anth1 modern world
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
The Modern World System
Ch 14
The Modern System
The Emergence of the World SystemIndustrializationStratificationThe World System Today
The Emergence of the World System
World system shaped by world capitalist economy
3 political and economic specialization positionsCoreSemiperipheryPeriphery
• Modern world system – global system in which nations are economically and politically interdependent
• Capitalist world economy – single world system committed to production for sale or exchange, with the object of maximizing profits rather than supplying domestic needs
Wallerstein’s World System Theory
Capital – wealth or resources invested in business, with the intent of producing a profit
Capital is a social relationship, not an object
• Core nations – strongest and most powerful nations
Wallerstein’s World System Theory
Technologically advanced, capital-intensive products produced and exported to the semiperiphery and the periphery
Semiperiphery nations – industrialized Third World nations Lack power and economic dominance of
core nations
• Periphery nations – nations whose economic activities are less mechanized
Wallerstein’s World System Theory
Primarily concerned with exporting raw materials and agricultural goods to core and semiperiphery nations
Telecommunications allows well-educated workers in such low-wage countries as India to compete with skilled U.S. workers
Core/Periphery/Margins: Core/Semi-Periphery/Periphery;Courtesy www.archatlas.dept.shef.ac.uk/Trade/CPM3a.jpg
Industrialization
Industrial Revolution – socioeconomic transformation in Europe, after 1750 through industrialization of the economy
Seurat Locomotive
Causes of the Industrial Revolution
Widely used goods whose manufacture could be broken down into simple routines that machines could perform
Population increasing dramatically & fueled consumption of raw materials
• Began in cotton, iron, and potter trades
Courtesy: globallearning.pwnet.org
IndustrializationMax Weber argued
pervasiveness of “C of E” Protestant
beliefs contributed to spread and success of industrialization in England
Catholicism inhibited industrialization in France
Industrial Stratification
Factory owners soon began to recruit cheap labor from among the poorest populations.
Prosperity uneven Social & health problems emerged
• Initially industrialization in England raised the overall standard of living
Industrial Stratification
Bourgeoisie – owned means of production Working class (proletariat) – had to sell
labor to survive Proletarianization – separation of workers
from the means of production
• Marx saw trend as expression of fundamental capitalist opposition: bourgeoisie (capitalists) versus proletariat (propertyless workers)
Social Class StratificationK. Marx’ “Class
consciousness” – recognition of
collective interests and personal
identification with one’s economic group
Viewed classes a powerful collective
forces that could mobilize human
energies to influence history
Industrial Stratification
Developed model with three main factors contributing to socioeconomic stratification:Wealth (economic status)Power (political status)Prestige (social status)
• Weber argued that Marx’s model was oversimplified
Stratification
Growing middle class and existence of peripheries within core nations complicate issue beyond the vision of Marx or Weber
• With modification, combination of Marxian and Weberian models can describe modern capitalist world
The World System Today
Mass production gave rise to a culture of overconsumption Acquisitiveness Conspicuous consumption
The spread of industrialization and overconsumption takes place from core to periphery
American informal economy at the periphery
Tennessee family, 1936
Garment industry pays low wages
People rely on swap meets, other informal economies
Industrial Degradation Expansion of world system
often accompanied by genocide, ethnocide, and ecocide
Industrial Revolution accelerated encompassment of world by agrarian-based states, all but eliminating previous cultural adaptations
•Foraging•Pastoralism•Horticulture
Questions for Consideration:
What are 1 way that you personally are
connected in the Modern World System?
In what ways might key powerful individuals
in peripheral nations enable exploitation of
their nations’ resources?
Colonialism Imperialism – Formal
rule over foreign nations
Colonialism domination of territory and its people political, social,
economic, and cultural forms of domination
Physical or IdeologicalColoniesPith helmet
of the Second French Empire<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism>
Colonialism
European colonialism had two phases
– “Age of Discovery” (1492–1852)– 1850 to just after end of World War II
• Dominated by Britain and France
• British empire covered fifth of world’s land surface and ruled fourth of its population
British Colonialism
Driven by need for economic expansion First phase concentrated in the New World,
west Africa, and India Closed with American Revolution
• During the second period of colonialism, Britain eventually controlled most of India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and large portions of eastern and southern Africa
British Colonialism
British colonial efforts justified by what Kipling called “white man’s burden”
Began to fall apart after W.W. II
• French colonialism driven by state, church, and military, rather than by business interests
French Colonialism
First phase, starting in early 1600s, focused in Canada, the Louisiana Territory, the Caribbean, and parts of India
Second phase (1870 to W.W. II) included most of North Africa and Indochina
• Ideological legitimization for French colonialism was mission civilisatrice (similar to “white man’s burden”)
French Colonialism
Spread French culture, language, and religion throughout the colonies
French & British used 2 forms of rule:Indirect rule: practice of governing through
native political structures and leadersDirect rule: practice of imposing new
governments upon native populations
Many modern political boundaries in west Africa based on linguistic, political, and economic contrasts as result of European colonial policies
Colonialism and Identity
• Whole countries, along with social groups and divisions within them, were colonial inventions
Postcolonial Studies
Settler countries: large numbers of European colonists and sparser native populations
Nonsettler postcolonies: large native populations and only a small number of Europeans
Mixed postcolonies: sizable native and European populations
• Postcolonial: study of interactions between European nations and the societies they colonized
Development
Economic development plans: industrialization, modernization, westernization, and individualism are desirable evolutionary advances that will bring long-term benefits to natives
• Intervention philosophy: ideological justification for outsiders to guide local peoples in specific directions
Neoliberalism
Free trade best way for nation’s economy to develop
No restrictions on manufacturing No barriers to commerce No tariffs
• Neoliberalism: governments should not regulate private enterprise; free market forces should rule
Neoliberalism
Since fall of Communism (1989–1991), revival of economic liberalism In exchange for loans, governments of
postsocialist and developing nations must accept neoliberal premise that deregulation leads to economic growth
• Prevailed in U.S. until President Roosevelt’s New Deal during the 1930s