scholarly journals R. Scott Frey was Doing Critical Environmental Justice Long Before Anyone Else

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-174
Author(s):  
David N. Pellow
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Environmental Sociology ◽  
Economic Globalization ◽  
Hazardous Substances ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
International Borders ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Transnational Trade

The term critical environmental justice (EJ) studies was perhaps first used in the early 2000s and has been become more mainstream in the last two years. R. Scott Frey’s research on the transnational trade in hazardous substances reveals that he was producing critical EJ studies scholarship well before that. Frey’s body of work has advanced the fields of world-systems theory and environmental sociology because it skillfully explores the violence of militarism and the brutality of capitalism and economic globalization, while also making clear that positive and transformative social change is possible when independent, grassroots movements mobilize within and across international borders. Frey’s research provide us with an impressive set of analytical tools for imagining and bringing into existence another world that would be more socially just and environmentally sustainable.

scholarly journals Hollow Ecology: Ecological Modernization Theory and the Death of Nature

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Ewing
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sociology ◽  
Feedback Loops ◽  
Ecological Rationality ◽  
Ecological Modernization ◽  
Modernization Theory ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
Ecological Modernization Theory ◽  
Political Economic

The last few decades have seen the rise of ‘ecological modernization theory’ (EMT) as a “green capitalist” tradition extending modernization theory into environmental sociology. This article uses a synthesis of political economy, world-systems theory, and political, economic, and environmental sociology to demonstrate that the EMT presumption of growth and profit as economic priorities (alongside its neglect of core-periphery relations) produces many feedback loops which fatally undermine the viability of EMT’s own political, technological, and social prescriptions, alongside creating problems for the fundamental EMT concept of ‘ecological rationality.’ Furthermore, this article attempts to explain why “green capitalist” approaches to environmental analysis have influence within policy and social science circles despite their inadequacies within environmental sociology. Finally, this article argues that in order to address the ecological challenges of our era, environmental sociology needs to reject “green capitalist” traditions like ‘ecological modernization theory’ which presuppose the desirability and maintenance of profit and growth as economic priorities (and predominantly fail to critique power imbalances between core and non-core nations), and instead return to the development of traditions willing to critique the fundamental traits of the capitalist world-system.

scholarly journals Demanded and Feared: Transnational Convergencies in National Educational Systems and Their (Expectable) Effects

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christel Adick
Keyword(s):  
Systems Approach ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Strong Argument ◽  
National Education ◽  
National Education Systems ◽  
Immanuel Wallerstein ◽  
The Impact

The article focuses on the impact of social developments related to ‘globalisation’ on education. In line with the world systems approach as most prominently expounded by Immanuel Wallerstein the author conceptualises globalisation not as a new development, but as the current expression of a long historical process originating in sixteenth century Europe. In order to make use of world systems theory for education, the author makes a strong argument in favour of taking Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and the relative autonomy of the educational system into account. On this basis, the author reviews a secondary analysis based on numerous studies of national education systems with respect to the various degrees of convergence, divergence and variation. It is argued with reference to the neo-institutionalist approach of the Stanford group that convergence and standardisation in education are not questions of affirmation or rejection as much as historical processes that by no means imply a deterministic implementation of an economic rationale.

Understanding the Global–Local Nexus in the Context of the Olympic Games: Implications for Managing Community Development Through Sport Megaevents

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
NaRi Shin ◽  
Jon Welty Peachey
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Host Community ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Winter Olympics ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Diverse Data ◽  
The Olympic Games

In this study, the authors sought to understand the influence of the Olympic Games on a host community’s globalization and development using world-systems theory and theories of globalization (i.e., glocalization and grobalization). The host community for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics (Daegwallyeong-myeon in South Korea) was the focus of this investigation. Using a global ethnographic approach, the authors collected diverse data through interviews, observations, archival and media documents, and field notes. Findings identified five key themes: (a) perception of underdevelopment, (b) the Organizing Committee’s institutional management of the global standard, (c) the Organizing Committee’s role as a negotiator between the global standard and the locality, (d) resident perspectives on global standards and regulations, and (e) aspirations to globalize Daegwallyeong-myeon. Through this study, the authors advance the use of world-systems theory and expand the concept of grobalization in the context of sport megaevent management by discussing global–local configurations and local agents’ desires to transform the community through Olympic-driven development and globalization.

The Marxist Critique of International Political Theory

2018 ◽  
pp. 651-663
Author(s):  
Andrew Davenport
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
International Politics ◽  
World Systems ◽  
World Systems Theory ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
International Political Theory ◽  
The Status ◽  
Leading Schools ◽  
Normative Issues

Marxism’s critique of International Political Theory (IPT) is not of specific themes but of how the latter understands international politics generally. Where IPT typically focuses on ethical and normative issues and problems of justice, Marxism has always given priority to capitalism and class, which it regards as fundamental to modern politics and as inadequately recognized within IPT. Marxism therefore rejects the view of the international as a shared “societal” space open to negotiation and compromise, and instead emphasizes irreconcilable conflict and exploitation. Through its leading schools of Imperialism, World Systems Theory, and Neo-Gramscian theory, Marxism has provided accounts of international politics that strongly contrast with the concerns of IPT. However, a potentially more far-reaching line of critique, drawing upon Marx’s analysis of liberal forms, remains undeveloped because Marxism has not yet clarified the status of the international within its theoretical space.

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