scholarly journals Smithian growth in a nonindustrial society

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (25) ◽  
pp. eaba5694
Author(s):  
Scott Ortman ◽  
José Lobo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Potential Mechanism ◽  
Energy Capture ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Regional Population ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Northern Rio Grande

A defining feature of the contemporary world is economic growth, and the most frequently cited cause is technological change, especially with respect to energy capture and information processing. This framing masks the potential for economic growth in nonindustrial societies, but there is growing evidence for episodes where the material conditions of life did improve in the preindustrial past. Here, we explore a potential mechanism behind these improvements. We use settlement scaling theory to distinguish agglomeration-driven from technology-driven growth, and then we apply this framework to archaeological evidence from the Pre-Hispanic Northern Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico, USA. Results suggest that agglomeration-driven or “Smithian” growth was the dominant factor behind improvements in the material conditions of life over time in this society. We also summarize evidence that this growth took place in the context of a stable regional population, declining levels of inequality, and increasingly inclusive social institutions.

GEOMORPHIC AND INCISION HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN RIO GRANDE RIVER GORGE NEAR QUESTA, NEW MEXICO

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Travis W. Clow ◽  
◽  
Whitney M. Behr ◽  
Mark Helper ◽  
Peter Gold ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Rio Grande ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rio Grande River ◽  
Northern Rio Grande

Legitimizing Transformation without Calling it Change:Tajdīd, Iṣlāḥ, and Saudi Arabia’s Place in the Contemporary World

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Sean Foley
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Political System ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
The West ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The People ◽  
Diverse Society ◽  
Oil Revenues

For decades, many scholars have contended that Saudi Arabia is a fixed political system, where a conservative monarchy uses advanced technology, oil revenues, and religion to dominate the people. Such a system is often portrayed as inherently unstable, a seemingly never-ending series of collisions between an unchanging traditional political structure seeking to hold on to power at any cost and a dynamic modernity—a view encapsulated in a phrase expressed at virtually every public discussion of the Kingdom in the West: ‘you must admit that Saudi Arabia must change’. Ironically this phrase confirms what this article argues is a secret to the success of Saudi Arabia in the contemporary era: the ability to legitimize transformation without calling it change. No society is static, including Saudi Arabia. Throughout the Kingdom’s history, the defining social institutions have repeatedly utilized Tajdīd (Revival) and Iṣlāḥ (Reform) to respond to new technologies and the changing expectations of a diverse society. While Muslim scholars are most often entrusted to arbitrate this process, ordinary Saudis use this process to guide their actions in the various social spaces they encounter both at home and abroad. Critically, this process reflects the response of King Abdulaziz and the founders of the third Saudi state in the early twentieth century to the factors that had brought down previous Saudi states in the nineteenth century.

Earthquake Hazard Estimation in Areas of Low Historical Seismicity: A Focus on the Northern Rio Grande Rift, Colorado and New Mexico

1990 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles E. Glass
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Gaussian Model ◽  
Rio Grande ◽  
Earthquake Hazard ◽  
Weibull Model ◽  
Historical Seismicity ◽  
Rio Grande Rift ◽  
Earthquake Activity ◽  
Sangre De Cristo ◽  
Northern Rio Grande

Estimates of the probability of future earthquake activity are difficult to make in areas where historical seismicity may be low or absent, but where young fault scarps attest to recent or ongoing tectonism. Three non-Poisson models, a Weibull model, a Gaussian model and a lognormal model, are used to estimate the earthquake hazard for one such area, the northern Rio Grande Rift. This portion of the Rio Grande Rift displays numerous Holocene faults attesting to ongoing tectonism, but displays essentially no historical seismicity. The earthquake hazard for the Sangre de Cristo fault zone from Taos, New Mexico to Salida, Colorado calculated using these models is remarkably consistent (probability of at least one Mo = 7 earthquake in the next 50 years ∼ 2.5 × 10−3), with increased hazard for the Sangre de Cristo fault in north San Luis Valley (∼5.0×10−3) and near Taos (∼1.0×10−2) due to the long holding times along these segments.

scholarly journals PENGARUH UPAH, INVESTASI, DAN PERTUMBUHAN EKONOMI TERHADAP PERMINTAAN TENAGA KERJA DI KABUPATEN/KOTA SUMATERA BARAT

Jurnal Ecogen ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 553
Author(s):  
Putri Maya ◽  
Yulhendri Yulhendri
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Regression Coefficient ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Regression Method ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Panel Regression ◽  
West Sumatra ◽  
Observation Period

Abstract:  One indicator used to measure economic development is employment. The huge population growth each year will certainly have an impact on increasing the number of the workforce and will certainly give meaning that the number of people looking for work will increase, along with that the workforce will also increase. This study aims to analyze the effect of wages, investment and economic growth on labor demand in West Sumatra. This study uses secondary data in the form of time series with an observation period of 2013-2017. Data obtained from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), data analysis using the panel regression method with the program eviews. The results of this study include wages that negatively and significantly affect labor demand in West Sumatra. While investment and economic growth have a positive and significant effect on labor demand in West Sumatra. And the most dominant factor influencing labor demand in West Sumatra is the Economic Growth factor where the factor has the greatest regression coefficient among other factorsKeywords: labor, wages, investment, economic growth

scholarly journals From exoticism to diversity: the production of difference in a globalized and fragmented world

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-36
Author(s):  
Michel Nicolau Netto
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
External Space ◽  
Dominant Discourse ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
The 19Th Century

Difference is a social construction, and as such it needs a discourse to produce meaning and be socially effective. As a discourse is always socially and historically grounded, so it is the meaning of difference. This article proposes that the difference in the contemporary world is dominantly articulated in the discourse of diversity, as the discourse of exoticism was the dominant discourse of difference in the 19th Century. This proposal will be proved as I show that, as diversity becomes the appreciated discourse in the present, the exoticism loses its value. Stating that, I will try to understand the conditions of existence of each discourse. I will argue that the exoticism was founded in the 19th century upon three fundaments: imperialism, the idea of progress and nation. They provided the condition for a discourse that based the production of difference on the stable separation of an internal and an external space. After examining the fundaments and their relations with the discourse of exoticism, I will show that the production of difference is no longer based on stable notions of internal and external spaces. Currently, difference is produced on the basis of fragmented and globalized social relations, which requires a discourse flexible enough to cope with these material conditions. The discourse of diversity is this discourse.

Political Theory and Political Economy

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen L. Elkin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Core ◽  
Democratic Societies

This article describes the connection between political theory and political economy. It argues that political theorists need to take account of political economy in theorizing about the contemporary world because capitalism is the most powerful force at work in shaping the modern sociopolitical world. It also explains that economic questions concerning economic growth, the distribution of wealth and income, and role of markets are at the core of the political life in democratic societies.

Population and Economic Change: The Emergence of the Rice Industry in Guyana, 1895–1915

1970 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 785-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay R. Mandle
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Population Change ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Population Expansion ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Individual Country ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Relationship

Considered analytically population growth may either have positive or negative influences on economic growth. Population expansion may, by facilitating a widening of markets, allow for economies of scale to be realized and permit the introduction of new industries, or by relieving labor scarcities, facilitate economic expansion. Possible negative implications for economic growth may result however, as Malthus argued, through the mechanism of diminishing returns or by changing the age structure of the population so as to increase the proportion of dependents relative to economically active producers and thus reduce the volume of goods and services available to each individual. The point is that economic analysis prima facia is agnostic with respect to the net effect of population change on economic change. One or all of the above relationships may be operative in any individual country experience and without careful empirical observations, it is impossible to identify accurately whether the negative or positive effects are dominant. Clearly what is needed before general statements about the relationship between population and economic change can be supported is a series of country studies whose purpose will be not only to determine the frequency with which the optimistic or pessimistic influences predominate, but in addition to identify the intervening economic and social institutions which account for the predominance of one or the other effect.

The Construction and Configuration of Anasazi Pebble-Mulch Gardens in the Northern Rio Grande

1995 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale R. Lightfoot ◽  
Frank W. Eddy
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Rio Grande ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Size And Shape ◽  
Galisteo Basin ◽  
Northern Rio Grande ◽  
Increase Soil Moisture

Rio Grande Anasazi in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries A.D. mulched hundreds of garden-sized plots with pebbles to increase soil moisture, reduce erosion, extend the growing season, and increase crop yields. This paper reports on the construction and configuration of pebble-mulch gardens in New Mexico, focusing particularly on those in the Galisteo Basin. Surfaces adjacent to these gardens were scraped and pits were excavated to collect gravel, which was placed over garden surfaces in layers 5 to 11 cm thick. Gardens averaged 15 x 23 m in size, although both size and shape were highly variable, and they collectively covered an area of 41,000 m2 Although this unique agricultural strategy has been shown to be effective, construction was limited to sites with natural gravel deposits, pebbled surfaces inhibited the recycling of crop wastes, and such gardens never became as widely used as more traditional field forms.

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