Sociology 261:
World-Systems Analysis
Fall 2009 Thursday
4-7
College Building South- Map Room C.
Chase-Dunn
Suggested topics for Five-Page Essay
The five-page essay should use readings and seminar discussions from the course to address a question or problem that is germane to world-systems analysis. The five-page essay is due on December 3. A one-paragraph description of the essay topic is due on November 12. You may propose your own topic or select from the suggested topics listed below.
1.
Discuss the
general notion of core/periphery relations as developed in the comparative
world-systems literature.
2.
Describe the
approach to spatially bounding world-systems developed by Chase-Dunn and Hall.
3.
Discuss the bases
of intersocietal power relations in precontact
4.
Discuss and
critique the concept of ‘globalization” that is used in Immanuel Wallerstein’s The Decline of American Hegemony.
5.
Discuss the idea
of hegemony as used in C. Chase-Dunn and B.
Lerro, Social Change, Chapter
14: “The Modern World-System.” How is the rise and fall of modern hegemons
different from the rise and fall of tributary empires?
6.
How have
core/periphery relations and semiperipheral development been important for the
development and reproduction of capitalism?
7.
Discuss and
critique the idea of world revolutions in the modern world-system.
8.
Discuss and
critique the idea that indigenism is a global social movement in the light of
the Hall and Fenelon’s Indigenous Peoples
and Globalization.