The Geography and Dimensions of Poverty in the Global Economy

Abstract

Planet of SlumS (2006), by Mike Davis, belongs to a vast literature focused on factors shaping the long history of humanity on planet Earth in the direction of global conflict over the distribution of world resources among contending groups: classes, races, ethnoreligious groups, nations, etc. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels focused on conflict over distribution among social classes that was expected to reach its climax in global capitalism, when the highly developed forces of production and the class conflict generated by the social relations of production would pave the way for the establishment of a socialist global order dominated by the workers of the world. Ultimately, Marx and Engels believed, the socialist world order would lead to the establishment of a communist global system—the highest level of human development—replacing conflict with eternal harmony. Historical reality, however, seems to have moved in the opposite direction. The revolutionary leaders of Russia, after waiting in vain for socialist revolutions in the mature capitalist nations of Western Europe and North America (between 1917 and the 1920s) settled for “Socialism in One Country.” Western strategies for the global spread of free market capitalism during the Cold War—fought between the leaders of the capitalist and socialist movements—appear to have succeeded beyond even the expectations of Western political and business leaders. The demonstration effect of the “Asian Miracle” and the collapse of what some characterize as “state capitalism” in Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R. have forced virtually everyone to embrace the free market model of development. This apparent triumph of capitalism has been celebrated as the end of history: the class conflicts articulated by Marx and Engels have been resolved in favor of the capitalists, contrary to the prognostications of Marx and Engels. Eternal harmony, it is proclaimed, will prevail under global capitalism instead of communism. Still, a number of scholars continue to believe that the conflicts predicted by Marx and Engels have yet to be resolved. They argue, specifically, that if the conditions that allowed the Asian miracle in the period from 1950 to