Modern World System Research Articles

Differential Effectiveness of Regional Trade Agreements, 1958-2012: The Conditioning Effects from Homophily and World-System Status

ABSTRACT Borrowing insights from economic sociology and world system theory, this study highlights the dual “embeddedness” of regional trade agreements (RTAs) and examines the contingent nature of their trade-promoting effect. While overall RTAs are found to promote bilateral trade, the trade-promoting effect varies. First, RTAs are embedded in dyadic homophily. Geographic, political, and cultural proximity provides a favorable institutional environment for the materialization of the trade-expanding potential unleashed by RTAs. Most RTAs are predominantly focused on reducing trade barriers and are far less effective in creating effective institutions (especially informal institutions), thereby rendering the actual effectiveness of RTAs dependent on dyadic homophily. Second, RTAs are also embedded in the overall world system. RTAs between wealthy core countries boost trade more effectively than those between less developed peripheral countries. Peripheral countries have limited economic power and lack the capacity or intention to fully implement policies stipulated in RTAs. Overall, the dual “embeddedness” and its resulting differential effectiveness of RTAs is expected to intensify regionalism and the North-South divide in global trade.

Public Theology and Global Governance: Weak Actors in Lawmaking for the World Economy

Abstract The world confronts an enormous range of challenges in the global economy. A far-reaching enterprise has arisen to meet these challenges by producing laws and regulations to shape and protect global commercial and financial markets. This article considers how a Christian theology can guide the highly consequential processes of creating law for world commerce. First, from the perspective of the sociology of globalization, law and markets, the article describes findings from current research on who makes global law and how they make that law in the United Nations’ principal body for the creation of private international law. Second, the article proposes that public theology offers Christian theological principles and middle level axioms to deepen and extend the dimensionality of global lawmaking, thereby offering ethical guidance for prospective global lawmaking. It sharpens focus by appraising the participation and creativity of weak actors in global lawmaking. Third, the article turns to praxis for weak actors in global lawmaking and concludes with considerations that may foster mutually productive dialog between social scientists and public theologians of the global.

Usoda maja ‘68 in (post)socializem: literatura med revolucijo in tranzicijo

Članek na podlagi pojmovanja, da je za modernizem odločilna »predstavna bližina družbene revolucije« (Anderson) v perspektivi teorije svetovnih-sistemov obravnava neoavantgardistično radikalizacijo modernizma v šestdesetih in sedemdesetih letih 20. stoletja. Pri tem se osredotoča na literarno in teoretsko polje kapitalistične Francije v primerjavi s pospešenim razvojem obeh področij v socialistični periferiji svetovnega modernizma – v neuvrščeni in samoupravni Jugoslaviji. Interpretira povezovanje eksperimentalne literature in (post)strukturalistične teorije v Sloveniji »dolgega leta 1968« od prvotnega zavezništva neoavantgardnega tipa do razkola sredi sedemdesetih let. V sklepu nakaže divergentne interpretacije zgodovinskega procesa med poskusom študentske revolucije 1968 in letom 1989, ko globalizirani kapitalizem prevlada socializem, modernizem pa preide v postmodernizem.

Neo-Primitivism: The Loss, Recovery and Sustainable Development of Northern American Aboriginal Culture

This paper aims to discuss the loss, recovery and sustainable development of native American culture from the perspective of the world-systems theory, and further illustrates how neo-primitivism is combined with psychotherapy to heal aboriginal individuals through reconnecting them with their sustainable tribal tradition. I will also try to clarify how Gary Snyder’s Myths & Texts, The Practice of the Wild, and The Old Ways were inspired by the sustainable native American neo-primitivism, its oral tradition and shamanism to advocate a wild culture and the concept of a poet-shaman to heal the binary opposition of Western civilization and its subsequent ecological crisis. If we can comprehend and conserve northern American aboriginal culture as it is, the goals of DESD and SDG such as good health and well-being, environmental conservation and protection, intercultural understanding (cultural diversity), reducing inequality, and sustainable cities and communities concerning northern American aboriginal culture can be realized ideologically, culturally and realistically.

The Structure and Evolution of the International Human Rights Network:Unpacking the Influences of Countries’ Contextual Factors and Network Configurations

ABSTRACT Guided by the multi-theoretical, multilevel (MTML) framework, this study draws from the World Polity Theory and World System Theory to examine factors shaping the structure and evolution of an international human rights network which included INGOs, IGOs, and countries as key players. Using a longitudinal research design and network modeling, this study collected data from 197 countries and revealed a consistent increase of their participation in the networks over a period of 10 years and also the tendency to stabilize. Nonetheless, structural inequality has persisted over time, which was reinforced by endogenous network configurations such as centrality and transitivity at the country level. Exogenous variables such as a country’s economic development, press freedom, and human rights performance-based reputation all contributed to the evolution of this international alliance network. Theoretical and practical implications on how communication and collaboration between countries may play a role in influencing a country’s human right performance are discussed.

ПОЛИТИКО-ПРАВОВЫЕ ИНСТИТУТЫ КАК ДРАЙВЕРЫ ЭВОЛЮЦИОННОГО РАЗВИТИЯ СОВРЕМЕННОГО СОЦИУМА

В статье рассматривается проблематика политико-правовых институтов в контексте социально-философских исследований, связанных с развитием современных обществ по эволюционному пути. Актуальность подтверждается главным образом высоким уровнем ответственности, который возлагается на рассматриваемые институты в целях обеспечения ими социального порядка в условиях трудно прогнозируемого мирового развития. Таким образом, социально-философский анализ представляется крайне необходимым при прорисовке контуров общепланетарной ситуации. Предметом исследования является обоснование роли политико-правовых институтов как драйверов современного эволюционного развития мировых обществ. Объектом исследования выступают современные политико-правовые институты. Цель определена автором как выявление причин, обусловливающих необходимость политико-правовых институциональных преобразований, и уточнение значимости властных структур за эволюционное развитие общества. Для достижения поставленной цели используется собственная синтетическая методология, включающая философские, общенаучные и междисциплинарные методы, а также мир-системный подход. Представлены причины и факторы политико-правовых институциональных преобразований. Рассмотрены особенности исторического оформления современного расклада сил на мировой арене. Посредством сравнительного анализа показано, что самые распространенные модели государственного управления (автократия и демократия) требуют своего концептуального переосмысления, а их ключевые идейные основы должны быть включены в новые варианты социального устройства.

Конфуціанство і протестантизм: перспективи трансцивілізаційної конвергенції "Схід – Захід"

The aggravation of the struggle for global leadership between the United States and China in the context of rapidly developing globalization has brought to the fore the problem of a comparative analysis of the ethical and value foundations of socio-economic dynamics, innovativeness and competitiveness of the Euro-Atlantic (primarily Protestant) society, on the one hand, and the East Asian (primarily Confucian) society, on the other. The purpose of this study is to compare the religious and ethical systems of Confucianism and Protestantism in terms of their competitive advantages, compliance with the interests of global economic leadership, and mutual adaptability. The study applies the interdisciplinary approach, methods of synergetic, civilizational and world-system analysis. It is argued that the modernization potential and mental-value compatibility of the Protestant and Confucian worlds is much higher than that of respectively the Protestant and the post-Soviet Eurasian. The key correspondences of ethical-value principles and motivations of Protestant and Confucian cultures in their genetics, historical dynamics and modern dimension have been determined. It is shown that such fundamental principles of modern Western society as pluralism and the rule of law have their traditional correspondences, albeit in a transformed form, among the core values of Chinese and, geographically wider, Confucian social culture. Therefore, the current trend of China’s return to its cultural roots, to Confucian ethics not only does not interfere with the process of modernization and the country’s movement towards global financial and economic leadership, but, on the contrary, contributes to these processes. In this regard, the prospects for a rational convergence of East and West values, primarily Protestantism and Confucianism, within the framework of a new globalized civilization of the future look rather likely.

Ontological Continuity in the Modern World-System: Agency, Areas, and the Structures-of-Knowledge Approach

With the passing of Immanuel Wallerstein, it is worthwhile to take note of his contribution to problematizing the unit of analysis. Rather than the states-as-containers interpretation, Wallerstein contributed that spatiotemporal units of analysis could be more meaningfully discussed in terms of their interactions within a larger system. The more well-known of his arenas are the axial division of labor (economic) and the interstate system (political). The third, the structures-of-knowledge methodology, aims to expand the “broadly cultural” arena as well. This paper will consider his project of reasserting agency through structural metanarrative with suggestions for ways to use his analysis to lend greater continuity to area-knowledge at a crucial time of transition.

Plasticity of Contemporary Racism: World-system Approach Anomalies and Emergence of Miles-Phizacklea 1977 Paradigm

Contemporary racism has been explained by a large number of perspectives, since the end of World War II, its nature was associated with Colonialism, a type of analysis based on the approach of race relations and complemented by the approach of the world-system. The present study develops a critical analysis with the world-system approach and lists the analytical improvements provided by the so-called Miles-Phizacklea 1977 paradigm. The conclusions of our research suggest that the methodological positivism of the world-system approach is successful only from a macrosociological perspective. However, the Miles-Phizacklea 1977 paradigm is capable of offering broader explanations related to contemporary racism. This paper offers guidelines that can help future research on the combination of micro and macro-sociological racism analysis.

The Politics of Humour in Kafkaesque Cinema: A World-Systems Approach

Kafka's work has exercised immense influence on cinema and his reflections on diminished human agency in modernity and the dominance of oppressive institutions that perpetuate individual or social alienation and political repression have been the subject of debates by philosophers such as Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Alexander Kluge. Informed by a world-systems approach and taking a cue from Jorge Luis Borges’ point that Kafka has modified our conception of the future, and André Bazin's suggestion that literary concepts, characters and styles can exceed “novels from which they emanate”, I understand the Kafkaesque as an elastic term that can refer to diverse films that might share thematic preoccupations, but also aesthetic and formal differences. In this article, I explore the politics of humour in Kafkaesque cinema with reference to the following films: The Overcoat ( Шинель, 1926, Gregor Koznitzev and Leo Trauberg), The Shop on Main Street ( Obchod na korze, 1965, Ján Kadár), and Death of a Bureaucrat ( La muerte de un burócrata, 1966, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea). I draw attention to the dialectics of humour and the connection between the Kafkaesque and slapstick so as to show how humour is deployed as a means of political critique.

세계체계의 시각에서 본 ‘한국 복지국가의 기원과 궤적’ : 윤홍식, 『한국 복지국가의 기원과 궤적 1~3』(사회평론아카데미, 2019)

세계체계의 시각에서 본 ‘한국 복지국가의 기원과 궤적’ : 윤홍식, 『한국 복지국가의 기원과 궤적 1~3』(사회평론아카데미, 2019)

Information Asymmetry as a Barrier in Upgrading the Position of Local Producers in the Global Value Chain—Evidence from the Apple Sector in Poland

The typical approach in the business strand of literature on inter-organisational forms of cooperation is based on the Porter’s value chain model or on the body of literature related to the supply chain. However, there is extended research on value chains based on a different theoretical tradition, rooted in world-systems theory and commodity chain concepts, which recently tend to merge under the umbrella of the Global Value Chain (GVC). We use this eclectic approach as a theoretical framework to investigate the issue of informational asymmetries considered as a barrier in upgrading the position of local producers in the GVC by enhancing quality. As an empirical illustration, we use the Polish apple sector. Poland is one of the largest apple producers in the world with a strong export orientation and linkages with the global value chain. The study provides an insight into the barriers of upgrading the position in GVC and ways to overcome them. Responsibility for the final quality offered for the end-user is strongly dispersed across many actors in the chain, while interrelations between them are plagued by the information asymmetry problem. Therefore, the upstream transmission of end-user quality expectations within the chain fails due to the lack of orchestrating incentives and causes the misbehaviour in conducting different activities in the chain. Thus, attempts to upgrade the position of Polish apple growers in the GVC should be focused on overcoming information asymmetries. Mechanisms such as branding, standardisation and certification seem to be promising ways forward.

The ‘state’ of postcolonial development: China–Rwanda ‘dependency’ in perspective

This paper aims to investigate the impact of China’s aid, trade and investments on the development trajectories in postcolonial Africa, focussed on Rwanda. The analytical framework of this study is informed by Helen Milner’s observation that ‘International political economy is a growth industry’. Furthermore, the study deploys dependency theory and world systems theory to examine how the global economic configuration operates though the hierarchy of core, semi-periphery and periphery among the states. Our focus on Rwanda is based on our observation that this small, landlocked, natural resources-deficient, aid-dependent country is an atypical destination for Chinese patronage and investments. We argue that as a non-resource rich country, Rwanda presents an anomaly, thus, underlining the gap in the existing knowledge on China–Africa engagements. We discuss the inherent dependency in the neoliberal economic structure and present a case for using dependency theory to understand and explain the contemporary globalised economy and emerging South–South cooperation. We conclude with a call for more in-depth cross-comparative research on China–Africa relations to grasp the magnitude of dependencies and economic transformations within postcolonial African states.

Framing Policing in the Secular Trend of Accumulation: from the State-Centric View of Globalization towards the Household in the Modern World-System

Abstract Mainstream interpretation segments globalization as: (a) a self-regulating-market neoliberal reincarnation; (b) an innovative regime of information communication technology; or (c) a reorganization of production on a world scale. This segmented view, however, is predicated on the state and the police in the background. In contrast to the mainstream view, which fits globalization in a state-centric prism of the police, we argue that what is referred to as globalization is policing. Policing is founded on household structures that are in turn instituted in the global commodity chains. Accordingly, it is the most crucial element integrating social-identity, social control, and social relations in the modern world-system. Hence, the unfolding prominence of globalization is actually the increasing saliency of policing. It reflects the terminal crisis of the capitalist world-economy, putting pressure on the household structures and the secular trend of accumulation. It is in view of this that policing, under the guise of globalization, is the re-intensification of social control, isolation of social-identities, and reification of social-relations.

Is There a Core-semiperiphery Division in Housing? Applying World-systems Theory in European Comparative Housing Research

ABSTRACT Theories conceptualizing the Southern European, and the Central and Eastern European housing systems (SEHS and CEEHS) are dominated by approaches explaining the ostensibly similar development of the two regions by distinct region-specific path dependencies. Applying world-systems theory to comparative housing studies, the article proposes an alternative approach by suggesting SEHS and CEEHS bear resemblance due to their shared semiperipheral position in the world economy. Cluster analysis performed on indicators of semiperipherality in EU member states confirms CEEHS, SEHS and Ireland exhibit similarly low values of de-commodification; but high values of familialization of housing, semiproletarianization of the workforce and lenient regulation, compared to the core region of North-Western Europe. Case studies of self-build in the postwar decades in Athens and Budapest indicate CEEHS is likely to have resembled the Mediterranean in the significance of semiproletarianization, familialism and lenient regulation during state socialism more than it is currently suggested in the literature.

Crises of the communist and neoliberal orders 30 years later: A structural comparison between 1975 and 2019 Poland

This article proposes to look at the current moment in the recent history of the so-called Central-European countries, with Poland as a critical case study, through a structural comparison with an earlier historical cycle, that is one of the first three decades of the communist rule in the region. Thus, I propose to compare the social and economic situation in Poland of circa 1975 with that of 2019, so 30 years after the establishment of a new given political order (30 years after 1945 and 1989 respectively). The paper will offer a general overview of the trajectory of Poland in the post-war era, based primarily on the perspective of the world-system theory and that of the critical sociology of elites, one which will also point to the essential structural contexts of the post-communist dynamics of society. This paper will be based on a basic observation: even if both the 1970s and late 2010s can be considered as periods of relative political stabilization and economic growth for the region as such, and Poland in particular, these countries are, at the same time, subjected to a considerable and even increasing economic dependence on the Western core. In the conclusions, it is argued that the proposed comparative approach, taking into account both an earlier historical cycle and the broader structural dependency of the region, may allow to cast a new light on the nature of current dynamics in Polish politics as well as on the possible future trajectories of the country.

비판적 코리아 연구를 위하여 ―식민주의와 냉전의 사고에 저항하여

Immanuel Wallerstein had tenaciously attempted to reorganize the academic system which had been deeply affected by colonial and the Cold-War thinking. Succeeding his theory’s critical momentum, I propose “Critical Korean Studies” not by integrating various disciplines into a huge united world-system analysis but by constructing new academic narratives from “small” case studies. In this paper, I illustrate the outline of Critical Korean Studies with examples of two ongoing projects: a biography of a North Korean linguist, Kim Su-Gyŏng, and a historical ethnography of the relationship between a Korean School in Japan and a local community of Ginkakuji area in Kyoto. Critical Korean Studies describes intersectional experiences surrounding concrete elements, in these cases a person or a place, with the prospect of opening them towards world history beyond the limitations of regions, eras, disciplines, and methodologies. Resisting mainstream Japanese discourses on Korea and Koreans in Japan, which are deeply affected by colonialism and the Cold War frames, this paper illustrates a genealogy and a vision of Critical Korean Studies.

Waste Crime and the Global Transference of Hazardous Substances: A Southern Green Perspective

The production of global solid waste has reached an all-time high with over two billion tons discarded each year—much of it burned, illegally dumped at sea, or buried in unregulated landfills (The World Bank 2019). The United Nations Environment Assembly has declared the current waste problem a “global crisis” (Parker 2019), with estimates predicting that the present rate will worsen threefold by 2050 based on existing consumption and disposal rates (Ellis 2018). The international community has responded with expanding laws and regulations that seek to ensure that waste is disposed of in safe, sustainable and renewable ways. Such measures, however, have increased the costs of disposal and have inadvertently enlarged illegal markets in dumping and transference (European Commission 2019). This article examines the ways in which transnational corporations have avoided the rising costs of lawful disposal by shipping their waste to poor countries in the Global South—often with devastating social and environmental impacts. This article draws on world systems theory (Wallerstein 2004) and political ecology (Bedford et al. 2019; Forsyth 2008) in order to embellish discourses in green criminology and southern criminology (Brisman et al. 2018; Carrington et al. 2018; Goyes 2019) and to examine critically the contemporary social and environmental harms generated by the illegal transference of solid and hazardous waste.

Introduction to the Special Issue on World-Systems Analysis and the Anthropocene

Across the social sciences and humanities, and in diverse forms of popular media around the world, discourse about the Anthropocene is proliferating. From the plastic particles found in deep sea trenches to the unfolding of Earth’s sixth mass extinction, among many other indicators—notably anthropogenic climate change—it is clear that human impacts may have irreversibly perturbed the planet. This special issue sets out to deepen and broaden the conversation from a world-systems perspective. Building upon a long tradition of scholarship deploying world-systems theory to understand global environmental change, we wish to explore the past, present, and future of the world-system with/in the Anthropocene. In this introduction we first offer prefatory remarks about the Anthropocene (by no means a universally accepted concept) that are meant to help orient readers to debates around the Anthropocene before turning to a summary of the contributions and the themes that emerge in this Special Issue.

Power and Politics in the World-System

While various researchers and practitioners agree that it will be hard to restructure our current global and local systems to adapt to and mitigate climate change, there is unsurprisingly great disagreement in how and if this can be accomplished and on what level(s), or if this is even what needs to be accomplished. These conversations have continued with the introduction of the “Anthropocene.” The dominant interpretation of the concept poses several solutions, one being national government restructuring to support environmental efforts and encouraging behavioral change. To join conversations that critically evaluate the conceptualization and implications of the Anthropocene with the world-systems perspective, we consider how the effectiveness of national environmental governance in reducing CO2 emissions varies by a country’s position in the global hierarchy. Using two-way fixed effects regression, this article tests how one aspect of this environmental governance, environmentally related taxes as a percentage of total tax revenue impacts CO2 emissions for 75 countries from 2000 to 2011. Given inequities in the global division of labor, which reinforce the dominance of higher-income countries and the exploitation of lower-income countries, we expect the effectiveness of environmental governance to vary tremendously by global position. Our results support the idea that the impact of environmental governance on CO2 emissions varies across countries at different income levels in the world-system, and this is due to external constraints. Such external influence is unsurprisingly neglected in dominant interpretations of the Anthropocene. In line with previous critical research, we argue that these external constraints undermine climate change solutions because they fail to address mutually reinforcing global, political, economic, and environmental inequalities.