scholarly journals The Interplay between Social and Environmental Degradation in the Development of the International Political Economy*

2006 ◽  
pp. 109-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Biel
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Order ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Dissipative System ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
The Other ◽  
Added Value ◽  
The Social

This article considers capitalism as a dissipative system, developing at the expense of exporting disorder into two sorts of ‘environment’: the physical ecosystem; and a subordinate area of society which serves to nourish mainstream order without experiencing its benefits. Particularly significant is the relationship between the two forms of dissipation. The paper begins by assessing the dangers of translating systems theory into social relations, concluding that the project is nevertheless worthwhile, provided that exploitation and struggle are constantly borne in mind. Exploring the concepts of ‘core’ and ‘periphery,’ the paper highlights the contradictory nature of an attribute of chaos which is both ascribed to the out-group, and also really exported to it. If the core’s growth merely destroyed peripheral order, the entropy of capitalism would be starkly exposed in the form of an exhaustion of future room for maneuver. This problem can be kept at bay by maintaining a self-reproducing ‘low’ order within the subordinate social system; however the fundamental entropy is still there, and will sooner or later manifest itself in the shape of threats to the sustainability of that subordinate system. At the level of the international political economy (IPE), this dialectic unfolds against the background of a ‘lumpy’ development whereby (following structural crises) order can be reconstituted, but at a cost which must be absorbed somewhere. In the case of the post-World War II reordering, this cost was massively exported to the physical environment. Since a high level of ecological depletion now appears permanently embedded within the capitalist IPE, future major efforts of order-building cannot rely on this dimension to the same degree, and must instead access some new forms of dissipative relationship with the social environment. The paper argues that this is the fundamental significance of the ‘sustainable development’ discourse: it brings together the physical and social environments into a single approach, where substitution between one and the other can be experimented. To some extent, the social environment can be treated as ‘fuel,’ and contemporary management sys-tems are noteworthy for exploring the access to an added value through the self-exploitation of small producers, realized through emergent process such as production chains. But ultimately, the ‘fuel’ definition cannot be separated from the other definition of dissipa-tion, the export of disorder; and this must be managed somehow. The dominant interests respond by means of social engineering in the periphery, for example by pushing the sustainability notion in the direction of social development theories like ‘sustainable livelihoods.’ Most immediately the problem appears in the form of purely negative phenomena: namely unmanageable levels of poverty and conflict. But there is another issue, even more threatening to the capitalist order, but hopeful for those critical of it: the increasing likelihood of unco-opted forms of emergent social order.

Units, Markets, Relations, and Flow: Beyond Interacting Parts to Unfolding Wholes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naeem Inayatullah ◽  
David L. Blaney
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
European Expansion ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Violence

Heterodox work in Global Political Economy (GPE) finds its motive force in challenging the ontological atomism of International Political Economy (IPE) orthodoxy. Various strains of heterodoxy that have grown out of dependency theory and World-Systems Theory (WST), for example, emphasize the social whole: Individual parts are given form and meaning within social relations of domination produced by a history of violence and colonial conquest. An atomistic approach, they stress, seems designed to ignore this history of violence and relations of domination by making bargaining among independent units the key to explaining the current state of international institutions. For IPE, it is precisely this atomistic approach, largely inspired by the ostensible success of neoclassical economics, which justifies its claims to scientific rigor. International relations can be modeled as a market-like space, in which individual actors, with given preferences and endowments, bargain over the character of international institutional arrangements. Heterodox scholars’ treatment of social processes as indivisible wholes places them beyond the pale of acceptable scientific practice. Heterodoxy appears, then, as the constitutive outside of IPE orthodoxy.Heterodox GPE perhaps reached its zenith in the 1980s. Just as heterodox work was being cast out from the temple of International Relations (IR), heterodox scholars, building on earlier work, produced magisterial studies that continue to merit our attention. We focus on three texts: K. N. Chaudhuri’s Asia Before Europe (1990), Eric Wolf’s Europe and the People Without History (1982), and L. S. Stavrianos’s Global Rift (1981). We select these texts for their temporal and geographical sweep and their intellectual acuity. While Chaudhuri limits his scope to the Indian Ocean over a millennium, Wolf and Stavrianos attempt an anthropology and a history, respectively, of European expansion, colonialism, and the rise of capitalism in the modern era. Though the authors combine different elements of material, political, and social life, all three illustrate the power of seeing the “social process” as an “indivisible whole,” as Schumpeter discusses in the epigram below. “Economic facts,” the region, or time period they extract for detailed scrutiny are never disconnected from the “great stream” or process of social relations. More specifically, Chaudhuri’s work shows notably that we cannot take for granted the distinct units that comprise a social whole, as does the IPE orthodoxy. Rather, such units must be carefully assembled by the scholar from historical evidence, just as the institutions, practices, and material infrastructure that comprise the unit were and are constructed by people over the longue durée. Wolf starts with a world of interaction, but shows that European expansion and the rise and spread of capitalism intensified cultural encounters, encompassing them all within a global division of labor that conditioned the developmental prospects of each in relation to the others. Stavrianos carries out a systematic and relational history of the First and Third Worlds, in which both appear as structural positions conditioned by a capitalist political economy. By way of conclusion, we suggest that these three works collectively inspire an effort to overcome the reification and dualism of agents and structures that inform IR theory and arrive instead at “flow.”

scholarly journals Introduction: Taking stock of security and finance

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Boy ◽  
John Morris ◽  
Mariana Santos
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research

When, seven years ago, Marieke de Goede first drew attention to the historical and conceptual entanglements between the logics of finance and security, and to the artificial – yet meaningful – divide between the two in modernity, this was not merely a call for a new research programme. Attempting to hold together these two objects of disciplinary enquiry, and becoming aware of the tendency to collapse one into the other inherent to International Political Economy (IPE) or International Relations (IR) analytics, was also a much needed exercise of disciplinary critique, consistent with interrogating divides between the economic and the social, the financial and cultural. In other words, more than just a new object or field of empirical and theoretical research, the finance-security nexus was proposed as a device for critically and genealogically thinking through distinct disciplinary approaches to economy, futurity and populations. To that end, this special issue proposes to take stock of the multiple ways in which the finance-security nexus has been deployed as such a device of (post)disciplinary critique.

The Stabilisation of the Capitalist Order and Liberal Value Orientations in Serbia

Südosteuropa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-407
Author(s):  
Mladen Lazić ◽  
Jelena Pešić
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Economic Liberalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Value Changes ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Normative Value ◽  
Value Dissonance

AbstractBased on research data from 2003, 2012, and 2018, the authors examine the extent to which capitalist social relations in Serbia have determined liberal value orientations. The change of the social order in Serbia after 1990 brought about a radical change of the basis upon which values are constituted. To interpret the relationship between structural and value changes, the authors employ the theory of normative-value dissonance. Special attention in the analysis is paid to the interpretation of value changes based on the distinction between intra- and inter-systemic normative-value dissonance. In the first part of their study, the authors examine changes in the acceptance of liberal values over the period of consolidation of capitalism in Serbia, while in the second part they focus on the 2018 data and specific predictors of political and economic liberalism.

Mortuary Practices and the Social Order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico

1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 298-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben A. Nelson ◽  
J. Andrew Darling ◽  
David A. Kice
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Ancestor Worship ◽  
Western Mexico ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

Epiclassic occupants of the site of La Quemada left the disarticulated remains of 11-14 humans in an apparently sacred structure outside the monumental core of the site. Several lines of evidence are reviewed to generate propositions about the ritual meanings and functions of the bones. A comparative analysis reveals the complexity of mortuary practices in northern and western Mexico, and permits the suggestion that these particular remains were those of revered ancestors or community members. The sacred structure is seen as a charnel house, in which the more ancient tradition of ancestor worship expressed in shaft tombs was essentially perpetuated above ground. Hostile social relations are clearly suggested, however, by other categories of bone deposits. Recognition of the rich variability of mortuary displays leads to questions about their role in the maintenance of the social order.

scholarly journals Feminist everyday political economy: Space, time, and violence

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juanita Elias ◽  
Shirin M. Rai
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Power And Agency ◽  
A Site

AbstractIt goes without saying that feminist International Political Economy (IPE) is concerned in one way or another with the everyday – conceptualised as both a site of political struggle and a site within which social relations are (re)produced and governed. Given the longstanding grounding of feminist research in everyday gendered experiences, many would ask: Why do we need an explicit feminist theorisation of the everyday? After all, notions of everyday life and everyday political struggle infuse feminist analysis. This article seeks to interrogate the concept of the everyday – questioning prevalent understandings of the everyday and asking whether there is analytical and conceptual utility to be gained in articulating a specifically feminist understanding of it. We argue that a feminist political economy of the everyday can be developed in ways that push theorisations of social reproduction in new directions. We suggest that one way to do this is through the recognition that social reproductionisthe everyday alongside a three-part theorisation of space, time, and violence (STV). It is an approach that we feel can play an important role in keeping IPE honest – that is, one that recognises how important gendered structures of everyday power and agency are to the conduct of everyday life within global capitalism.

scholarly journals Genetic variation in the social environment affects behavioral phenotypes of oxytocin receptor mutants in zebrafish

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Ribeiro ◽  
A.R. Nunes ◽  
M.C. Teles ◽  
S. Anbalagan ◽  
J. Blechman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Oxytocin Receptor ◽  
The Other ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Knock Out ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Knockout Line ◽  
Genetically Modified Animals

AbstractOxytocin-like peptides have been implicated in the regulation of a wide range of social behaviors across taxa. On the other hand, the social environment, which is composed of conspecifics genotypes, is also known to influence the development of social behavior, creating the possibility for indirect genetic effects. Here we used a knockout line for the oxytocin receptor in zebrafish to investigate how the genotypic composition of the social environment (Es) interacts with the oxytocin genotype (G) of the focal individual in the regulation of its social behavior. For this purpose, we have raised wild-type or knock-out zebrafish in either wild-type or knock-out shoals and tested different components of social behavior in adults. GxEs effects were detected in some behaviors, highlighting the need to control for GxEs effects when interpreting results of experiments using genetically modified animals, since the social environment can either rescue or promote phenotypes associated with specific genes.

scholarly journals The Integrity of the Territorial Identification of a Person in the Russian Social Space

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2276-2286
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
Institutional Order

Purpose of the study: To investigate the sociological dimension of social space structuring under the influence of territorial movements in the era of globalization based on the example of modern Russia. As the methodology for the study, the synthesis of E. Giddens’ theory was structured, its provisions on the topography of social space in the geographical plane. The paradigm of structuralist constructivism of P. Bourdieu was used as well, in which it was relevant for us to analyze habitus as a socio-geographical environment for the formation of institutional strategies of agents of social relationship. Factors that contribute to and hinder the adaptation of personality in the new social environment, were examined based on works by O. Toffler, U. Beck, V.I. Chuprov and Yu.A. Zubok. To determine the mechanism of the genesis and functioning of meanings in the new communicative environment, the authors relied on N. Luman's approach to self-identification and self-conference. In the process of analyzing the nature of trust in the institutional order in the context of globalization, the authors used works by A.V. Ivanov and S.A. Danilova who analyze the mechanisms of formation. The empirical basis for the article was a sociological study conducted on the basis of the Sociological Center of Kutafin Moscow State Law University.The article reveals the features of personality identification in a dynamic environment of interethnic and cross-cultural interactions, structured under the influence of territorial factors. The degree of conformity of the scale, the nature and depth of self-identification in various territorial planes of the social space are determined by the example of modern Russian society. Factors of social integration in the process of the formation of territorial identity both at the institutional level and in everyday life when constructing informal social ties are disclosed. The restrictions of social identification in the regions of Russia are found that prevent the formation of civic identity and responsibility for the reproduction of the social order. The values that determine social integration in cross-cultural interaction are revealed. The results of the study make a significant contribution to the development of methods for determining the causes of the genesis of separatist sentiments and the conditions for designing constructive social participation in various regions. The article is relevant for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as lecturers, involved in the problems of the sociological study of globalization, social space and group identity. The work uses an integral methodology for measuring social processes from the perspective of the subject of action, constructing strategies in the new social environment, and from the perspective of a system that ensures the reproduction of the institutional order.

Effects of Digital Convergence on Social Engineering Attack Channels

2010 ◽  
pp. 1764-1777
Author(s):  
Bogdan Hoanca ◽  
Kenrick Mock
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
The Other ◽  
Multiple Channels ◽  
Confidential Information ◽  
Weakest Link ◽  
Digital Convergence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Voice Data ◽  
Social Engineer

Social engineering refers to the practice of manipulating people to divulge confidential information that can then be used to compromise an information system. In many cases, people, not technology, form the weakest link in the security of an information system. This chapter discusses the problem of social engineering and then examines new social engineering threats that arise as voice, data, and video networks converge. In particular, converged networks give the social engineer multiple channels of attack to influence a user and compromise a system. On the other hand, these networks also support new tools that can help combat social engineering. However, no tool can substitute for educational efforts that make users aware of the problem of social engineering and policies that must be followed to prevent social engineering from occurring.

7. International Political Economy: Contemporary Debates

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Current Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines three important debates in International Political Economy (IPE). The first debate concerns power and the relationship between politics and economics, and more specifically whether politics is in charge of economics or whether it is the other way around. The second debate deals with development and underdevelopment in developing countries. The third debate is about the nature and extent of economic globalization, and currently takes places in a context of increasing inequality between and inside countries. This debate is also informed by the serious financial crisis of 2008 and has raised questions regarding the viability of the current model of capitalism in the United States and Western Europe.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document