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O artigo aponta lições da teoria do sistema mundo sobre alguns aspectos da crise ensejada pela pandemia de covid-19. Com base em material jornalístico, relatórios de organismos internacionais, dados estatísticos do contexto de 2020 e realizando uma análise bibliográfica da referida constelação teórica, propõem-se três ensinamentos sobre a experiência global de um ano de pandemia. Primeiro, a pandemia deve ser entendida como um fenômeno endógeno à dinâmica do sistema-mundo capitalista. Segundo, a desigualdade global deve ser um quadro de referência indispensável para o exame das diferentes experiências engendradas pela pandemia. Finalmente, a disputa por hegemonia organiza alguns dos principais contenciosos da conjuntura, tais como a rivalidade em torno da adoção de distintas vacinas. Palavras-chave: teoria do sistema mundo; Covid-19; história; epidemias. Abstract The article indicates lessons from the world system theory on some aspects of the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic. Based on coverage from newspapers, reports from international organizations, statistical data from 2020 and carrying out a bibliographic analysis of the theoretical framework, I advance three lessons on the global experience of a year of pandemic. First, the pandemic must be understood as an endogenous phenomenon to the dynamics of the capitalist world system. Second, global inequality must be an essential frame of reference for examining the different experiences engendered by the pandemic. Finally, the dispute for hegemony organizes some of the main disputes during the crisis, such as the rivalry over the adoption of different vaccines. Keywords: world system theory; Covid-19; history; epidemics. Resumen El artículo señala lecciones de la teoría del sistema mundo sobre aspectos de la crisis causada por la pandemia del covid-19. Con base en material periodístico, informes de organismos internacionales, datos estadísticos del contexto del 2020 y un análisis bibliográfico de la constelación teórica antes mencionada, se proponen tres lecciones sobre la experiencia global de un año de pandemia. Primero, la pandemia debe entenderse como un fenómeno endógeno a la dinámica del sistema mundo capitalista. En segundo lugar, la desigualdad global debe ser un marco de referencia indispensable para examinar las diferentes experiencias engendradas por la pandemia. Finalmente, la disputa por la hegemonía organiza algunos de los principales litigios de la coyuntura, como la rivalidad por la adopción de distintas vacunas. Palabras clave: teoría del sistema-mundo; Covid-19; historia; epidemias.

This work analyzes the development in World-System Theory as produced by the flow of appropriation of global surplus value through the international division of labor, creating the divisions between center, semiperiphery and periphery in the capitalist world-economy. It thus aims to explore how the global appropriation of surplus value in the capitalist world-economy produces variations in the level of development of its different regions. To this end, it contextualizes and conceptualizes its elements on its spatial and temporal dimensions. It defines surplus value and the form of its global accumulation, and in this sense explores the succession of capitalist hegemonies, in their dialectical relationship with the system's progress, enabling the approach to the international division of labor, and how the monopoly over finance and technologies allows the center of the system to consolidate a structure that ensures the transfer of capital and surplus value from the other regions to it. It follows that the development of a particular country or region in the capitalist world-economy depends on its ability to accumulate surplus value globally. Additionally, it is observed that the conditions imposed by the system structure prevent initiatives of autonomous development by its parts, being necessary to break with them for such a project to be possible, O presente trabalho analisa a noção de desenvolvimento na Teoria do Sistema-Mundo como produzido pelo fluxo de apropriação de mais-valia global, via da divisão internacional do trabalho, fundamentando as divisões entre centro, semiperiferia e periferia na economia-mundo capitalista. Objetiva, assim, explorar como a apropriação em nível global de mais-valia na economia-mundo capitalista produz variações no nível de desenvolvimento das suas diferentes regiões. Para tanto, contextualiza-se e conceitua-se seus elementos nas dimensões espaciais e temporais. Define-se mais-valia e a forma de sua acumulação global, e nesse sentido explora-se a sucessão de hegemonias capitalistas, em sua relação dialética com o andamento do sistema, permitindo abordar a divisão internacional do trabalho, e como o monopólio sobre finanças e tecnologias permite ao centro do sistema consolidar uma estrutura que assegure a transferência de capitais e mais-valia das outras regiões a este. Conclui-se, assim, que o desenvolvimento de determinado país ou região na economia-mundo capitalista depende de sua capacidade de acumulação de mais-valia em nível global. Adicionalmente, observa-se que as condições impostas pela estrutura do sistema impedem iniciativas de desenvolvimento autônomo em seus marcos, sendo necessário com elas romper para que um projeto do tipo seja possível. Essa perspectiva constitui a avaliação dos processos revolucionários socialistas como as experiências históricas que foram capazes de alterar a correlação de forças no sistema mundial contemporâneo.

Since 1990 there has been remarkable growth and diversification of worldwide capacity and output in science, and a distinctive global science system has emerged, primarily grounded in research univ...

As massification of higher education developed, employment challenges in changing labour markets aroused the attention of scholars globally. An interdisciplinary approach called world-system theory...

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 tra...

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 inte...

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.

Karl Polanyi’s scholarship is interpreted in radically different ways. The “hard” reading of Polanyi sees him as a radical socialist; the “soft” reading presents him as a theorist of mixed economy. This article sides with the soft interpretation. It uses Polanyi’s biography to explain his theoretical “elusiveness,” presents a novel interpretation of his three types of economic integration, claiming all economies are “mixed.” While it acknowledges Polanyi as one of the major sources of world system theory, it claims that Polanyi saw not only the dangers, but also the necessity and positive consequences of globalization. Finally, it shows that, in spite of Polanyi’s life-long commitment to the political left, his scholarly work did not offer an apology of socialism. Instead this article uses Polanyi’s theory of economic integration to build a critical political economy of state socialism.

In this paper, we analyze the educational paths and networks of core staff members (n = 3325) of the world’s top 100 sociology departments. Results show that a significant overrepresentation of central countries and considerable gender bias can be found throughout sociology departments with strong male dominance in high positions. By using an improved word-systemic model for the interpretation of our data, we were able to categorize the main agents and patients in the world-system of global elite sociology, and we could also describe those centripetal and centrifugal forces that absorb and reeducate peripheral talent while excluding those without Western reeducation.

The interest of students from various countries to study overseas have been increasing lately, resulting in a global trend. Their reasons could be different from one another. This study analysed student migration using different models and theories. Through qualitative research, using literary and ethnographic analysis along with transnational perspectives, this project analyzed the reasons behind student’s migration. The finding indicates that different theories and approaches show different reasons why the students migrate. Push-pull factor theory shows that factors from the home country and the host country can count as reasons for why students study abroad. World system theory shows how economically, politically, and socially powerful countries play an important role in attracting international students. The demand and supply models are related to the middle class who are eager to gain cultural and social capital through studying abroad. Finally, the global space approach has three poles to look at international student flows; one of which is the Pacific pole where English-speaking countries become popular destinations particularly among international students from Asian countries. This article suggests that if host countries want to market their education comprehensively, the host countries should give more space and easy access for the home countries of the outflows of student migration.

This article presents the special status of Poland, namely as a country that both sends out and takes in large numbers of migrant workers. Drawing on the world systems theory, the role attributed to Poland is that of semi-periphery, which means a specific kind of suspension between the status of an immigration centre, resembling western Europe, and the status of a migration periphery, such as the one constituted by the eastern part of the continent. Poland continues to be viewed as peripheral by its own citizens who decide to emigrate and, at the same time, becomes an immigration sub-centre for migrants coming from less-developed countries. In this article, the distinctive features of the special position of Poland are discussed. The conclusions drawn are supported by empirical evidence, including data on migration flows and interviews both with Poles working abroad and foreigners employed in Poland.

Background/objectives: To examine the factors which can influence the presence of world countries in news tweets of international news agencies. Methodology: The study draws upon the World Systems Theory, which categorizes the world into Core, Semi-Periphery, and Periphery with respect to economic, political, and communication relationships. We attempt to study and compare the coverage of Core, Periphery, and Semi-Periphery countries in tweets of international news agencies. Scholars argue that certain attributes of a country make that country more newsworthy for international news agencies and also these factors contribute significantly in making these countries more prominent on the digital landscape of twitter. We used the method of content analysis of purposively selected tweets of four international news agencies; AFP, AP, Reuters, and Xinhua about the 15 sample countries, including Pakistan, for the period of 7 year from 2010– 2016. Findings: We found that there are significant differences in the coverage of world countries in tweets of international news agencies. Core and Semi-Periphery countries are given more coverage in international news tweets. Similarly, Core and SemiPeriphery countries are more retweeted and liked by the followers of international news agencies. Finally, we found that GDP is not the sole determinant of countries portrayal and their sharing on Twitter by the international news agencies and their followers. Novelty/ improvements: If a country, including Pakistan, wants to increase its sharing on Twitter, the country should develop its information sector and internet penetration should be accelerated. Keywords: International News Flow, World System Theory, News Tweets, News Determinants, Country Attributes.

Assuming the ‘neoliberalisation’ of academic life to be axiomatic, this article delves into the operations of its political economy with the aim of expanding critical vocabularies, analytical categories and research trajectories. In particular, it indicates where an immanent critique of neoliberal academia can be begun. While the capitalist transformations of academic life are justified by ideological claims eulogising ‘production’, ‘competition’ and ‘marketisation’, the neoliberal regime has proven decidedly ineffective at fulfilling these claims. An effective critique of neoliberal reform must, therefore, explore and interrogate the degree to which the practical effects of neoliberal reform diverge from its underpinning theoretical claims, and why this might be so. The principal question here pertains to rent and rent-seeking behaviour in the academic space, as a mode of activity inconsistent with the legitimating tenets of capitalist ideology. To the extent that rent-seeking activities can be identified in neoliberal academia – in distinction to ‘value-producing’ labour or ‘profit-making’ entrepreneurialism – a more potent critique of neoliberal reform will be forthcoming and an immanent critique of the neoliberal regime of capitalist accumulation in the academic space put into motion. By positioning the neoliberal regime within a broader shift towards accumulation by ‘appropriation’ in the world-system, a strategic reason can be identified for the proliferation of rent-seeking behaviours in academic life and beyond. The article argues that these rent-seeking behaviours have materialised in a range of gatekeeping techniques across the academic space, with which many inhabitants of that space have become complicit, resulting in the increasing dispossession of surplus through the practice of tolling realised in those techniques. The article develops a Marxian critique with additional insights from world-system theory, critical social theory and critical geography. Examples of gatekeeping technique considered throughout the article include master degree programmes, journal publication structures, conference fees and Graduate Record Examinations.

In the last few years, the language of globalism and borders has been pervasive in the narratives of politics and social commentary. Despite the flurry of opinions, debates, and claims of “fake news,” those who are practitioners in theological education broadly speaking, and theological librarianship, specifically, recognize the deep and profound reality of global education, and the impact that it has on both domestic students and the international representation of students and faculty as one community of learners, practitioners, and seekers. In this paper, we will look at how the language of globalism has been expressed both in popular terms and theological terms; how the evocation of borders and boundaries is not a new idea, but a dated trope reused throughout history for steering narrative claims; and how World-Systems theory enables a broader understanding of theological education and librarianship.

‘Globalization’, certainly, has transformed the globe massively in the last few centuries. Globalization has multiple dimensions and issues to discuss all over the world. Now, the world is under the united umbrella having diversified notions and apparitions. It has been believed that socio-economic, political, cultural, technological, and military subjects and matters are related to globalization intimately. The primary objective of this research is to find out the driving force of globalization. This study has been conducted based on the content analysis of the globalization. The analytical pattern of writing has been incorporated in this paper and very smoothly described all the possible driving forces of globalization. The study has found that many factors work for the procedures of globalizing as well as de-globalizing in world societies those are considered as the driving force of globalization. Therefore, this study will be cooperative for the researchers, teachers, and students of social sciences especially, sociology, political science, International Relations, etc. for the robust understanding of globalization.

This paper explores how infrastructural ideologies function as tools in geopolitical struggles for dependence and independence of world powers. Meese Frith and Wilken (2020) suggest that controversies around 5G stem from infrastructural anxieties best examined in the framework of geopolitics. We build on this work by analyzing the emerging infrastructural imaginary of 5G in light of the changing global division of labor. Sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff and Kim 2015) refer to the vision of technologies themselves, while ideologies refer to the totality of social relations, translating the objective reality of material conditions to subjective lived experience (Bory 2020). The Western imaginaries around 5G infrastructures reflect, deflect, translate and sublimate the infrastructural anxieties tied to the development and deployment of new network paradigms. Their controversial nature, contradictory content, and fragmented presentation is a necessary part of living through the trauma of lost historical agency on the part of Western superpowers. We engaged in code ethnography (Rosa 2019) of GSM, internet, and 5G technologies, as well as participant observation in the main standard-development organizations of the internet and 5G, and semi-structured interviews with equipment vendors and network operators. Our methodological assumption, taken from World Systems Theory (Wallerstein and Wallerstein 2004), is that the character and content of imaginaries and their underpinning ideologies creatively reflect the position of actors in the global division of labor. This paper contributes to the understanding of the role of infrastructures in geopolitical power tussles and straddles the fields of science and technology studies and international relations.

The current expansion of English language publishing by scholars from China is supported by national and university policies, including monetary and career incentives to publish in English. These incentives, which extend to work in the humanities and social sciences (HSS, the focus of this paper) as well as the sciences and technologies, are situated in evolving strategies of internationalization. China has moved from an internationalization strategy simply based on learning from the West, to a ‘going out’ strategy designed to both lift domestic research capacity and advance China’s influence in the world. However, the ‘going out’ strategy nonetheless embodies ambiguities and dilemmas. The world of academic knowledge is not a level playing field but more closely approximates the centre–periphery dynamic described in world systems theory. This study explores the influence of publication incentives in the context of a centre–periphery world. It draws on analysis of 172 institutional incentive documents and interviews with 75 HSS academics, university senior administrators, and journal editors. The study identifies practices within China’s HSS that reproduce centre–periphery relationships. By focusing on international publications, Chinese universities run the risk of downplaying Chinese-language publications and adopting standards and norms from global centres to assess domestic knowledge production. These could result in creating knowledge from and about China primarily in Western terms without adding a distinctive Chinese strand to the global conversation. Nonetheless, the study also identifies alternative dynamics that challenge the existing power hierarchies in global HSS, highlighting indigenous knowledge and the need to pluralize global knowledge production.

In pre-World War II Hungary the countryside was dominated by large estates. Estates built manors (puszta or major) at the centre of their agricultural territory, usually on the outskirts of neighbouring communities. After World War II, state farms and co-operatives became stakeholders in most of the manors. These companies were privatised or abolished after 1990, resulting in high unemployment rates on the local scale. These processes have already been studied by a number of scholars; what this paper aims to do is revisit the available results in light of two concepts: the precariat and rural restructuring. My argument is that these concepts might add new viewpoints to the interpretation of processes on the local scale by placing them in national and international contexts. The precariat seems to be present throughout the whole twentieth century in these settlements, with working and living conditions dependent on the stakeholders. If we approach the concept from the viewpoint of world systems theory, it can be seen that both the large estates before WWII and the state socialist agricultural companies after were strictly connected to international markets, which made life even more precarious in manors. Rural restructuring can be defined as the transformation of three spheres: the state, the economic system, and civil society. Looking at these processes throughout the twentieth century, it is evident that manors underwent restructuring in the second half of the state socialist period, with a more radical transformation beginning in the 1990s.

With half the world now online, a handful of websites dominate globally. Yet little is known about the homogeneity or geographical distinctness of global web use patterns. Focusing beyond popular sites, we inquired into how and why countries are similar in their web use patterns, developing a framework drawing on the literatures on media globalization, as well as Internet geographies. To compute similarities in web use between countries, we utilized an algorithm that considered both ranking positions and overlap counts on ranked lists of the 100 most popular websites for 174 countries, totaling 6,252 unique websites. Findings from a network analysis and from regressions suggest that countries with similar languages and shared borders, as well as those vastly different in their Internet market sizes, tend to have similar web use patterns. Neither are countries particularly similar to the US in web use nor does the prevalence of English speakers have an influence.

Humans’ aspirations for development have unsustainably placed momentous pressure on the Earth. Peripheral Africa remains the most susceptible region to climate change and its impacts. By considering externality and world-systems theories, this article uses the Delphi external experts (DEE) approach to weigh the perceptions of global (and mostly core) experts regarding climate change response/sustainability. The socio-econo-technological development factors that contribute to Africa’s climate change issues are evaluated. The article concludes that despite the high rankings of the factors related to emissions’ propensity, such as energy and transportation, governance and socio-cultural preferences are the two factors that are statistically significant to climate change and vulnerability to it. The global governance structure fostered by the core countries facilitates unequal exchanges. Notwithstanding, responsive governance structures are advised for the periphery. Governance is analogous to a thermostat that can be used to regulate other development factors, in particular to entrench socio-cultural preferences that may have a desirable future impact on the climate.

Anthropogenic activities are impacting marine systems, and the future sustainability of many global fisheries are in serious question. Our analysis draws on prior research in environmental sociology and food systems to better understand the association between economic development and the ecological footprint of fisheries. We provide a series of models to make comparisons across all nations, distinguishing between less-affluent nations and affluent nations over a 50-year period. We focus our analysis on the fisheries footprint of less-affluent nations to further explore how the effect of economic development varies across levels of national economic prosperity, region, and time period. The results of the study indicate that, over time, economic development is increasingly driving the fisheries footprint in less-affluent nations. Because this effect does not occur in affluent nations, we posit that less-affluent nations suffer the ecologically deleterious consequences of economic development more acutely. Furthermore, by utilizing post-estimation techniques for easier comparisons, our findings suggest that the magnitude of economic development’s effect on fisheries is strongest in more recent decades. Our findings also reveal that the effect of economic development is modified by region, as it has a stronger effect on fisheries footprint for less-affluent nations in Central and South America, but weaker in the Middle East and Africa. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for marine sustainability and the challenges posed by an environmentally intensive world capitalist food system.

In an historical materialist analysis, the article challenges the dominant understanding of global academic rankings as ‘inevitable’ and ‘here to stay’. Instead, rankings are treated as his...

This article attempts to analyze the main impacts of climate change on public health starting with global and going through local by analyzing coastal communities in the area of influence of Sundarbans, located in southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. In dealing with paramount health problems caused by climate change, we discuss what are the major challenges faced by different actors. From the opinion of globalization and world system theory it will be argued that developing countries are facing major defiance in terms of mitigation and adaptation, including human health problems. Those living in developing world, as the case of Bangladesh, responsible for the lowest contributions to climate change, are already suffering the most. This paper is based on bibliographical and statistical review, and uses primary data collected from field and secondary from publications, books, scientific journals, international reports. In this paper we also focused that poor countries shall not be liable for the damages caused by carbon emissions already trapped into atmosphere, a historic problem caused by developed world, so we expect that multi-governance platforms should make mutual efforts to promote health in partnership with local institutions in order to solve the climatic crisis. Keywords: Climate change, CO2 emissions, Human health, Globalization, Mitigation & adaptation, Bangladesh

O trabalho tem como objetivo fazer uma análise da realidade venezuelana sob o governo de Nicolás Maduro e sua capacidade de sobrevivência política frente aos inúmeros problemas que a Venezuela atualmente enfrenta, a saber: caos econômico, político e social. Após o período de atuação antissistêmica sob o governo Chávez, em meio a um contexto regional favorável, com governos ideologicamente próximos em diversos países da América Latina e, ao mesmo tempo, com um boom petrolero que permitiu o aumento da receita venezuelana, o país se defronta com um cenário totalmente adverso. No entanto, apesar de toda esta situação, o governo Maduro vem conseguindo manter o controle do país a despeito da grave crise econômica, de suaguinada autoritária e de uma oposição que, cada vez mais, parece apostar em saídas insurrecionais com o fim de aprofundar o isolamento do país. Convertido em uma questão regional, o conflito observado na Venezuela reflete a divisão que atualmente fratura toda a América Latina. Abstract: This work´s objective is to make an analysis of the Venezuelan reality under Nicolás Maduro´s administration and his capacity of political survival in defiance of numerous problems currently faced by Venezuela, namely: the economic, political and social chaos. After the period of antisystemic performance under Chávez´s administration, in a favorable regional context, with ideologically close governments in several Latin American countries and, at the same time, with the petroleum boom that allowed Venezuelan income to increase, the country confronts a totally adverse scenario. However, despite this situation, Maduro´s administration has been able to maintain control of the country over the severe economic crisis, its authoritarian´s turn and the opposition, that increasingly seems to bet on insurrectional exits in order to deepen the country´s isolation. Converted into a regional issue, the conflict observed in Venezuela reflects the division that currently fractures the whole Latin America. Key-words: Venezuela; Antisystemic movements; World-System Theory; Political crisis. Recebido em: agosto/2018.Aprovado em: abril/2019.

Recently a debate re-emerged between Adel Samara and Samir Amin on the state role in delinking – subjecting a social formation’s relationships to the world-system to a domestic, popular law...

This study looks at news coverage of terrorist attacks on Twitter over a five-year period. It examines Twitter accounts of three US and three UK elite newspapers. This study found that terrorist attacks in core countries received more attention than attacks in non-core countries. Also, this study revealed that just three terrorist attacks: January and November 2015 Paris attacks and Brussels 2016 bombings, accounted for nearly a half of the overall US and UK tweets examined in this study.

This paper explores the structural connectedness and associations of international student mobility and scholarly communication on a global scale. First, it examines the exchange of international students. Next, it investigates network structures of international student mobility and scholarly communication on two social media platforms, Twitter and Mendeley. It also determines which social media platform predicts more inter-country student exchange networks than the other and their statistical relationship. Data are obtained from Unesco for student mobility networks and Altmetric.com for scholarly communication on social media. Scholarly communication activities are measured by two factors: Mendeley-based research citations and Twitter-mediated research mentions. As a result, China and the USA exchanged most international students. The network structures of student mobility and online scholarly communication followed the ideas of World System Theory that describes core, periphery, and semi-periphery areas. The network analyses showed that the USA hosted the largest number of overseas students and was positioned at the center of student mobility and scholarly communication on Mendeley. The UK was in the central position on Twitter. Furthermore, research citations on Mendeley had a higher statistical correlation with international student mobility than research mentions on Twitter had. More importantly, a greater number of research citations on Mendeley predicted an increase in student mobility, and the Twitter network showed the highest density and shortest geodesic distance. The findings of this research may suggest that social media can be used effectively to spread academic ideas in the real and online worlds while considering the features of social media and related policies in different countries. Besides, worldwide intellectual mobility may enhance decentralization and co-development of the global academic society, which would be better assisted by proper utilization of social media.