Table Of ContentGlobal Inequalities in World- Systems
Perspective
During its 500- year history, the modern world- system has seen several shifts in hegemony.
Yet, since the decline of the U.S. in the 1970s, no single core power has attained a hegemonic
position in an increasingly polarized world. As income inequalities have become more pro-
nounced in core countries, especially in the U.S. and the U.K., global inequalities emerged as
a ‘new’ topic of social scientific scholarship, ignoring the constant move toward polarization
that has been characteristic of the entire modern world-s ystem. At the same time, the rise of
new states (most notably, the BRICS) and the relative economic growth of particular regions
(especially East Asia) have prompted speculations about the next hegemon that largely disre-
gard both the longue durée of hegemonic shifts and the constraints that regional differentia-
tions place on the concentration of capital and geopolitical power in one location. Authors
in this book place the issue of rising inequalities at the center of their analyses. They explore
the concept and reality of semiperipheries in the twenty- first century world- system, the role
of the state and of transnational migration in current patterns of global stratification, types
of catching- up development and new spatial configurations of inequality in Europe’s Eastern
periphery as well as the prospects for the Global Left in the new systemic order. The book
links novel theoretical debates on the rise of global inequalities to methodologically innova-
tive approaches to the urgent task of addressing them.
Manuela Boatcă is professor of sociology and head of the School of the Global Studies
Programme at the Albert- Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany. Her work involves
world- systems analysis, postcolonial and decolonial perspectives, gender in modernity/
coloniality and the geopolitics of knowledge production in Eastern Europe and Latin
America. She is author of Global Inequalities beyond Occidentalism (Routledge 2016) and
co- editor (with Vilna Bashi Treitler) of ‘Dynamics of Inequalities in a Global Perspective’,
Current Sociology monograph issue 64 (2), March 2016.
Andrea Komlosy is professor at the Institute for Economic and Social History, Univer-
sity of Vienna, Austria, where she is coordinating the Global History and Global Studies
programs. She has published on labor, migration, borders and uneven development on a
regional, a European and a global scale, recently: ‘Centers and Peripheries revisited’, Review
Fernand Braudel Center Special Issue XXXVI, 3–4 (2013), ed. by Andrea Komlosy and
Klemens Kaps; Work: The Last 1000 Years (Verso 2018).
Hans- Heinrich Nolte is professor emeritus for History of Eastern Europe at the University
of Hannover. He published on religious and social history of Early Modern Eurasia, Inter-
nal peripheries in Europe, Second World War, esp. Holocaust and slave- labor in Eastern
Europe, structure and development of Soviet socialism and on the place of Russia and
Eurasia in the World- System.
Economic inequality is a leading contributor to today’s escalating global
tensions and uncertainty and thus the most urgent social issue of our time.
This timely and pathbreaking collection offers a wealth of conceptual and
methodological innovations to advance new understandings of inequality and
the contemporary crises of global capitalism. Leading scholars from several
countries offer diverse perspectives and insights that will advance our think-
ing about today’s global predicament and how social science can help us both
understand and act to address it.
—Jackie Smith, Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh and
editor Journal of World-Systems Research
How does one comprehend contemporary global inequalities? Using the mod-
ern world-system perspective this book brings together some innovative essays
that explore the way inequalities are being structured in the semi-peripheries
through state interventions and migration patterns. A must read for those
interested in global stratifi cation patterns.
—Sujata Patel, President of the Indian Sociological Society, and
Professor of Sociology, University of Hyderabad.
This book contains valuable reviews of the research literature on topics that
are central to the world-systems perspective as well as new contributions that
extend the framework to issues that have emerged from recent developments
in the story of the world. Global inequalities continue to generate both pro-
gressive and reactionary social movements and the trajectory of the 21st cen-
tury could either become another “age of extremes” or it could see the birth of
a collectively rational and democratic global commonwealth. The chapters in
this book contribute to this second possibility.
—Christopher Chase-Dunn, Institute for Research on
World-Systems, University of California-Riverside
Inequality is a burning problem of the early-21st century world that is fueling
revolts and infl uencing the future. There are several contradictory regional
trends today from decreasing to increasing inequalities, the catching-up of
East Asia and some of the former European peripheral regions (Ireland,
Finland, Spain) to the ‘third-worldization’ of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and
other Soviet successor states. Deep factual analysis and theoretical debates are
needed for a good understanding. This volume is an important contribution
for a better understanding.
—Ivan Ber end, Professor Emeritus, University of California,
Los Angeles (U.C.L.A)
Global InequalItIeS
In World- SyStemS
PerSPectIve
TheoreTical DebaTes anD
MeThoDological innovaTions
edited by
Manuela Boatcă, Andrea Komlosy,
and Hans- Heinrich Nolte
Political Economy of the World- System Annuals, Volume XXXIX
Immanuel Wallerstein, Series Editor
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Manuela Boatcă, Andrea Komlosy, and Hans- Heinrich Nolte to
be identifi ed as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 10677- 2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 10678- 9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 10139- 2 (ebk)
Typeset in Adobe Garamond
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
This book had its origin in the 39th annual meeting of the Political Economy
of the World- System, which was held in 2015 in Berlin.
contentS
Introduction ix
Manuela Boatcă, Andrea Komlosy,
Hans-Heinrich Nolte
ParT i
semiperipheries in the World- system 1
1 World- System Zones in the 21st Century:
Beyond Core and Periphery, Who Fits Where? 3
David A. Smith
2 World- Systems Analysis and Political Economy 18
Hartmut Elsenhans
3 The Semiperipheral Abandonat and the Unmaking of
the Capitalist Geoculture 33
Antonio Gelis- Filho
ParT ii
global stratification and the state 47
4 Statehood at the End of the Rainbow? Agonistics of
Potentiality in the World- System 49
Juho T. Korhonen
5 Migration as a Response to Global Inequality 63
Vilna Bashi Treitler
6 Long Waves and Changes in the Structure of the Capitalist
World System 78
Zenonas Norkus
vii
viii Contents
7 “Creative Destruction” From a World- Systems Perspective:
Billionaires and the Great Recession of 2008 94
Scott Albrecht and Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz
ParT iii
Developments on and From europe’s eastern Periphery 117
8 1918–1945–1989: Political Shifts in Eastern Europe and
Three Logics of Catch- up Development in Poland 119
Dariusz Adamczyk
9 Debt- Ridden Development on Europe’s Eastern Periphery 131
Tamás Gerőcs and András Pinkasz
10 New Configurations of Inequality and Glam- Capitalism
Structures 154
Dmitry Ivanov
ParT iv
Future Prospects 173
11 Prospects for the World Left 175
Immanuel Wallerstein
Contributors 193
Political Economy of the World-System Annuals Series 197
Index 199
IntroductIon
In March 2015, we had the privilege of hosting the 39th Annual Conference
on the Political Economy of the World- System of the American Sociologi-
cal Association at the Institute for Latin American Studies of the Freie Uni-
versität Berlin. The conference addressed the theme of “Global Inequalities:
Hegemonic Shifts and Regional Differentiations”, drawing attention to how
the longue durée shapes contemporary struggles for hegemony. More than 40
researchers from all five continents presented and discussed research on the
conference theme. To help readers appreciate the context of the discussions
that have shaped the following articles, we provide excerpts from the texts
used as an organizing framework for the conference:
During its 500- year history, the modern world-s ystem has seen several
shifts in hegemony. Since the decline of the U.S. in the 1970s, however, no
single core power has attained a hegemonic position, such that the twenty-fi rst
century world- system, while not dominated by one hegemon, has continued
to move toward increasing polarization. As income inequalities have become
more pronounced in core countries, especially the former hegemons, the U.S.
and the U.K., global inequalities emerged as a “new” topic of social scientific
scholarship, thus ignoring the constant move toward polarization that has
been characteristic of the entire modern world-s ystem. At the same time, the
rise of new states (most notably, the BRICS) and the relative economic growth
of particular regions (especially East Asia) have prompted speculations about
the next hegemon that largely disregard both the longue durée of hegemonic
shifts and the constraints that regional differentiations place on the concentra-
tion of capital and geopolitical power in one location.
As conference organizers, we sought to focus attention on the follow-
ing questions related to historic and contemporary struggles and shifts in the
world- system hegemony:
1. Reconsidering Semi- peripheries: Evolutionary, Epistemic, or Anti-
systemic Potential? With the collapse of state socialism, the Eastern
European and the former Soviet states have experienced a high degree
of fragmentation and differentiation. Piecemeal integration into the
ix
