World-System
An interdependent system of countries linked
by economic and political competition
World-system processes
• CORE
– Industrialized capitalist countries or
regions.
• PERIPHERY
– Exploited countries and regions (“poor”)
• SEMI-PERIPHERY
– Countries or regions with mixed processes.
– Both exploited and exploiters.
Results of World-System
• The growth and strength of the Core is made possible
by the exploitation of the rest of the world.
• The “poverty” in the Periphery is made possible by
the exploitation by the rest of the world.
• Recent globalization has widened, not narrowed,
the gap between Core and Periphery countries.
Globalization is nothing new
(Flows of goods, capital, information)
World-System History
• European colonialism/ slave trade, 1500s-1800s
• Industrial Revolution/ wage labor, 1800s/ early 1900s
• World War II/ Cold War/ decolonization, mid-1900s
• Neocolonialism/ multinational corporations, late 1900s
Why Europe?
• Early technical innovations
– Armor, gunnery from
wars among many small states
– Shipbuilding and navigation
• Evangelical zeal
– Crusades in Middle East
– Missionaries in Americas
• Law of Diminishing Returns
– Drive for gold/ money reached
limits at home
—Land divided by inheritance
Wars among small states
Elements of a map
Hegemony
• Domination over a region or the world
• Not just political or military control
• Most pervasive is economic and cultural control
Leadership cycles
(competitive struggles)
• Netherlands and Portugal,
1400s-1500s
• United States and Soviet Union,
1945-1980s
• Spain and Portugal,
1500s-1600s
• United States and ……?
1990s-2000s
• England and France,
1600s-early 1900s
• European Union and
East Asian bloc, 2010s ?
• Germany and Japan,
1937-45
Industrial Revolution
• Early-1800s
– Britain (Hearth) --from slave cotton
– Textiles, steam power, iron, canals
• Mid-1800s
– Diffusion to Germany, France, Belgium
– Steel, railroads, steamships, telegraph
• Late-1800s/ early-1900s
– Spread to much of Europe, US, Japan
– Electricity, oil, engines, roads, radio
International Division of Labor
• Core (colonial powers) need resources, labor
• Periphery (colonies) has labor, resources
• Colonies had “comparative advantages” in natural
resources
• The Core “underdeveloped” the Periphery, which
was not “poor” of its own accord
Imperialism, 1914
•
•
•
•
Britain
France
Spain
Portugal
•
•
•
•
•
Netherlands
Germany
Russia
U.S.
Japan
• Italy
Geography Implicated
• Ethnocentrism
and racism
• Imperialism
and colonialism
• Environmental
determinism
Imperialism: Formal Colonialism
• Colonies under direct
control
• Core controls labor,
resources, land
• Often indirect political
rule through local
leaders
Imperialism:
Spheres of
Influence
Core dominated, but
not controlled,
trade and resources
British opium
war in China
World War II
Begins contemporary globalization
Sudden shifts in economic
hegemony, political power
Sudden technological innovations
Sudden growth of transportation,
communications networks
Nagasaki
Late 1940s:
U.S. dominant
• Sole possession of
atomic bomb to 1949
Frankfurt
• War destroyed
industries of Europe,
Russia and Japan
• U.S. finances
reconstruction
Anticolonial
revolts
• Colonial flags come down
– Asia, 1940s-1950s, Africa 1960s-1970s
• “Neocolonialism” continues
– Ex-colonial powers still dominate
economies, resources, cultures
Cold War,
1949-1989
• US-USSR “hot wars”
fought in Periphery
• Periphery states
competed for aid
• Arms race depleted
global social resources
Multinational
corporations
• Investments, activities
transcend borders
• Subsidiaries in many
Periphery/S-P countries
Cartoon on Standard Oil, 1904
• Core domination,
centralization outside
state structure
World divisions, late 20th century
• First World - Industrialized capitalist countries of
Western Europe, North America.
• Second World - Centrally-planned “socialist”
countries such as former Soviet Union.
• Third World - Ex-colonial nations such as
India, Malaysia, Iran, Brazil, etc.
• Fourth World - Poorest nations (and indigenous communities)
“North/South” Divisions
• Poor countries tend to be located in Southern
Hemisphere.
• World Bank estimates more than 1.3 billion
people (1/5 world population) live in acute
poverty of < $1 (U.S.) per day.
– 70% women and children
– Self-Sustaining
Regions of the “World Village”
East
Asians
South
Asians
Africans
European
Latin
Amer.
North
Amer.
Oceania
In a world village of 1,000:
• 333 East Asians
• 274 South Asians
• 132 Africans
• 120 Europeans
• 86 Latin Americans
• 50 North Americans
• 5 from Oceania
Household income
• Average annual
income $4,890
Less than
$650
$650$35,000
Over
$35,000
• 600 poor
• 300 marginal
• 100 well-off
Ownership/consumption
• 200 richest villagers
own and consume
80% of goods
200
richest
800
others
• Other villagers own
and consume
remaining 20%
Material World:
A Global Family Portrait
Iceland
Guatemala
Japan
Philadelphia Infant Mortality
Red area high than
at least 28 “Third
World” countries,
including:
Jamaica
Cuba
Costa Rica
Malaysia
Panama
Sri Lanka
South Korea
Taiwan
Uruguay
Argentina
Chile
The Core
• Industrialized capitalist countries, led by former
colonial powers
• Centers of trade, technology, productivity.
• Examples: Western Europe, North America,
Japan, Australia
• Exploit the Periphery and Semi-periphery.
The Periphery
Poor, ex-colonial nations.
Tend to export resources and labor.
Examples: Kenya, Bolivia, Pakistan, etc.
Exploited by Core and by Semi-periphery
The Semi-periphery
• Partially industrialized ex-colonial countries.
• Both exporters and importers of goods.
• Examples: South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan, South
Korea, etc. (parts of India, China?)
• Exploited by Core, but also exploit Periphery.
New International Division of Labor
• Industrial growth of Europe and Japan
• Internationalization of economic networks
• New global consumer markets
• New global technologies
Industrial
growth of
Europe, Japan
• European economic bloc
– Expanding to east, will it include western Russia?
• Japan, other East Asian states
– Four Tigers (Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong)
– China as possible partner in new economic bloc?
• Relative decline of U.S. in “Tripolar Economy”
Internationalization of economics
• TRADE
– “Free trade” agreements
– Standards “race to bottom”
• FINANCES
– 24/7 stock markets
– Mobile investments
• PRODUCTION
– Overseas “sweatshops”
– Core automating, losing
industrial jobs
New consumer markets
• World products
– Core luxury goods
• Media diffusion
– CNN, MTV, Hollywood
• Semi-periphery consumers
– Four Tigers, Oil states
New technological innovations
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•
•
•
•
•
•
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Microelectronics
Personal computers
Internet
Satellites
Aircraft
Robotics (automation)
Biotechnology
Container ships/rail
Digital Divide
• Unequal access to
telecommunications and
information technology
• 80% of websites in
North America
• 20% of population has
74% of phone lines
“Fast” vs.
“Slow” worlds
• “Fast” (20%) has access
to telecommunications,
consumer goods, arts &
entertainment.
• “Slow” (80%) has
limited access, more
resentment of elites.
• Search for “sense of
place” in both areas to
lessen alientation.