ABSTRACT
This book set out to contribute to the literature on demystifying globalization. I began by arguing that – given the relative opaqueness of globalization as a concept – neoliberalization is its driving motor. I raised three conceptual puzzles: one was to explore the dynamics and internal workings of neoliberalization; the second was to question why previously averse EU member states have engaged in neoliberalization; the third was to ask what the recent spate of EU financial market integration can tell us about the former two. These questions were related to the 2007-09 financial crisis, as both indicative of underlying trends in neoliberalism and potentially a window of opportunity for counter-hegemonic change. This final chapter therefore also questions why – employing arguments from this book – such dramatic change seems not to have occurred.
