ABSTRACT
In recent decades market-oriented economics emerges as the dominant discourse of everyday life displacing religion, politics, and entertainment. Given the hegemony of economic discourse in its neoclassical neoliberal form, it is no surprise that in recent times comparatively few progressive economists or cultural critics have developed critiques and alternatives deemed worthy of public attention. The skeptics of globalization, affiliated with left-wing politics and economics, lament the collapse of the regulated welfare state and the spreading disorders of consumer-oriented society. Political economy is making a public return under the pressure of economic globalization and the New World Order. Lilliputians are growing in numbers as problems with global capitalism spread and countercurrents mount. It is not surprising in this context that feminist critics, minority critics, ecocritics, postcolonial theorists, Marxists, and cultural studies scholars increasingly deal with economic problems, extending the potential ranks of Lilliputians as well as the scope of their separate projects.
