scholarly journals The Role of Historical-Cultural Formations within World-Systems Analysis: Reframing the Analysis of Biomedicine in East Africa

2009 ◽  
pp. 147-166
Author(s):  
David Baronov
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
World System ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Medical Systems ◽  
Cultural Formation ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
Cultural Formations ◽  
World Systems Analysis

This essay introduces a novel analytical concept for world-systems analysis, historical-cultural formations, for the purpose of analyzing reciprocal global cultural exchanges across the capitalist world-system. This is done through four basic procedures. First, the perspective of world-systems analysis is adopted for the purpose of analyzing biomedicine in world-historical context and biomedicine itself is re-conceptualized as a historical-cultural formation across a single capitalist world-system. Second, in order to conceptually incorporate historical-cultural formations, the basic analytical framework of world-systems analysis is expanded to include cultural forms as integral features of the capitalist world-system, parallel with economic and political structures. Third, biomedicine is framed as an ontological whole, comprised of multiple, embedded ontological spheres that define it as a dynamic cultural form subject to ongoing change and development. Fourth, biomedicine’s journey to East Africa is framed as a facet of East Africa’s incorporation into the capitalist world-system — a necessary prelude to the “globalization” of biomedicine as a historical-cultural formation. Ultimately, contemporary East African medical systems are discovered to be but the latest incarnation of an evolving, global biomedicine — understood as a singular historical-cultural formation across the capitalist world-system.

World-Systems Theorizing

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Systems Analysis ◽  
World Economy ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Mass Education ◽  
World Culture ◽  
Culture Theory ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The World ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
World Systems Analysis

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article. World-systems theorizing has its roots in dependency theorizing and the critique of modernization theory, rejecting its claimed linear process of economic development for all nation-states. A founding premise of this work, established well before the advent of globalization studies, has been the need to take the world-system as the primary unit of analysis for understanding social reality and social change. As an approach for understanding systems of mass education, world-systems theorizing has taken on two broad trajectories. One of these, world-culture theory or neo-institutional analysis, has centered on identifying examples of global convergence at the level of education policy, explaining these in terms of a world culture of education that has spread across nation-states through their participation in international agencies and organizations. An alternative approach, world-systems analysis, takes the historical development and operation of the capitalist world-economy, across core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral zones of the world-economy, as the starting point for understanding the nature and function of mass education systems. This work includes the particular construction of knowledge structures and subject disciplines, and their function within the operation of the capitalist world-system. Where world-culture theory downplays the causal power of economic structures, world-systems analysis highlights the interaction between economics and an accompanying world cultural framework under historical capitalism, whose core features can account for the nature and purpose of education. Educational applications of contemporary world-systems analysis extend to work within the broader field of critical education to transform society. Specifically, these applications examine the potential for systems of mass education to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to understand existing social reality, to imagine more equal, just, democratic, and peaceful, alternative world-systems, and to take action toward their realization.

scholarly journals Piracy in a Contested Periphery: Incorporation and the Emergence of the Modern World-System in the Colonial Atlantic Frontier

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 542-564
Author(s):  
P. Nick Kardulias ◽  
Emily Butcher
Keyword(s):  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
World System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Analysis ◽  
Distinct Line ◽  
Freedom Of Action

This article uses world-systems analysis to examine the role that pirates and privateers played in the competition between European core states in the Atlantic and Caribbean frontier during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Piracy was an integral part of core-periphery interaction, as a force that nations could use against one another in the form of privateers, and as a reaction against increasing constraints on freedom of action by those same states, thus forming a semiperiphery. Although modern portrayals of pirates and privateers paint a distinct line between the two groups, historical records indicate that their actual status was rather fluid, with particular people moving back and forth between the two. As a result, the individuals were on a margin between legality and treason, often crossing from one to the other. In this study we discuss how pirates and privateers fit into the margins of society in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, also known as the Golden Age of Piracy, specifically using the example of Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard. The present analysis can contribute to our understanding not only of piracy, but also of the structure of peripheries and semiperipheries that in some ways reflect resistance to incorporation.

scholarly journals Puzzling Politics: A Methodology for Turning World-Systems Analysis Inside-Out

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-82
Author(s):  
Leslie C. Gates ◽  
Mehmet Deniz
Keyword(s):  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Political Process ◽  
World System ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Social Bases ◽  
The World ◽  
World Systems Analysis ◽  
Inside Out

Can world-systems analysis illuminate politics? Can it help explain why illiberal regimes, outsider parties, and anti-immigrant rhetoric seem to be on the rise? Can it help explain any such nationalchanges that seem destined to shift how nations relate to world markets? Leading surveys of historical sociology seem to say no. We disagree. While there are problems with Wallerstein’s early mode of analyzing politicsin the capitalist world-system from the outside-in, historical sociologists have been too quick to dismiss world-systems analysis. We propose an alternative inside-out approach anchored in a methodology for selecting what to study: those national political transformations which constitute puzzling instances within a given world-historical political process. We recommend promising theoretical lineages to guide empirical research on the selected puzzle: those that specify the elite social bases of politics. We thereby  turn  world-systems  analysis  inside-out.  Our  inside-out  approach  advances  the  project  of  world-systems analysis as a methodology, rather than a theoretical prescription in several ways. First, it addresses an important but largely overlooked question: how to select what to study. Second, it devises a methodology that can, but does not have to, pair with the methodology of incorporated comparisons. Third, it offers a methodology that stimulates, rather than forecloses, theoretical flexibility and fresh interpretations of politics and the world-economy. We illustrate the strengths of this new approach with three books, two of which won the best book award from ASA’s Political Economy of the World System (PEWS) Section.

Democracy as an Antisystemic Movement in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China: A World Systems Analysis

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvin Y. So ◽  
Shiping Hua
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Third World ◽  
World System ◽  
World Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
World Systems Analysis ◽  
Future Work

Drawing on Wallerstein's recent depiction of the character and trends in antisystemic movements in the world system, the present study examines the origins, goals, constituents and outcomes of recent democratic movements in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. The analysis is congruent with Wallerstein's depiction of a lengthy historical sweep of social movements attempting to achieve central antisystemic goals, and with his supposition that the world system helps shape antisystemic movements. The analysis is less congruent with Wallerstein's depiction of the character of antisystemic movements in the Second and Third World. Generalizations regarding the causes of these movements, and their success or failure, are developed. Future work should attempt to integrate these generalizations into existing theories of social movements and democratization within a world systems context.

A Combined Argument: Beyond Wallerstein?

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mladen Medved
Keyword(s):  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Nation State ◽  
World Systems ◽  
The West ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Wage Labour ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
World Systems Analysis

AbstractInHow the West Came to Rule, Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nişancıoğlu offer an alternative to both Political Marxism and world-systems analysis (WSA) by going beyond the nation-state as the unit of analysis in the former and the marginalisation of articulation and combination between modes of production in the latter. Their account also gives more room to non-European actors neglected in other interpretations of the rise of the West. However, I argue that their argument is much closer toWSAand that their critique of Wallerstein regarding Eurocentrism, the origins of capitalism and the role of wage labour in the capitalist world-system is problematic. Furthermore, Anievas and Nişancıoğlu do not offer a sufficiently rigorous definition of combination, leading to an overextension of the concept.

Changing Geopolitics of the World-System, 1945-2025

2006 ◽  
pp. 67-83
Author(s):  
I. Wallerstein
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Systems Analysis ◽  
World Economy ◽  
World System ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
The World ◽  
World Systems Analysis

The article considers evolution of the global geopolitical structure in the second half of the 20th century using world-systems analysis elaborated by the author. On the basis of historical evidence the author makes a forecast of future development of the world economy and geopolitics for the following twenty years.

Capitalism, Structural Crisis and Contemporary Social Movements: An Interview with Immanuel Wallerstein

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaël Curty
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Systems Analysis ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Political Action ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Porto Alegre ◽  
Capitalist World Economy ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
Immanuel Wallerstein ◽  
World Systems Analysis

Immanuel Wallerstein is internationally recognized as the founder of world-systems analysis and is highly regarded for his groundbreaking analysis of the capitalist world-economy. In this excerpted interview, Immanuel Wallerstein analyzes the contemporary struggles between social movements representing the ‘spirit of Davos’ and the ‘spirit of Porto Alegre’ and explores the possibilities for social and political action for more equality and democracy in the 21st century.

scholarly journals Population Dynamics in the Capitalist World-Economy

2014 ◽  
pp. 207-228
Author(s):  
Daniela Danna
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Systems Analysis ◽  
World Economy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Reproduction ◽  
Natural Fertility ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Capitalist World Economy ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
World Systems Analysis

World-systems analysis has given scant attention to population dynamics. Overlooked are large-scale macrohistorical population trends and their microhistorical foundation on procreative decisions-decisions which are taken by a historically changing subject of procreation: local elders or other authorities, head(s) of the household, couples, and women. The discipline of demography is also not as helpful as it could be, given its basis in modernization theory, which fails to recognize intentionality in reproduction in pre-capitalist societies. It assumes a model of "demographic transition" from a state of "natural fertility" to a state of conscious family planning, while also treating mortality as independent of fertility Marxism recognized the importance of population as a source of labor for profit and capital accumulation. With its tools Sydney Coontz developed a demand for labor theory explaining in particular the decrease in the birth rate in England and the United States at the turn of the century This theory was f urther developed by anthropologists of the "mode of product ion and population pat terns " who, with other authors, offer useful theories and insights to advance world-historical research on population. This article explores connections between population dy namics and world-systems analysis. I explore six key questions at different levels of analysis, including: 1) Are there world-systems ' imperatives concerning human reproduction?; 2) Do human reproduction imperatives differ across world-systems.'?; 3) How do the (eventual) systems requirements get transmitted to households and individuals'?; 4) Why do people have children.'?; 5) Who is the subject of procreation decisions'?; and 6) How is the number of offspring chosen? Finally, I offer guidelines for applying the six questions to the capitalist world-economy.

scholarly journals Towards a Democratic Theory of the World-System: Democracy, Territoriality, and Transnationalization

2000 ◽  
pp. 706-725
Author(s):  
Teivo Teivainen
Keyword(s):  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
World System ◽  
Modern World ◽  
World Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Collective Process ◽  
World Systems Analysis ◽  
Recurrent Theme

A concern for the possible futures of the modern world-system has been a recurrent theme of world-systems analysis. There has, however, been relatively little effort to think about these futures in terms of democratic theory. In this article, I will explore some of the issues that need to be tackled to take radical and cosmopolitan questions of democracy better into account in world-systems analysis. In particular, I will point out some problems that need to be confronted in the collective process of locating and making visible the politics of “nonpolitical” spaces, such as the ones constituted by transnational business communities and their corporate bureaucracies.

scholarly journals Challenging the Global Apartheid Model: A World-Systems Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilma A. Dunaway ◽  
Donald A. Clelland
Keyword(s):  
Systems Analysis ◽  
World System ◽  
World Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
World Systems Analysis

Using world-system concepst, this essay challenges the popular racial bifurcation of the world between whites and peoples of color.

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