Spatial and Other Fixes of Historical Capitalism

Giovanni Arrighi

doi:10.5195/jwsr.2004.289

Abstract

Capitalism is the first and only historical social system that has become truly global in scale and scope. Mapping this transformation over time is a particularly challenging task. Without some theoretical guidance in the selection of the networks to be mapped, there is a real risk of producing maps that are so confusing as to be worthless. Drawing from David Harveys concepts of spatial-temporal fix, switching crisis, and accumulation bydispossession, this article proposes a conceptual map focused specifically on the processes associated with the globalization of historical capitalism. This is not an actual map of the spatial-temporal dynamic of historical capitalism but a first step in the identification of the kind of geographic and historical information that is needed in order to produce such a map.

Highlights

Capitalism is the first and only historical dispossession,” this article proposes a concepsocial system that has become truly global in tual map focused on the processes scale and scope
I have no disagreement with Christopher Chase Dunn’s and Thomas Hall’s contention that the world capitalist system–like other worldsystems–can be described by means of four kinds of social interaction networks, each operating at a different spatial scale: bulk goods networks at the smallest scale, prestige goods and information networks at the largest scale, and political-military networks at an intermediate scale (1997: 52–55)
It may even obscure the processes that have been associated with its globalization over the last half millennium. This globalization has occurred through a tremendous increase in the number and variety of each kind of network, as well as an increase in the scale of bulk goods and military-political networks relative to prestige goods and information networks

Summary

Introduction

Capitalism is the first and only historical dispossession,” this article proposes a concepsocial system that has become truly global in tual map focused on the processes scale and scope. For this “remarkable version” of spatial-temporal fix “has global implications for absorbing overaccumulated capital, and for shifting the balance of economic and political power to China as the regional hegemon and perhaps placing the Asian region, under Chinese leadership, in a much more competitive position vis-á-vis the United States.” This possibility makes US

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Conclusion