Geographic Perspectives on World-Systems Theory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Flint
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Political Geography ◽  
World System ◽  
The Body ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Politics Of Place ◽  
Macro Scale ◽  
The World

World-systems theory is a multidisciplinary, macro-scale approach to world history and social change which emphasizes the world-system as the primary (but not exclusive) unit of social analysis. “World-system” refers to the inter-regional and transnational division of labor, which divides the world into core countries, semi-periphery countries, and the periphery countries. Though intrinsically geographical, world-systems perspectives did not receive geographers’ attention until the 1980s, mostly in economic and political geography. Nevertheless, geographers have made important contributions in shaping world-systems perspectives through theoretical development and critique, particularly in the understanding of urban processes, states, and geopolitics. The world-systems theory can be considered as a sub-discipline of the study of political geography. Although sharing many of the theories, methods, and interests as human geography, political geography has a particular interest in territory, the state, power, and boundaries (including borders), across a range of scales from the body to the planet. Political geography has extended the scope of traditional political science approaches by acknowledging that the exercise of power is not restricted to states and bureaucracies, but is part of everyday life. This has resulted in the concerns of political geography increasingly overlapping with those of other sub-disciplines such as economic geography, and, particularly, with those of social and cultural geography in relation to the study of the politics of place.

scholarly journals Commentary on "Leadership, Production, and Exchange: An Evaluation of World-Systems Theory in a Global Context"

1996 ◽  
pp. 444-455
Author(s):  
Darrell Lalone
Keyword(s):  
System Theory ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
World System ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Global Context ◽  
World System Theory ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
The World ◽  
Intersocietal Interaction

As we expand and extend our applications of world-system theory, as we explore the shifting interplay between cores and peripheries, as we see boundaries emerge and dissolve, we also fix world-systems theory itself on the map table. What is its core? What are its peripheries, or would it claim that all human interactions fall within its sway?Thomas Hall, for example, does not take quite the entire map, but takes "intersocietal interaction" as the world-systems domain.

Destabilizing the Semiperiphery: The Counterturn of China’s Ascendance in the World-Economy

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 365-385
Author(s):  
Vincent H. Shie ◽  
Chih-Yuan Weng
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
World Economy ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Global Development ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Intermediate Group ◽  
The World ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
The Rise Of China

Abstract In an article in Perspectives on Global Development and Technology (PGDT), Kwangkun Lee revisits the debate on whether the semiperiphery is persistent or short-lived in the long-term historical structure. Lee concludes that semiperipheries only have a brief lifespan due to their (assumed) polarizing tendency. We provisionally agree with Lee’s conclusion, but we diverge in our reasoning for upholding this hypothesis. Proponents of the World-Systems Theory claim that an intermediate group of states stabilizes the world-economy. For instance, Giovanni Arrighi posits that the semiperiphery will be persistent in the longue durée. But in our view, the rise of China will ultimately destabilize the so-called constant stratum of the semiperiphery.

The World

2017 ◽  
pp. 65-99
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Model Classification ◽  
Economic Complexity ◽  
The World

We will now look at the general results from the ? model (developed in Chapter II). The chapter examines the overlap between the world-systems theory classification of core and periphery countries and the ? model classification of sink (economically efficient) and source (economically inefficient) countries. Core countries exhibit not only economic complexity but also complex institutions. However, some of these countries, such as Australia and Canada, are not economically efficient, mainly due to their large footprint and low population density. On the other hand, some semi-periphery countries, such as South Korea and Turkey, are economically efficient according to the model.

Editorial Introduction to the Symposium on Giovanni Arrighi’s Adam Smith in Beijing

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38
Author(s):  
Liam Campling
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
World System ◽  
Editorial Introduction ◽  
Modern World ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory

AbstractGiovanni Arrighi (1937‐2009) was a leading figure in the development of world-systems theory and also contributed to a range of debates in Marxist thought. This symposium engages with Arrighi’s last book, Adam Smith in Beijing, which was the final instalment in his ‘trilogy’, following The Long Twentieth Century (1994) and Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System (with Beverly Silver, 1999). This Editorial Introduction traces the broad trajectory of Arrighi’s ‘trilogy’ and its concern with systemic cycles of accumulation, highlights additional major contributions by Arrighi, and sketches some of the central arguments of the five symposium articles.<xref ref-type="fn" rid="FN0">*</xref>

World Systems, Cores, and Peripheries in Prehistoric Europe

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 378-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Harding
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Network Methods ◽  
The World ◽  
Systems View ◽  
The Bronze Age

The paper reviews the rise and utility of World Systems Theory in archaeology, with particular reference to Europe and the Bronze Age. After a consideration of its origins in the 1970s and 1980s, the main aspects of the theory are discussed. The evidence that shows that the Bronze Age world was highly interconnected is presented, and the implications of a World Systems view of the period considered. In an attempt to work towards a new narrative of the European Bronze Age, a brief discussion of network methods is introduced, since these offer an alternative, ‘bottom-up’, approach to the period which, it is argued, is more appropriate to the data than the World Systems approach.

World

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Allan
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Normative Force ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Egypt

This chapter focuses on the world of world literature—understood as either the site at which a literary work is produced (for world systems theory) or the site disclosed in the literary work itself (through practices of close reading). It examines the scholarship of Franco Moretti, Pascale Casanova, and Edward Said in order to elucidate dominant frames for understanding world literature and interweaves these different frames with selected scenes from modern Egypt: the first, the protests on the streets of Cairo of a Syrian novel deemed blasphemous, Haydar Haydar's Walīmah li-aʻshāb al-bahr (A Banquet for Seaweed); and the second, the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Naguib Mahfouz. Drawing from Said's notion of secular criticism, the chapter argues that reading—and not solely textuality—should be understood as worldly activity with a normative force across interpretative communities.

scholarly journals THE SOUTHERN AEGEAN SYSTEM

1999 ◽  
pp. 474-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Berg
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Hierarchical Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
Systems Model ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
Analytical Power

Although world-systems theory was originally formulated with our modern economic system in mind (Wallerstein 1974), it was not long before archaeologists began to apply it to ancient societies. Archaeologists and world-system theorists alike both argued that Wallerstein had disregarded evidence of interconnected, hierarchical systems in prehistoric times (Schneider 1977; Chase-Dunn & Hall 1991, 1997; Kardulias 1999a). Pailes and Whitecotton (1979) were among the first to modify world-systems theory for use in pre-capitalist settings. Since then many archaeologists have looked at data and regions with a world-systems perspective in mind (e.g. Champion 1989; Bilde et al. 1993; Rowlands & Larsen 1987; Kardulias 1999a). Some have attempted to map Wallerstein's theory directly onto prehistory (Kohl 1979; Whitecotton & Pailes 1986; Ekholm & Friedman 1982). Others have found the world systems model heuristically useful but lacking the analytical power needed for their prehistoric cases (Blanton et al. 1981; Upham 1982; Plog 1983; Alcock 1993). Building on the assumption that ancient societies were not qualitatively, but only quantitatively, different from modern capitalist ones (Schneider 1977; Sherratt & Sherratt 1991), this study applies world systems theory to the Southern Aegean during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (ca. 2000-1550 BC).

scholarly journals Broadening and Deepening: Systemic Expansion, Incorporation and the Zone of Ignorance

2001 ◽  
pp. 225-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon D. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
International System ◽  
World System ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Critical Element ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
The World ◽  
Inside Out

I intend to address a critical element of world-systems theory, and in doing so illuminate some larger concerns with international relations theory in general. Speci?cally, I will be examining the concept of the “external arena” and its relation to the international system as an expanding whole. The goal is to re-think the incorporation of new regions (‘states’ and peoples) into the world-system in order to understand world-system processes more completely. This should be taken as a positive critique of both Wallerstein’s analysis of incorporation (European, state-centric, ‘inside-out’) and Hall’s analysis of incorporation (external, indigenous peoples, ‘outside in’).

scholarly journals BUSINESS CLUSTERS AND THE POTENTIAL OF THE BIOTECHNOLOGY SECTOR IN LITHUANIA

Ekonomika ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 81-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincentas R. Giedraitis ◽  
Tom Notten ◽  
Aušra Rastenienė
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
The World ◽  
Primary Hypothesis ◽  
The Right ◽  
Biotechnology Sector ◽  
The Given ◽  
Business Sectors ◽  
Unique Ability

What are the unique circumstances that allow innovations in an economy to take hold and mature into productive business sectors? We pose the given question in our discussion of the uncommonly favorable circumstances surrounding the biotechnology sector in Lithuania. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Lithuania’s ability to expand its economy during a time of crisis, focusing on its unique ability to innovate in such sectors as biotechnology.Our primary hypothesis is as follows: Lithuanian biotechnology sector is expanding because business clusters have been established. Drawing upon Schumpeter’s ideas of innovation and Porter’s business cluster theory, we argue that Lithuania is “at the right place and the right time” to make itself a regional leader in biotechnology. We draw upon the world-systems theory to argue that biotechnology is one means whereby Lithuania can rise in the global core-periphery hierarchy.

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