HIGH POLITICS AND LOW DATA 181numerous similarities to neoliberal arguments about globalization with which I was already fa-
miliar. This led me to investigate the discursive and structural parallels between the two dis-
courses and to ask what they might mean. The answer, most simply, was that these similarities
mean that we cannot, or should not, take “globalization” at face value.^13 What if globalization
really is science fiction?
So, how do we investigate an intertext? What sources of data—high and low—might we
examine?
VARIETIES OF TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
“High Data”: Accessing the Neoliberal Discourse of Globalization
I began with a range of “high data”—official or semiofficial sources circulating among elites and
from elites to various publics—to establish the contours and content of—the leading tropes and
narratives defining—the neoliberal discourse of globalization.
- ••••Official sources, including policy documents and other policy statements, can be central
to such an analysis. In the case of globalization, one might, for instance, investigate official
policy documents of the United States, such as the National Security Strategy of the United
States of America (White House 2002, chapter 6); of the World Bank, such as Globalization,
Growth and Poverty: Building an Inclusive World Economy (2001); and of the IMF, such as
Globalization: Threat or Opportunity? (2000). Such high data can provide access to the
central representations offered by elites. From such representations, in turn, we can generate
a portrait of globalization discourse that illuminates a well-rehearsed set of narratives and
tropes, including an Enlightenment commitment to progress, the wholesome role of global
markets, a rampant technophilia, the tropes of the “global village” and “spaceship Earth,”
and the interrelated narratives of an increasingly global culture and an expanding liberal,
pacific politics. - Speeches by prominent officials and politicians are an especially good source, as they are
precisely intended to sell a particular representation, in this case a persuasive vision of glo-
balization. My own analysis made extensive use of the speeches of Renato Ruggiero (e.g.,
1996) and Mike Moore (e.g., 2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2001c), former directors general of the
WTO, who are leading proponents of neoliberal globalization. Unsurprisingly, the speeches
of both were rife with the dominant pro-globalization tropes and narratives. - Congressional or parliamentary hearings can be fruitful sources as well. For instance,
testimony by Charlene Barshefsky (1997), U.S. trade representative, before the Subcommit-
tee on Trade of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means provided me with additional
evidence of the neoliberal discourse’s link between markets and growth. - In the case of the discourse of globalization, popular business writings were exceptionally
useful as these also tend to be saturated with neoliberal tropes and narratives. I buttressed
my analysis of official state and IFI sources with the writings of business gurus such as
Unilever PLC chairman Niall Fitzgerald (1997), management consultant and prolific author
Kenichi Ohmae (his work on the end of the nation state [1995] and the borderless world
[1999]), and Peter D. Sutherland, chairman of both Goldman Sachs International and BP
PLC (1998). - Globalization is also constructed in current affairs magazines like The Economist, Time, and
Newsweek, which typically articulate the dominant globalization discourse. The Economist,