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.

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.

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.

Coal's Persistence in the Capitalist World-Economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul K. Gellert ◽  
Paul S. Ciccantell
Keyword(s):  
World Economy ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Ecological Modernization ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Coal Consumption ◽  
The World ◽  
Capitalist World Economy ◽  
Capitalist World

Predominant analyses of energy offer insufficient theoretical and political-economic insight into the persistence of coal and other fossil fuels. The dominant narrative of coal powering the Industrial Revolution, and Great Britain's world dominance in the nineteenth century giving way to a U.S.- and oil-dominated twentieth century, is marred by teleological assumptions. The key assumption that a complete energy “transition” will occur leads some to conceive of a renewable-energy-dominated twenty-first century led by China. After critiquing the teleological assumptions of modernization, ecological modernization, energetics, and even world-systems analysis of energy “transition,” this paper offers a world-systems perspective on the “raw” materialism of coal. Examining the material characteristics of coal and the unequal structure of the world-economy, the paper uses long-term data from governmental and private sources to reveal the lack of transition as new sources of energy are added. The increases in coal consumption in China and India as they have ascended in the capitalist world-economy have more than offset the leveling-off and decline in some core nations. A true global peak and decline (let alone full substitution) in energy generally and coal specifically has never happened. The future need not repeat the past, but technical, policy, and movement approaches will not get far without addressing the structural imperatives of capitalist growth and the uneven power structures and processes of long-term change of the world-system.

Ten Years That Shook the World? The United Provinces as First Hegemonic State

1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
World Economy ◽  
Social Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Protective Capacity ◽  
Capitalist World Economy ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
City States ◽  
United Provinces

In world-systems analysis, the United Provinces are interpreted as one of only three hegemonic states in the history of the capitalist world-economy. Unlike the subsequent hegemons Britain and the United States, the United Provinces only became an independent country just before its rise to hegemony in the early seventeenth century. This essay explores how this new small state became the first hegemon of the modern world-system. Two questions are asked: why did the area of northern Netherlands became a state, and why did this state became a hegemon? Using Mann's sources of social power, it is shown how a promiscuous combination of ideological, military, political, and economic power produced a unique state combining the economic policies of city-states with the protective capacity of territorial states. It is concluded that the Dutch promotion of an economic raison d'etat was a necessary component for the consolidation of a competitive interstate system, itself a necessary requirement for the expansion of the capitalist world-economy.

scholarly journals Deglobalization, Globalization, and the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-230
Author(s):  
Alexandre Abdal ◽  
Douglas M. Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
World Economy ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Market ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Global Order ◽  
Middle Term ◽  
Capitalist World Economy ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
The One

This article is a theory piece focused on causal propositions codification and future trends identification, both supported by descriptive statistical data. It aims to analyze the middle-term dynamics of globalization and deglobalization due to the effects of the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis, in general, and the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular. The broader context in which such dynamics are situated are the processes of capitalist world-economy restructuring, propitiated by the crisis the U.S. hegemony, on the one hand, and by the Chinese rise, on the other. We argue that the COVID-19 pandemic tends to deepen and accelerate ongoing processes of global fragmentation, especially in the productive and commercial dimensions. From the point of view of governments, in particular the United States, there are growing protectionist and manufacturing repatriation efforts. From the point of view of large corporations, the perception of risk derived from the suspension and rupture of global production chains emerges thanks to measures to prevent infection. Somehow, governments and companies can converge on understanding the world market as a growing source of risk and decreasing advantages. The counterpoint here may be China's interest and ability to lead the fight against the pandemic and post-pandemic recovery, restructuring the global order built in the last forty years in new institutional basis and from which it has been the main beneficiary.

Trotsky or Wallerstein?

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mladen Medved
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Systems Analysis ◽  
World Economy ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Habsburg Monarchy ◽  
Uneven And Combined Development ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
World Systems Analysis ◽  
Anomalous State

This article examines the potentials of world-systems analysis (WSA) and uneven and combined development (UCD) for the history of nineteenth-century Habsburg Monarchy by critically engaging with Andrea Komlosy’s account of the Monarchy, written from the perspective of WSA. It argues that Komlosy does not provide a consistent WSA interpretation of the Monarchy’s history by trying to analyze the Monarchy as a world-economy in its own right, thus excluding geopolitical dynamics and the world-economy. Furthermore, core-periphery relations within the Monarchy are dealt with in a contradictory fashion. Crucially, the quite anomalous state formation is not accounted for. The problematic account of state formation, it is argued, is due to the limitations of WSA. By taking a closer look at the genesis of the Austro–Hungarian Compromise, the article claims that UCD is better suited for explaining state formation in the Monarchy.

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.

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.

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