Modern World System Research Articles

Bifurcated Bolivia: Indigenous Governance and Land Struggles in the Eastern Lowlands

This paper analyzes Indigenous politics in Bolivia, the 2019 coup against President Evo Morales, and the return of the Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism, MAS) with the inauguration of Luis Arce in 2020. Drawing on interviews with Indigenous community members in the lowlands of the Bolivian Amazon, this piece theoretically situates Indigenous autonomy struggles within world systems theory and insights from Max Weber’s ‘iron cage’ of institutional isomorphism to argue that political tensions in Bolivian Indigenous communities can be understood within a context of (1) increasingly strained relations between the MAS and civil society organizations; (2) Indigenous-NGO coalition efforts to protect Tierras Comunitarias de Orígen (Native Community Lands) and; (3) the development of competing parallel leadership organizations within Native communities that threaten democratic processes and cohesive responses to extractivism.

The Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation in the 1990s in the assessments of domestic social Democratic parties

The article is devoted to the consideration of assessments of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation in the 1990s by domestic social democratic parties. The subject of the study is the publications of representatives of Russian Social Democrats, which reflect their views on the foreign policy of the Russian Federation during the period of Boris Yeltsin. The Social Democratic parties in the world and in Russia at that time influenced both the domestic and foreign policies of their states. The assessments of the social democratic parties in their programs and press reflect a wide range of views on the foreign policy of our state in the 1990s. Depending on the directions of the Social Democrats - left and right, their contradictions in views are displayed, which shows the breadth of social democratic thought at that time. The study uses a historical and comparative method, a civilizational approach in analyzing the assessments of the positions of the right-wing social Democrats and a world-system analysis in analyzing the assessments of the positions of the left-wing social Democrats. The scientific novelty of the study consists in identifying the positions of the social democratic parties of the 1990s on the foreign policy course of the Russian Federation, and the different assessments of the country's foreign policy by left and right social Democrats. The study reveals differences in the assessments of social democratic parties and their priorities in the foreign policy of the Russian Federation, depending on their directions - the left social Democrats and the right social Democrats. The article evaluates the attitude of the parties to the official course of the authorities of the Russian Federation at that time, who advocated the country's close integration into the Western world. The conclusion is made about the role of social Democrats of different directions in constructing a new understanding of Russia's foreign policy, based on the ideological positions of the parties.

The Baby and the Bathwater: Class Analysis and Class Formation after Deindustrialisation

Abstract This paper is an edited version of the Deutscher Memorial Lecture delivered in November 2023 which expands upon The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America. It develops an account of the productivity limits of interpersonal service work more firmly rooted in Marxism and argues that the separation of social reproduction from production is primarily economic rather than political. This theoretical device is then deployed to argue that there is indeed a global ‘crisis of care’. This crisis is triggered not only by destabilisation of earlier care regimes, but also the encounter between the productivity limit and new forms and expanding volume in demand for care. Finally, this crisis is linked to the new global sociology and politics of gender and sexuality. Methodologically, the paper argues for renewed attention to the empirical specificity of proletarianisation processes, rather than ‘class abstractionism’.

MEASURING GLOBALIZATION: ANALYZING INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION (IOHE) THROUGH STEM EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

The concepts of 'internationalization' and 'globalization' are closely intertwined, impacting both tangible and intangible aspects of higher education. Internationalization refers to the internal transformations that occur within an educational setting as a result of frequent cross-border interactions within a local governmental system. Currently, developing countries like Pakistan are adapting and shaping their higher education systems in response to the global knowledge economy but neglecting the introduction of STEM education in the areas of social sciences like mathematics, statistics, entrepreneurship, IT, and other courses that are considered the need of time may leads to lack social scientist’s ability to estimate & forecasting and critically evaluate the situations as these deficiencies lead to reduce the cognitive skill of the workforce. This qualitative study employed Wallenstein’s World System analysis framework to examine student mobility and educational policy aspects in Pakistan critically. The findings suggest that the internationalization of higher education may lead to unequal exchange of educational services between core and peripheral countries in the global system.

Global Disasters and World Society: The Ecological Dimension of Modern World-System Crises

The International Conference on Global Disasters and World Society: The Ecological Dimension of Modern World-System Crises, hosted by the Research Group on Political Economy of the World-System, and co-organized by the University of California Disaster Resilience Network, was held in Florianopolis, Brazil fr om 25 to 27 March, 2024. The conference convened scholars, activists, politicians, and government officials to exchange ideas and analyses of current climate crises from a world-historical perspective. Its objective was to formulate strategies for surviving and mitigating increasingly frequent and severe global and local natural and anthropogenic disasters, and to pave the way for a more just, democratic, and collectively rational world society. To achieve this goal, the conference organizers encouraged re-searchers to investigate the evolution of the modern world-system and to devise plans for moving towards a less unequal and more cooperative world society.

Caste, gender, race: Signposts of a feminist anti-caste approach

This commentary responds to the essay by Suraj Yengde titled ‘Race and Caste in the Making of US Sociology’, picks up a few threads in Yengde’s argument and attempts to unravel them in the interests of deepening this conversation on an issue that has returned to the foreground of global sociology and anthropology. Given the thin and tenuous disciplinary separations between sociology and social anthropology in India, especially evident in studies on caste, this commentary straddles these two disciplines in the Indian context and points to some interesting disciplinary intersections in the American context. Specifically, Yengde’s discussion of questions of caste, race and class is extended to look at Indian and diasporic contexts to speak to the specific intersections of caste, race, gender, class, region and temporality in contexts of caste formation drawing on the work of Joan Mencher and Gail Omvedt, among others.

MEASURING GLOBALIZATION: ANALYZING INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION (IOHE) THROUGH STEM EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

The concepts of 'internationalization' and 'globalization' are closely intertwined, impacting both tangible and intangible aspects of higher education. Internationalization refers to the internal transformations that occur within an educational setting as a result of frequent cross-border interactions within a local governmental system. Currently, developing countries like Pakistan are adapting and shaping their higher education systems in response to the global knowledge economy but neglecting the introduction of STEM education in the areas of social sciences like mathematics, statistics, entrepreneurship, IT, and other courses that are considered the need of time may leads to lack social scientist’s ability to estimate & forecasting and critically evaluate the situations as these deficiencies lead to reduce the cognitive skill of the workforce. This qualitative study employed Wallenstein’s World System analysis framework to examine student mobility and educational policy aspects in Pakistan critically. The findings suggest that the internationalization of higher education may lead to unequal exchange of educational services between core and peripheral countries in the global system.

Theorising universality in the modern world-system: the abstract, the concrete, and the case of Botswana

There are long-standing disagreements across the humanities and social sciences regarding the relevance and necessity of using the concept of ‘universality’. The debate is often framed as a competition between acknowledging particularities of social struggles and identities, against universalising tendencies or interests across the world-system. Within these debates, universality may be conceptualised as an abstract totality that fails to apply under select con­ditions, or a banner that supersedes or squashes identities and particulars. This article reorients the debate, suggesting social theorists view universality from a fresh perspective. It acknowledges the totalising nature of global capitalism, and the unique struggles of different oppressed and exploited groups, suggesting the tensions between them are constitutive of universality itself. Critical, dialectical theories of universality emanating from interdisciplinary terrains of Africana studies, global political economy, and psychoanalysis guide us in new directions for theorising universality. I illustrate these points with a case study of struggles for justice waged by the Indigenous San of Botswana. The details of this case allow us to identify the concrete struggles of the San as an embodiment of the universal struggle for freedom within a world-system founded upon hyper-exploitation and widespread violence, often targeting African and Indigenous peoples.

Transcending boundaries on unequal ground: A critical reimagination of global North-South cooperation on social work practice and the Sustainable Development Goals

Using collaborative autoethnography, this article encapsulates the rich discourse that unfolded during a symposium titled: "Human Rights, The Sustainable Development Goals and Social Work Practice in Germany and Africa". The symposium was a testament to the collaborative synergy between Fachhochschule Dortmund in Germany, Midlands State University (MSU) in Zimbabwe, the University of Johannesburg, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa. This scientific event was an academic convergence where researchers and postgraduate social work students shared research, experiences and insights from the Global North and South, offering a mosaic of perspectives on critical issues. It illuminated shared challenges that transcended geographical boundaries. Poverty, climate change, and social injustice were common but contextually unique across the three countries. In this paper, we employ critical and world systems theories to reflect on the symposium. The discussions and reflections underscore social work's strategic position to inform context-specific anti-poverty, climate change discourse, anti-racism and collaborative efforts to combat economic disparities. This paper encourages the power of sustainable partnerships, dialogue, and shared learning across geographical and socio-economic boundaries. Collaborative efforts between Global North and South universities provide a platform for cross-cultural learning and mutual capacity building amongst postgraduate students.

Discursive and institutional standards of justice in the modern world-system

In the article the essence of standards of justice in the modern world-system is outlined in a general way. It is shown that these standards emerged in the European capitalist world-economy in consequence of the French Revolution. Standards of justice are interpreted as ideological semantic constructions that have been institutionalized simultaneously with establishment, first, of the ideology of liberalism as the geoculture of the modern world-system and, second, — of model of liberal state. Standards of justice are considered within theoretical theses and methodological guiding lines of I. Wallerstein's theory of the modern world-system. However, some theoretical theses of J. Alexander's civil society theory are also used to supplement and concretize considered in the article problems with some new arguments. For instance, Alexander's conceptual toolkit helped to distinguish discursive and institutional standards of justice. Reasons and peculiarities of establishment of standards of justice are considered and role these standards played in the providing of development of the modern world-system is shown. In particular, it is elucidated that owing to these standards elites of the core countries of the modern world-system managed to redirect the rebellion energy of the lower strata from antisystemic revolutions to struggle for inclusion to liberal state. This helped to calm the lower strata down and to guard structures of the modern world-system against essential damages. Standards of justice contributed to legitimation of social order of the modern world-system. Full integration of the lower strata to newly created national societies reinforced social solidarity, and this strengthened the core states even more. It is shown that for today in particular countries of periphery and semi-periphery trends of revision of current standards of justice and their replacement by alternative semantic constructions become visible.

A Critical Examination of Globalization's Impact on the Economies of Sub-Saharan African Countries

This essay critically examines the impacts of globalization on the economy of Sub-Saharan Africa. Through the method of literature review, this paper explores the impact of globalization on international trade, foreign investment, and local development trends, while also emphasizing the negative consequences, such as economic disparities and cultural shocks. The analysis delves into theories including Friedman's "The World is Flat" and Wallerstein's world systems theory, comparing their global perspectives with the realities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Case studies illustrate the dual nature of globalization: its contribution to economic growth and the emergence of socioeconomic obstacles. The essay provides policy recommendations to effectively utilize the advantages of globalization while mitigating its negative effects, aiming to achieve inclusive economic growth and save the local cultures and traditions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The significance of this paper is to claim that although there are negative impacts of globalization, the benefits it brings are more important and that globalization should occur in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Escape from the periphery. World-system of cinema and Polish film

The main aim of this text is to outline the possibilities of applying Immanuel Wallerstein’s world-systems theory to the analysis of cinema. Concepts developed by Wallerstein, especially the notion of the relationship between the core and the periphery of international political-economic systems, can be useful in trying the hegemony of Hollywood cinema in the global circulation of film content, as well as the positions smaller film industries occupy in relation to it. The assumptions of this theory will be tested using the example of the cinema of Central and Eastern Europe in recent decades, making it possible to determine its relative hierarchy in the global chain of production and consumption of audiovisual content. Special attention has been focused on Poland, presented as a model example of a local film industry attempting to emerge from the peripheral position it occupied after the political transformation of 1989.

The Crises of Imperialism and the Prospect of Socialism

In this article, I take the global and long-term perspective on imperialism, from the rise of colonialism and capitalism through its different stages. I do it because it gives a sense of direction of how the world-system will move in the current ecological, economic, and political endgame of capitalism. I use the lens of world-system analysis and dependency theory in my inquiry, to show its relevance in the twenty-one-century. Finally, I discuss the possibilities for a transformation towards a socialist mode of production as an outcome of the current crises. In this article, I take the global and long-term perspective on imperialism, from the rise of colonialism and capitalism through its different stages. I do it because it gives a sense of direction of how the world-system will move in the current ecological, economic, and political endgame of capitalism. I use the lens of world-system analysis and dependency theory in my inquiry, to show its relevance in the twenty-one-century. Finally, I discuss the possibilities for a transformation towards a socialist mode of production as an outcome of the current crises.

The Impact of Globalization on Cultural Identity

Purpose: The general objective of the study was to investigate the impact of globalization on cultural identity. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the impact of globalization on cultural identity. Preliminary empirical review revealed that globalization had a profound impact on cultural identity, reshaping perceptions and facilitating cultural exchange, which enriched local cultures but also challenged traditional norms. This led to the emergence of hybrid cultural forms, blending local and global elements, while also posing threats of cultural homogenization and the erosion of unique identities due to the dominance of global media and consumer culture. Efforts to preserve local traditions and promote cultural resilience were deemed crucial, including the adoption of supportive cultural policies and educational programs that emphasized cultural diversity and heritage. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Cultural Hybridization Theory, Cultural Homogenization Theory and World-System Theory may be used to anchor future studies on globalization and cultural identity. The study on the impact of globalization on cultural identity recommended advancing theoretical frameworks to better understand cultural interactions, implementing cultural education and awareness programs, and developing policies to protect and promote cultural diversity. It highlighted the need for legal protections for cultural rights, community engagement in cultural initiatives, and continuous research and monitoring of globalization’s effects on cultural identity. These recommendations aimed to enhance cultural preservation, support cultural expression, and ensure the resilience and sustainability of diverse cultural identities in a globalized world.

In search of global sociology: a critical overview of competing research agendas

This article critically examines the idea of global sociology in relationship to the discipline of Sociology. While the discipline initially emerged in Western societies, in the post-1945 era, the field extended its reach to the rest of the world. The intellectual project of global sociology emerged in the 1960s and has been on the agenda of the International Sociological Association since at least 1990. Delving deeper than the mere notion of a sociology that is applied to the world, global sociology requires the re-examination of the role of core sociological concepts and narratives, especially regarding the extent to which these reflect Eurocentric preoccupations. Global modernisation (alongside Global Studies) and Postcolonial Sociology, two of the most widely known research fields claiming global intent, are examined as to whether they provide meaningful blueprints for global sociology. Both offer promising insights but also suffer from important drawbacks. Instead of attempting to unearth new grand narratives that would displace the narrative of Western modernity, though, it might be possible to envision a plurality of such narratives coming from different regions of the globe. Sociology can thus be conceived not as exclusively global but also as local and glocal.

Confrontation between Shamkhalate and Kabarda in the 16<sup>th</sup> century (the issue of international relations in the North Caucasus)

The article is devoted to the problems of the development of the regional system of international relations in the North Caucasus in the 16th century. The era of the Horde khans and Shirvanshahs is forever a thing of the past, and they were replaced by new empires: the Safavids, the Ottomans and the Moscow state. With the help of world-system analysis the article reveals the transformation of the political landscape of the region that took place at that period. A new look at the Caucasian communities and their place in the history of civilization, as well as the forms happened to occur in the process of their integration into a particular state is offered to the reader's attention. The methods of identity formation used at that period are of great interest, as well as the hierarchical ideas that existed in the field of international relations. For the first time, the paper comes as an attempt to reconstruct the views on the balance of power then prevailing in the North Caucasus that correspond to the epoch under study.

Mobility and Public Transport in Post-independence Mozambican Fiction (1992-2022)

ABSTRACT This article analyzes representations of mobility and public transport in the following Mozambican novels: Terra Sonâmbula [Sleepwalking Land] (1992), O Outro Pé da Sereia [The Mermaid’s Other Foot] (2006) by Mia Couto, O Comboio de Sal e Açúcar [The Train of Salt and Sugar] (1999) by Licínio Azevedo, and Museu da Revolução [Museum of the Revolution] (2022) by João Paulo Borges Coelho. Despite the importance of mobility and public transport in these works, existing scholarship has not considered these themes but has opted for more traditional categories such as ‘travel’, ‘diaspora’, and ‘migration’. Focusing on the literary portrayals of public transport and infrastructure of mobility – i.e. buses, ships, and railway stations (Couto), a slow-moving train (Azevedo), and a Toyota Hiace car (Borges Coelho) – this article aims to demonstrate the central role that the mobility/immobility binomial plays in the representation of post-independent Mozambique. The main argument of this article is that the images of the railway, the road, automobility, and maritime travel are the literal driving force of the narratives and contribute to the (un)building of the national space. I use literary perspectives on mobility studies and world-system approaches developed within the framework of world-literature (Warwick Research Collective) to demonstrate that the tropes of mobility and the representations of public transport in the four novels register and encode the social, political, and economic transitions in Mozambique’s colonial and post-colonial history and its incorporation into the capitalist world-system.

Размышляя над связями: одновремен-ность и расхождение между теорией зависимости и мир-системным анализом

This article is an exercise in intellectual history whose objec-tive is mainly to reveal the almost simultaneous origin be-tween dependency theory in Latin America and world-systems analysis in the United States since the second half of the 1960s. Here we offer in great detail and textual evidence the reasons why the world-system perspective (before having been baptized as such) is not a mere US-American (or “grin-go”) copy of dependency theory. This will be addressed, first of all, with an analysis of the “formal” aspects in the main dependency works—Dependencia y desarrollo en América Latina (1969), by Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Fa-letto; Dialéctica de la dependencia (1973), by Ruy Mauro Ma-rini; and El capitalismo dependiente latinoamericano (1974), by Vania Bambirra—through the theoretical, methodological and epistemological lenses of the essay “The Comparative Study of National Societies” published by Terence K. Hop-kins and Immanuel Wallerstein in 1967 regarding the VI World Congress of Sociology in 1966 in Evian (France). Sec-ondly, we will delve into the “substantive” aspects—that is, the methodological as well as epistemological discrepancies—between both approaches. Although they are not completely antagonistic, we want to make it clear, on the basis of their methodological and epistemological foundations, not fully discussed until now, that the lines of research in dependency theory and in world-systems analysis have divergent implications.

Romanian and Hungarian Otherness. A World-System Perspective on the Event Novel

Romanian and Hungarian Otherness. A World-System Perspective on the Event Novel. The article aims to investigate how the combined and unequal world-system is reflected in two peripheral novels in the modern literary system that focus on the Romanian-Hungarian 1919 military conflict, as part of the First World War. The Death of a Red Republic [Moartea unei Republici Roșii] by Felix Aderca and Anna Édes by Dezső Kosztolányi are comparatively discussed in order to see how regional and (semi-)peripheral literatures articulate the dynamics of world-systems and geographies of uneven development. The event novel, both recipient and generator of tensions and socio-economic, political, and cultural change, is representative of the articulation of imaginary patterns regarding otherness. In this sense, the article investigates how “frontier Orientalism” is activated in the narrative of the war and how this imaginary reflects the inequalities within the world system. Keywords: world-system theories, frontier Orientalism, imaginary, subgenre, Romanian literature, Hungarian literature

Exploring representations of climate change as ecocide: implications for climate policy

ABSTRACT This paper explores whether, to what extent and in what ways climate change is represented as ecocide in scholarly literature. Premised upon a historical materialist lens utilizing the world systems theory and the concept of the Capitalocene, and by means of conducting a scoping literature review, the paper finds there is an increasing trend of climate change representation as ecocide. It also identifies several key themes that emerge in scholarly representations, including the growth-driven global capitalistic and nation-state system that perpetuates carbon criminals, anthropocentric ethics, and environmental and social harm and injustice, and the feasibility and appropriateness of an international crime of ecocide. The analysis suggests that while not likely to catalyze fossil phase-out and expedite the global energy transition decisively, the criminalization of ecocide could fortify the climate policy toolbox via the prospect to report cases to the International Criminal Court, the issuance of warrant arrests by the ICC, and EU’s criminalization of substantial environmental damage and potential externalization of its criminal code. The significance and originality of this article lies in the generation of robust empirical evidence, the mapping of representations of climate change as ecocide, and a comprehensive analysis of the practical, ethical and legal complexities surrounding a law of ecocide and its implications for global climate policy. Key policy insights Representations of climate change as ecocide focus on the global capitalistic and nation-state system that perpetuates carbon criminals, anthropocentric ethics, and environmental and social harm and injustice. An international law of ecocide will challenge both fossil-based and energy transition practices. The power of the state-corporate nexus and the socio-economic benefits emanating from acts that contribute to climate change weaken the case for and undermine the potential effectiveness of an international crime of ecocide. While not a panacea, the criminalization of ecocide can add to the climate policy toolbox via building the momentum for more states to adopt relevant domestic legislation, the prospect to report cases to the ICC, the issuance of warrant arrests by the ICC, and EU’s criminalization of substantial environmental damage and potential externalization of its criminal code.