Geography 352

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• Geography 352
• Urbanization in the Global South
• Jim Glassman
• Lecture 8, January 29

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World systems theory as a form of neo-Marxism

• Politics and economics inseparable (view shared
  by all Marxists)
• Uneven development is rule (view shared by all
  Marxists)
• Class is important, but spatial expression of
  class structures is crucial position of class
  struggles in world system mediates their
  significance and effects (view especially
  developed by neo-Marxists)

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Source Francois Bourguignon and Christian
Morrisson, Inequality Among World Citizens
1820-1992, American Economic Review 92, 4
(September) 727-744.
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Source Francois Bourguignon and Christian
Morrisson, Inequality Among World Citizens
1820-1992, American Economic Review 92, 4
(September) 727-744.
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The historical context of world systems theory

• Immanuel Wallerstein
• Influence by dependency theory
• Historical studies of development in Africa, then
  in Europe-centered world system
• The upheavals of 1968

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1968 Upheavals against anti-systemic movements
in power

• First World social democratic states
• US civil rights, counter-culture, Vietnam War
• France protests against French state
• Second World revolutionary states
• Czechoslovakia USSR crushes uprising
• China ongoing Cultural Revolution
• Third World nationalist states
• Mexico Olympics protests and massacre
• China ongoing Cultural Revolution

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Transformations in the world system

• Increased TNC activity to counter declining
  profits (1960s-70s)
• Breakdown of Bretton-Woods system (1970s)
• Rise of East Asian NICs (1970s)

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Major world systems arguments

• World system comprised of global economy,
  territorial states
• World system hierarchical but positions of
  individual states within system are not static
• World system has tripartite structure

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World system comprised of global economy,
territorial states

• Global commodity chains
• Capitalism inherently global, since 1492
• Appropriate unit of analysis is world system
• Territorial states
• Political control exercised by territorial states
• Advantages to capitalists (playing off states)
• Limits for anti-systemic movements in power
• Nationalism as ideological (mis)representation of
  power

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World system hierarchical but... state positions
not static

• Core-periphery structure and dependency
• Stagnationist thesis incorrect
• Movement up and down hierarchy by individual
  states is possible
• Loosely-structured zero-sum game fallacy of
  composition
• Mobility helps maintain system as a whole
• Trajectories of states are determined by world
  system not merely by states themselves

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Tripartite structure

• Core areas
• Preponderance of higher value, higher technology
  production activities
• Preponderance of higher wage jobs
• Peripheral areas
• Preponderance of lower value, lower technology
  production activities
• Preponderance of lower wage jobs
• Semi-peripheral areas
• Mix of core and peripheral activities
• Ideologically important buffer zone

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World systems approaches to urbanization in the
Global South

• General structure of world system enables and
  constrains urbanization process
• Importance of geographical-historical legacies
• Primacy common outside core but not prevalent
  everywhere (e.g., Nigeria)
• Specific local situations cannot be deduced from
  position in world system or region
• E.g., different semi-peripheral cases (Nigeria
  vs. South Korea)
• E.g., different cases in same region (Thailand,
  South Korea)

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Social basis of Marxism and neo-Marxism today

• Post-revolutionary, reformist politics
• Constituents for Marxist reformism
• Labor organizations social democratic parties
• Progressive actors within the state
• Constituents for neo-Marxist reformism
• Progressive actors in the Global South?
• Anti-corporate globalization activists?