The spaces and subjects of a globalising economy: a situated exploration of method

In this paper we aspire to develop a situated method in order to interrogate the spaces and subjects of the globalising economy. In our brief review of the social science literatures on economic globalisation, we identify a promising intellectual convergence around the theme of imaginaries. We develop an argument that global imaginaries involve both discourses and practices that are, in turn, constitutive of new spaces and subjects. We identify the particular significance of calculative practices such as benchmarking and allied techniques in constituting global imaginaries in the New Zealand context. We then demonstrate how our method might inform a case study of the globalising retail-banking sector by revealing multiple spaces and subjects. In analysing the emergence of new economic spaces and subjectivities in this way, our aim is to give situated content to the concept of global imaginaries and to make visible the constitutive power of governing practices.