The book challenged the conventional wisdom of the 1980s, associated with Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
historian Paul Kennedy
Paul Kennedy
Paul Michael Kennedy CBE, FBA , is a British historian at Yale University specialising in the history of international relations, economic power and grand strategy. He has published prominent books on the history of British foreign policy and Great Power struggles...
's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict From 1500 to 2000, by Paul Kennedy, first published in 1987, explores the politics and economics of the Great Powers from 1500 to 1980 and the reason for their decline...
(1988), which argued that US hegemony was in decline in the 1980s and would likely decline further in the 1990s. Gill argued that US hegemony was reasserted during the 1980s, paving the way for neoliberal capitalism to expand globally in the 1990s under US leadership. Gill argued that a key reason for this was a complex ("historical bloc") of liberal institutions, ideas and elites which was part of a highly developed US-led alliance structure that helped to politically cement the main capitalist states' strategies towards adversaries as well as promoting the globalisation of capitalism. A review by Gaddis Smith
Gaddis Smith
George Gaddis Smith is the Larned professor emeritus of history at Yale University and an expert on American foreign relations and maritime history.-Biography:...
in Foreign Affairs, the journal of the Trilateral Commission’s sister organisation the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
, noted that "the discussion is mercifully free of the polemical, conspiratorial assumptions behind many studies of this subject."
Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations
Gill's 1993 edited work, Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations, which gathers together essays on Gramsci by authors including Gill, Cox, Kees van der PijlKees Van Der Pijl
Kees van der Pijl is a Dutch political scientist who currently is Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex. He is known for his critical approach to Global Political Economy and has published, amongst others, The Foreign Encounter in Myth and Religion, Vol...
and Giovanni Arrighi
Giovanni Arrighi
Giovanni Arrighi was a scholar of political economy and sociology, and as of 1998 a Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. His work has been translated into over fifteen languages....
, is considered one of the key texts on Gramscian and Neo-Gramscian theory and has been credited with broadening the audience for Gramsci’s work within the field of International Relations.
Power & Resistance in the New World Order and more recent work
In his more recent work, Gill has introduced new concepts such as disciplinary neoliberalism, new constitutionalism and market civilization and has drawn significantly on Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
’s theories of panopticism
Panopticism
Panopticism is a social theory originally developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault in his book, Discipline and Punish.-Background:...
and capillary power. Gill’s concept of market civilization helps to explain the formation of social subjects in the era of neo-liberalism, based on a reading of how market values, market forces and disciplines, privatisation, and the commodification of life forms are becoming increasingly pervasive, working into the very micro-practices of everyday life.
Gill’s collaboration with the noted feminist scholar Isabella Bakker in their edited work Power, Production and Social Reproduction: Human In/security in the Global Political Economy is an attempt to develop a radical re-conceptualisation of political economy. The authors state their aim "is to bring together theories and concepts from Feminist and Radical Political Economy and Critical International Studies, and to harness them to a more encompassing methodological and theoretical perspective with which to study some of the new conditions of existence in the global political economy. It seeks to provide a new approach based on an effort to synthesise the moments of power, production and social reproduction in patterns of intensified globalization." In a review for the journal Progress in Human Geography, critical geographer
Critical geography
Critical geography takes a critical theory approach to the study and analysis of geography. The development of critical geography can be seen as one of the four major turning points in the history of geography...
Helen Jarvis noted how the book identifies and explains "complex relationships simultaneously at work in global flows (of people and finance) and local practices (of production and social reproduction)," adding that "it moves beyond grand narratives of hegemonic neoliberalism, unraveling hidden circuits of inequality in the social reproduction of daily life."
Major works
- The Global Political Economy: Perspectives, Problems and Policies with David Law. Brighton: Harvester Wheatsheaf & Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. ISBN 0801837642.
- Atlantic Relations: Beyond the Reagan Era. Brighton. Harvester Wheatsheaf & New York, St. Martin’s. (Hardback only.), 1989. ISBN 0312032684.
- American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN 052142433X.
- Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0521435234.
- International Political Economy: Understanding Global Disorder with Robert W. Cox, Björn Hettne, James Rosenau, Yoshikazu Sakamoto & Kees van der Pijl. London: Zed Press, Halifax NS: Fernwood Press; Dhaka: University Press, 1995. ISBN 189568658X.
- Chiku Seiji no Saikochiku: Reisengo no Nichibeiou Kankei to Sekai Chitsujo (Restructuring Global Politics) In Japanese. Translated, with an editor’s preface, by Seiji Endo. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun Sha, 1996.
- Innovation and Transformation in International Studies with James H. Mittelman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN 0521599032.
- Globalization, Democratization and Multilateralism. Tokyo. United Nations University Press & London. Macmillan, 1997. ISBN 0312172834.
- Power and Resistance in the New World Order. London and New York: Macmillan-Palgrave, 2003. ISBN 1403903905.
- Power, Production and Social Reproduction: Human In/security in the Global Political Economy with Isabella Bakker. London and New York: Macmillan-Palgrave, 2003. ISBN 1403917930.
- Power and Resistance in the New World Order. Second fully revised, updated & enlarged edition. London and New York: Macmillan-Palgrave, 2008. ISBN 0230203701.
- Global Crises and the Crisis of Global Leadership. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN 9781107674967.