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Summary book Political Geography (Flint & Taylor, 2018) 7th edition
Samenvatting Political Geography Flint & Taylor 7th edition
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Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
Sociale Geografie En Planologie
Political Geography (GEO23038)
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World-systems analysis by Immanuel Wallerstein = the study of historical systems, especially the
modern world-system or capitalist world-system. It includes:
- Longue durée by Ferdinand Braudel = concept of the gradual change through the day-to-day
activities by which social systems are continually reproduced. It literally means “long
duration”. We operate according to social systems (= inter-state system, labor division, etc.)
and because we continue to operate according to them, they continue to exist. You cannot
see the end of it or know what will happen next because it takes such a long time.
- Development of underdevelopment by Gunder Frank = economic processes in the periphery
are the opposite of the development in the core. Poorer countries are impoverished to
enable a few countries to get richer.
- Single-society assumption = looks at the world as a whole.
- Zones:
o Periphery
Low wages
Rudimentary technology
Simple production mix
o Semi-periphery -> mix of core and peripheral processes. The role of the semi-
periphery includes stabilization of an otherwise too polarized world-system, partly
through the possibility of some semi-peripheral states to achieve core status. It also
stabilizes the world-system because during a long stagnation phase the growth in
some semi-peripheral states helps to create a new upward phase in the Kondratieff.
o Core
High wages
Advanced technology
Diversified production mix
- Inter-state system = the political organization of the capitalist world-economy as a multiple
set of policies. All states are defined through their relationship to other states or through
participation in the world-economy.
- The world-systems approach suggests looking at the state as an institution. States as
institutions have to carry out two basic tasks:
o Provide conditions for the accumulation of capital
o Maintain legitimation of the system
- The world-systems approach interprets neoliberalism as a general ideology within a period of
global economic restructuring, but one that is developed and utilized by different states in
different ways.
Basic elements of our historical system (Wallerstein):
- Single-world market
- Multiple-state system
o Balance of power
- Three-tier structure = the exploitative processes that work through the world-economy
always operate in a three-tier format. This is more stable than two-tier.
o Core – semi-periphery – periphery (horizontal by area)
o Experience – ideology – reality (vertical by scale)
, Reality = at the level of the world-economy. Structure of the world-
economy.
Ideology = at the level of the nation-state. Material and ideological
construct of the nation-state.
Experience = at the level of the locality. Locality as the arena of lived
experience.
Four main institutions of the world-economy (Wallerstein):
- States
- Peoples
o Race
o Nation
o Ethnic groups
o Minorities = a category of the world-systems institution of peoples, it consists of a
minority group of persons in a society who view themselves as separate from the
rest of society on ethnic, linguistic, or religious grounds.
- Classes
- Households
o Proletarian households -> derive most of their income from waged work. Through
unionization of labor forces, higher wages were obtained, which led to such a high
income that if one person in a household would work, he would be able to sustain
the entire family -> affluent society
o Semi-proletarian households -> cannot let one person work as they do not earn
enough. They do not earn enough to provide a basis for their entire life, which is why
it is necessary to raise children.
o Home = locale of the household. Seen as a perfect example of socially constructed
space. Interpreted as both a place of security and constraint.
Types of historical systems:
- Mini-system reciprocal-lineage mode of production
o Limited specialization of tasks;
o Exists for a few generations
o Mode of production = exchanges are rather equal.
- World-empire redistributive-tributary mode of production
o Many political forms;
o Large group of agricultural producers generate a surplus which allows development
of non-agricultural producers -> a small military-bureaucratic ruling class exploiting a
large class of agricultural producers.
, o Mode of production = people are forced to give a part of their products (mainly
agricultural) to a higher person. It is redistributive from the bottom to the top. Some
people get richer as a consequence of this hierarchical relation.
- World-economy capitalist mode of production started 1557, finished 1990
o Criterion for production is profitability;
o Ceaseless capital accumulation;
o Competition controlled by the market;
o No overarching political structure.
Four types of change of world-systems:
- Transition = evolving
- Transformation = conquered and then reorganized
- Discontinuity = same location + mode of production. One breaks down and a new one
constitutes.
- Continuities = dynamic and continually changing
o Linear
o Cyclical
Error of developmentalism = the idea that all countries follow the same path of development.
The European world-economy expanded by:
- Plunder -> new settlements, old societies destroyed
- Old societies reoriented to have a purpose in the world-economy, through:
o Political control (formal imperialism/colonialism)
o Opening up an external arena to market forces
Peripheralization = new areas did not join the world-economy as “equal partners” with existing
members, but they joined as the periphery.
Women & feminism
Intimate geopolitics = an emphasis of feminist geopolitics that connects forms of violence within
multiple spaces by tracing the form and impact on gender relations.
Feminists are interested in the local manifestation of institutional arrangements that maintain power
relations and marginalize particular social groups.
New international division of labor = more women are brought into the waged workforce in in the
whole world, and there is a massive growth of industrial production outside the core.
Four ways in which neoliberalism identifies women:
- Individual market actors than as a group;
, - Human capital to be “developed” through education and training;
- Political subjects with human rights;
- Social capital active in civil society, especially NGOs.
Nikolai Kondratieff’s Kondratieff cycles = the cyclical pattern of the world-economy of about 50
years’ duration and consisting of an A-phase of growth and a B-phase of stagnation. A transforms in B
due to entrepreneurs operating on the short-term and thereafter investment overproduction occurs.
The A-phase is launched by a new lead sector, a technological innovation that drove a global
economic boom and ushered in dramatic societal change. The B-phase differs per cycle.
Symmetry in Kondratieff waves:
- Rise of British and American states;
- Defeat of their rivals (France, Germany);
- Dominance in the world-economy;
- Decline with new rivalries emerging.
Logistic waves = very long cycles of material change (150-300 years) with an A-phase of growth and a
B-phase of stagnation or decline.
Anarchy of production = the market is inefficient as a mode of economic production and distribution.
Since capitalists are primarily motivated by profit, resources are directed to where there is the
highest return; not necessarily to where there is the greatest human need. As a consequence, there
is underproduction of essential goods needed by everyone, and where there is sufficient production,
they are too expensive to be afforded by the working class itself as well as people of modest means.
Three types of power:
- Inscribed capacity -> “taken-for-granted” power, it is considered to be common sense.
Depending on the relation an individual, institution, or group has with one another, they
have a certain power over the other. A teacher has a certain power over the student. The
national government has power over the local government.
- Resource -> the capacity to mobilize power to certain ends. The most visible form of power.
Military, manpower.
- Strategies, practices, and techniques -> experts are given authority to create knowledge
which becomes common sense and normative behavior. Language? Can be used to exclude
groups.
Two types of power:
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