World Systems Model Research Articles

Spiritual warfare in Africa: Towards understanding the classical model in light of witchcraft practices and the Christian response

The socio-religious panorama of the African religion deserves a close observation of its foundation and function. The perception of the spirit world is dominant in Africa. Similarly, spiritual warfare in the African context is prevalent in the mind and worldview of an African. Spiritual warfare derives its framework from African Traditional Religion (ATR). Hence, understanding ATR’s complexity helps us with the understanding of spiritual warfare. Some essential questions to understand would be what is spiritual warfare from an ATR perspective? How do Africans perceive spiritual warfare? And how do Africans engage in spiritual warfare? What is the place of ATR in spiritual warfare? African Traditional Religion acknowledges the reality and functionality of witchcraft. The perception of the reality of evil forces in Africa attracts all forms of spiritual rites, seeking more extraordinary spiritual powers for defensive and offensive spiritual warfare. This article argues that the effectual Christian response to spiritual warfare with witchcraft practices in Africa is ‘the classical model’ of spiritual warfare. The article provides a synopsis of the models of spiritual warfare, that is, the classical model (CW), world systems model (WSM), ground-level deliverance model (GLDM), and strategic-level deliverance model (SLSW). Subsequently, the article provides the framework for African spiritual warfare and witchcraft practices from traditional and contemporary perspectives. Lastly, the article argues that the Evangelical Christian Response to witchcraft practices is rooted in ‘the classical model’ of spiritual warfare.Contribution: The article contributes to African religiosity within the African context. It reveals the ongoing argument about the continuity and discontinuity of the ATR beliefs and practices in Christianity. The article adds to the evangelical or classical arguments in support of the discontinuity of ATR beliefs and practices in Christianity.

A Systematic Literature Review of the Impact of Complexity Theory on Applied Economics

A systematic literature review is used to explore the relationship between complexity theory and economics. Broad search terms identify an unmanageable large number of hits. A more focused search strategy follows the PRISMA protocol and screens for Economics branded publications, and with key words for different applications of economics occurring in the abstract. This results in a distinct group of 247 publications. One hundred and twenty-two publications are excluded due to inclusion criteria or a lack of relevance. The remaining 113 are analysed for (1) use of complexity theory concepts, (2) types of methodology and methods, and (3) the applications for macro, meso, and micro issues. The publication with the greatest frequency of resulting articles is Complexity, closely followed by Ecological Economics. The highest annual citation ratio for a single article was 33.88. Complexity theory concepts included: non-linearity, system interactions, adaption, and resilience. Many developed a meso application, rather than solely focusing on macro or micro designs. Agent Based Models (ABMs) were popular, as were general systems models following the practice of the late system theorist, Donella Meadows. Applications were interdisciplinary and diverse, including world system models that linked macroeconomics to climate and sustainability, as contrast with micro and meso models trying to explain the complexity of agent-based behaviour on specific organisations or higher-level processes.

WORLD-SYSTEM THEORY OF WALLERSTEIN AND THE FATE OF THE SYSTE

In the article, the E. Wallerstein world-system methodology is supplemented by the analysis of the counter-system factor in world history of the late Х1Х - the beginning of the ХХ1 century. The author dwells on the analysis of the key stages of the counter-system development. This is a) a counter-systemic challenge embodied in the K. Marx theory; b) Lenin's attempt to make a global counter-system revolution; c) the Stalinist technology of constructing and global expanding the counter-system structure; c) self-destruction of the socialist counter-system during Gorbachev's rule; d) the development of counter-system processes at the beginning of the 21st century, in which China begins to play a decisive role.The first(Marxist) stage is characterized by the theoretical development of the alternative world-system concept, new world-system which should replace the existing one. Marx formulated the basic principles of how the existing world-system should be reorganized. He made first steps towards in practical reorganization of world revolutionary process. According to Marx, Western Europe and, above all, Germany (by the end of the 19th century) have the most numerous and politically organized proletariat. So exactly this region should have become the “assemblage point” of a new world system with new social relations, new state and new government.The second (Leninist) stage is associated with an attempt through the "world revolution" completely eliminate the bourgeois world-system . However, this Lenin’s installation was not fully realized, limiting itself only to a breakthrough of the old world system "weak link". Nevertheless, a new configuration arose: a counter-systemic neoplasm appeared and began to develop rapidly. It carried distinct signs of a historical alternative. Appeared situation about which Marx did not write and Lenin could not foreseen.The thirdstage in development of the world-system alternative was the Stalinist USSR with its mobilization technology for an alternative future constructing. Stalin's strategic plan was not in the spontaneous "world revolution", but in the consistent projection of a pre-prepared world-system model (Soviet-style of socialism) on the rest of the world.This Stalinist project clashed with active resistance from the old world-system/ It generated German Nazism as a weapon of a global competitor eliminating. However, in reality, everything turned out differently than expected: before attacking his enemy, Nazism attacked his masters. This made them seek support from the USSR, their strategic adversary. So the situational “anti-Hitler coalition” was established.Ultimately, both competing world-systems did not achieve (each for himself) the full result. The capitalist world-system failed to destroy and assimilate the socialist world-system. The socialist world-system failed to totally crush the capitalist world-system and cover the whole world. The protracted process of "tug of war" between the socialist and capitalist world-systems has begun,After the death of Stalin, the socialist world-system lost its strategic initiative. The Stalinist successors are mired in petty political intrigues in short-sighted and ineffective geopolitical combinations, in imitations of a “victorious movement” towards communism. Having stopped in its external advancement, the socialist world-system began to lose its innovative potential, and, consequently, competitiveness.The logical conclusion to the involution of the post-Stalinist world-system was the fourth (Gorbachev’s) period. The socialist world-system, strategically disoriented, decaying morally and cheaply sold out by its own corrupt elite, became an object of absorption of the victorious capitalist world-system.However, from the beginning of the 21st century, the fifth period of world-system transformations had began. Anti-systemic moods are growing in the now-days world and anti-system processes are developing. The main "markers" of these processes were a) Islamist air attacs on the New York "twin towers", b) Russia's neo-imperial ambitions, and, c) most importantly, the emergence of the Chinese global alternative.The Chinese world-system alternative embodies a new strategy that is adequate to the realities of the 21st century. Its essence lies in the consistent “embedding” of a new world-system cluster into the existing world-system. One of the manifestations of such a new convergent strategy is the “Belt and Path project”. It can turn the Eurasian continent into a grandiose construction site with a huge scientific and technical scope. The article suggests that it is a new wave which is moving from the East. And that may symbolize the end of the 500-year history of the old capitalist world-system and the beginning of a new historical era.

The diffusion of public private partnerships: a world systems analysis

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the diffusion of neoliberal policies from the UK to Australia and New Zealand, and then to the Asia-Pacific region. The analytical framework employed is the world systems model developed by Immanuel Wallerstein. The primary focus of attention is the spread of public-private partnerships (PPPs) modelled on the UK Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Despite the demise of the PFI in its country of origin, and repeated failures in Australia and New Zealand, there is still considerable enthusiasm for the model in Australasia reflected in eagerness to export national expertise through aid and financial links.

Optimal tuning of fractional order Pλ D µA controller using Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm

In this paper an optimal design method for the tuning of the fractional order proportional-integral-derivative-acceleration (PI λ DµA) controller parameters is presented. The fractional order PIλ DµA controller is a conventional proportional-integral-derivative-acceleration (PIDA) controller whose integration action order λ and differentiation action order μ are real rather than integer. The two more parameters λ and μ will provide a better flexibility in controller design for a wide range of dynamical systems. The six parameters of the fractional order PI λ DµA controller are tuned through the optimization of the Integral Time Absolute Error (ITAE) performance criteria using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The fractional order PIλ DµA controller design for two real world system models of a feedback control system have been proposed to illustrate its benefits and effectiveness. The simulation results show that the proposed fractional PIλ DµA controller exhibits dynamical performances improvements compared to the conventional PIDA controller of the feedback control system.

Other voices: authors’ literary-academic presence and publication in the discursive world system

ABSTRACT Academic publication is an international phenomenon, annually involving thousands of scholars, publishers, and institutions worldwide. Despite global authorship, influential publications operate primarily zones of geopolitical and economic power in North America and Western Europe. The primary objective of this paper is to examine the effects of dominant publication practices on work produced by authors outside dominant regions. I also propose a world systems model extending beyond dynamics of material production to also encompass cultural epistemologies, resources, and language as elements of knowledge production. In a critical examination grounded in world systems theory, discourse analysis, and post-colonial studies, I delineate the manner in which practices affect a series of shifts in literary-academic presence – an author’s textual expression of cultural, regional, linguistic, and scholarly orientation. I argue that conventions produced in global centers of intellectual influence lead authors to reposition their literary-academic presences in a series of geographic, rhetorical, and linguistic shifts.

Social media and the nation state: of revolution and collaboration

This article examines the legal infrastructure of social media governance in the politically contested context of contemporary Turkey. It looks at how social media companies (specifically, Twitter and Facebook (FB)) and the nation state (Turkey) have negotiated power in the aftermath of Gezi Uprising in Summer 2013. I argue that while today’s concerns regarding online surveillance might echo the calls for a new world information order of the 1970s, the world system model based on the core–periphery distinction has considerably changed. The useful insights of cultural imperialism fall short of explaining the geopolitical context within which Turkey finds itself in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings and the sub-imperial relations within which she struggles to establish hegemony in the region. Findings suggest that the Turkish state tries hard to establish the legal and material infrastructure for these companies’ operations. FB is more open to cooperation with the nation state, while Twitter has chosen to legally negotiate with the government. There also seems to be major risk for activists given the contradictory articulation of nation state and corporate interests.

THE MODELS OF FURTHER TRAINING IN THE MODERN WORLD

The author sees one of the key problems of Russian society and national economy modernization as the organization of effective lifelong learning. Nowadays, the developed countries implement the program of lifelong learning foundation. Thus, the share of efficient population in lifelong learning in Austria is 89.2%, Denmark 79.9%, Finland 77.3%, Sweden 71% and Switzerland 68%. Although lifelong learning was declared in Russia in 2004 as prior development of education, only 10% of adults participate in further training. One of the key problems that prevent the development of innovative national economy is the growing number of qualified personnel. The article analyzes the world system models of further training as each model has its own socio-economic features. This investigation contributes to the realization of conceptual approaches to the national further training. The author explores the international methodologies and observes the social order in the system of further training as the government is interested in further training of adults and supports it. The paper describes the mechanisms used for employers’ participation in the staff retraining. The author highlights the controlling functions of employers who share the responsibility for the quality of education in further training system with the government.

Polysystems Redux: The Unfinished Business of World Literature

AbstractIn responding to Muhsin al-Musawi’s two-part essay on the Arabic Republic of Letters, this essay proposes a rethinking of the world systems model in global literary studies in terms of a polysystems framework. Rather than trying to fit literary worlds—ancient, premodern, modern—within a single Euro-chronological frame culminating in a world capitalist systems model—where the non-European worlds appear as invariably inferior—it is worthwhile to see them as several polysystems with variable valences within a heterotemporal planetary literary space. This approach offers a comparative reading of the emergence of three language worlds—Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic—and urges us to rethink the totality of the world literary space as a diachronic field that generates overlapping, multiscalar, comparative histories of literary polysystems.

Modernist Voyages: Colonial Women Writers in London, 1890–1945 by Anna Snaith

Modernist Voyages: Colonial Women Writers in London, 1890-1945 by Anna Snaith Cambridge University Press, 2014. 278 pages Anna Snaith's Modernist Voyages: Colonial Women Writers in London, 1890-1945, is a timely study that illuminates colonial women writers' foundational role in literary modernism and the ways in which their representations of London disrupt imperial claims to stability. Through her paradigm of the "voyage in," with its playful reversal of Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out (1915), Snaith focuses on the unprecedented mobility offered by the ship to demonstrate how colonial women writers shaped modernity: "These women were not coming to London solely to experience modernity, they were a constituent part of it" (26). Modernist Voyages is, in short, a story of reversals: a reversal of the traditional route of imperial expansion from London to the colonies, a reversal of London's assumed influence on colonial literary production, and a reversal of critical conversations and practices. Modernist Voyages participates in the "spatial turn" within the new modernist studies and yet distinguishes itself by restoring the issue of gender to current debates within the field. Feminist scholars of modernist literature, particularly Jane Garrity and Anne Fernald, have critiqued Douglas Mao and Rebecca Walkowitz for their dismissal of sexuality and gender as alternate modes of scholarship in "The New Modernist Studies" (2008). Snaith lends her voice to this debate and poignantly summarizes the problem: "It is as though that primarily recuperative project [on modernist women writers in the 1970s-1990s] is now complete, and critical momentum needs to look elsewhere" (10). Feminist recuperation and "critical momentum" are not mutually exclusive, and Snaith's refrain of "both ... and" attempts to address this impasse: these writers were both feminists and anticolonialists, a position that scholars consistently fail to appreciate. Snaith's deep historical research into the lives of these seven women--Olive Schreiner (South Africa), Sarojini Naidu (India), Sara Jeannette Duncan (Canada), Katherine Mansfield (New Zealand),Jean Rhys (Dominica), Una Marson (Jamaica), and Christina Stead (Australia)--raises provocative methodological questions as she gestures toward a more expansive understanding of literary modernism's terrains. Uniting the diverse cast of characters in Modernist Voyages are London and the sea, two settings whose importance raises them almost to the status of character in Snaith's work. In line with Henri Lefebvre's work on the social production of space, Snaith's spatial analyses of London trace different topographies that illuminate how various colonies subtend and haunt the unreal city, signaling London's inherent instability. Instead of reifying London's position as the facilitator of transnational modernism, then, Snaith's concentration on these writers' London years demonstrates how the imperial city fostered both their feminism and anti-imperialism, thus contributing to the destabilization of empire's ideology. London also epitomizes the criteria by which Snaith designates these writers as "modernist": "The combined focus on urbanism, capitalism and colonialism in their work constitutes a thoroughgoing consideration of the forms of modernity and its transnational manifestations" (8). In terms of recuperative praxis, finally, the focus on London introduces several writers into the broader category of transnational modernism. For instance, until now Sara Jeannette Duncan and Una Marson have primarily been discussed in the context of either Canadian or Jamaican literature, subordinating each writer's cosmopolitanism to her national origins. Snaith's remapping of London is compelling, but her emphasis on the sea as a facilitator of a distinctly feminist transnational modernism proves her most significant accomplishment. Employing Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia from "Of Other Spaces" (1984), she argues that the ship represents a place moving through a hegemonic space and creating a space of resistance. …

Immanuel Wallerstein and the Problem of the World: System, Scale, Culture.

Immanuel Wallerstein and the Problem of the World: System, Scale, Culture.

Globalization standards: A comparison of U.S. and non-U.S. social studies curricula

As political and economic systems of the world become increasingly globalized, education systems in developed nations have established standardized curriculum. Meanwhile, opposing interpretations of globalization, neoliberalism and progressivism, have inspired the growth of different paradigmatic models for global education. Grounded in neoliberalism, the human capital model views education as a means for preparing a skilled workforce; derived from progressivism, the world systems model focuses on educating individuals for global citizenship and civic participation. The purpose of this document analysis is two-fold: (1) to examine the social studies content standards of the U.S. and other developed countries to determine how globalization is presented in state-mandated curricula, and (2) to evaluate whether the depiction of globalization in each set of standards reflects a human capital or world systems model. Our findings indicate that U.S. state content standards heavily emphasize the economics of globalization; non-U.S. standards present a more holistic picture of globalization. Consequently, U.S. standards are more aligned with a human capital model of education whereas non-U.S. standards reflect a world systems interpretation. These findings suggest that students in the U.S. are prepared differently than their counterparts in other developed countries, which has implications for international relations.

A Transdisciplinary World Model

The complexities and non‐linearities of the world system are increasing the mismatch between the way we think about the world and the actual behaviour of the world. In systems science, this is summarized by expressions like unintended consequences, counter‐intuitive outcomes, emergent properties, synchronous failures and unpredictable knock‐on effects. This whole field has been summed up as the global problematique. Increasing the match between our espoused world models and the behaviour of the real world in policies, strategies and decisions requires a major shift to holistic transdisciplinary approaches.This paper will describe the innovation and pilot testing of a transdisciplinary approach to stimulating systemic interconnected thinking about complex issues from the global level (for example climate change) to the local level (for example increasing resilience in a village community). The approach is based on a world system model that is designed to promote holistic and transdisciplinary conversations across 12 key dimensions of sustainable communities. The model serves several purposes ranging from a ‘World Game’ that groups of people can play to strategic workshops that challenge decision making beyond conventional scenario planning methods, to ways of mapping global impacts of climate change.The paper will describe some of the main foundations from systems thinking that underpin the model. These include multi‐factor modelling, variety engineering, feedback coupling and non‐linear behaviour. Some indications of application are also given. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

NEGOTIATION AND INCORPORATION ON THE MARGINS OF WORLD-SYSTEMS:EXAMPLES FROM CYPRUS AND NORTH AMERICA

As originally formulated, the world-systems model postulated a relationship in which core states exploited peripheries for raw materials and made the latter into dependent satellites. This approach views indigenous people in peripheries as passive recipients at the mercy of political and economic forces beyond their control. While in many cases the impetus for change was from cores to peripheries, there were certainly instances in which the margins actively (and occasionally successfully) resisted incorporation. At times, they also had the ability to select the precise form of their incorporation. While in many cases this did not alter the consequences for indigenous people, there were occasions when natives not only reacted successfully, but also outlined the terms of the encounter. This is a process that I call negotiated peripherality. Underlying this perspective is a biological analogy: just as biological populations experience the greatest change at the borders of their territories where the effects of gene flow are felt first and most dramatically, so too do cultural changes occur at an accelerated rate in contact zones. This paper explores the nature of negotiated change through two case studies. The archaeological example examines how ancient inhabitants of Cyprus selectively adopted features from the Near Eastern and Greek cultures for whose worldsystems the island served as a marginal periphery. The second example is anethnohistoric study of how Native Americans managed the terms of their involvement in the fur trade with Europeans. Both cases demonstrate the active role of peripheral people as decision-makers.

International systems in world history: remaking the study of international relations

This book tells the story of humankind's evolution from a scattering of hunter-gatherer bands to today's integrated global international political economy. Seeking to emulate and challenge the cross-disciplinary influence of the world systems model, the book recasts the study of international relations into a macro-historical perspective, shows how its core concepts work across time, and sets out a new theoretical agenda and a new intellectual role for the discipline.

THE SOUTHERN AEGEAN SYSTEM

Although world-systems theory was originally formulated with our modern economic system in mind (Wallerstein 1974), it was not long before archaeologists began to apply it to ancient societies. Archaeologists and world-system theorists alike both argued that Wallerstein had disregarded evidence of interconnected, hierarchical systems in prehistoric times (Schneider 1977; Chase-Dunn & Hall 1991, 1997; Kardulias 1999a). Pailes and Whitecotton (1979) were among the first to modify world-systems theory for use in pre-capitalist settings. Since then many archaeologists have looked at data and regions with a world-systems perspective in mind (e.g. Champion 1989; Bilde et al. 1993; Rowlands & Larsen 1987; Kardulias 1999a). Some have attempted to map Wallerstein's theory directly onto prehistory (Kohl 1979; Whitecotton & Pailes 1986; Ekholm & Friedman 1982). Others have found the world systems model heuristically useful but lacking the analytical power needed for their prehistoric cases (Blanton et al. 1981; Upham 1982; Plog 1983; Alcock 1993). Building on the assumption that ancient societies were not qualitatively, but only quantitatively, different from modern capitalist ones (Schneider 1977; Sherratt & Sherratt 1991), this study applies world systems theory to the Southern Aegean during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (ca. 2000-1550 BC).

Spatial Economy and Integrative Labor in Turkey: An Ecological, Modernization, and World-System Investigation

Studies testing theories of urban primacy and foreign penetration in developing nations largely support the premise that these phenomena both prevail and negatively impact economic growth in developing nations. This paper, however, presents results of a study of Turkey as an exception to patterns reflective of the world-system model and dependency theory found in ideal-typic developing nations. Theoretically, 1 or 2 major urban centers may distort and fragment the spatial economy of a developing nation. These cities are able to politically and economically manipulate/regulate national policy in their self-interest, and leave nonprimate regions as fragmented local markets. As such, these cities impede the development of an integrated spatial economy. From the birth of the Turkish nation-state in 1923, however, a strong central government has structured economic and political patterns to direct national control away from Istanbul-centric interest groups. Moreover, little support exists for the presence of foreign economic domination. The paper then examines to what extent the Turkish spatial economy has become less distorted and fragmented. It subjects 1955-80 data to modernization theory and human ecology, and finds no support for ecological arguments linking integrative activity to system size or contact technology. Study results confirm the modernization argument about spatial economy, with more modernized provinces showing proportionately higher levels of integrative activity. Finding implications are briefly discussed.

Socioeconomic Dimensions of Reconquista and Jihad in Morocco: Portuguese Dukkala and the Sa ʿdid sus 1450–1557

Among the results of recent scholarly interest in the “World-Systems” perspective has been a revival of the debate concerning the origins of capitalism and the modern world economy. Despite the fact that the World-Systems approach at times seems as Eurocentric as some of the theories it purports to oppose, since the origins and “core” developments of both mercantilism and capitalism are considered to have been uniquely rooted in the socioeconomic experience of early modern Europe, it nonetheless offers historians the promise of studying social structural and economic changes in non-Western societies without recourse to the value judgments and prejudices implicit in models of development that employ such terms as “traditional society,” “underdevelopment,” or “modernization.” By demonstrating that market and productive forces external to a particular regional economy and social system can intrude upon that system, dominate it, and eventually stimulate its transformation, thus creating wider changes in intrasocietal social relations, the World-Systems model has the potential of offering a conceptual point of departure of great value to students of social change in regions other than Europe during the early modern era.

Towards a global critical justice problematic

This paper argues that a global perspective is demanded by neo-Marxist methodological considerations, pointing out that traditional comparative criminology has been seriously flawed in its assumptions and preconceptions. A critical comparative criminology must be based on a world system and/or dependency model, coupled with human rights concerns. The crucial concerns of critical criminology are re-identified within a problematic of the concepts: “reproduction”, “production”, “the state”, and “transformation”. Their relevance to a comparative criminology is underscored, by way of critiquing north/western (including Canadian) critical criminology. The paper ends by drawing out some of the implications of this approach for justice theory and research in Canada.

RUSSIAN SIBERIA: AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH

The Russian conquest of Siberia was one of the great feats of history, bringing almost one-tenth of the landmass of the world under the control of the Russian Empire. This paper proposes a framework for examining the role of Siberia in the development of the Russian state and the evolution of the world economy from the sixteenth to early twentieth century. This study supports the contention that, rather than representing an interesting aside in the annals of European imperialism, Russian colonization of Siberia was not only affected by European colonialism and the European-based capitalist world economy, but, in fact, was part of it Moreover, the conquest and consolidation of Siberia is viewed as a “series of changing geographies,” over space and time, as it was affected by and in turn affected the rise of Russian nationalism and the development of European capitalism. The three-part framework for analysis suggested in this study employs (1) a world-systems model, (2) a multi-disciplinary approach, and (3...