World-Systems Analysis

 C. Chase-Dunn                                                                                        Winter 2018

Sociology 261                                                                                               Wednesday 2:10-5pm

Location: Watkins 1126

                          v.11/16/17             

This is a reading and discussion seminar that focuses on human sociocultural evolution, world-systems analysis and globalization. Readings should be completed before the session in which the works are discussed. All the required works are on reserve in the Rivera Library or on the course web site. Grades will be based on attendance, participation in discussion, a short-answer essay take-home midterm, and a five-page essay on a topic germane to the course. The questions for the midterm will be handed out on February 7 and the answers are due in class on February 14. The five-page essay is due on March 7. A one-paragraph description of the essay topic is due on February 21.  The course web site is on Ilearn.

If you have not had any exposure to the world-systems perspective I would recommend giving Thomas R. Shannon, an Introduction to the World-Systems Perspective (Westview 1996) a quick read.

Books available in the bookstore and on Reserve are:

Immanuel Wallerstein 2017 The World-System and Africa. New York: Diasporic Africa Press.

Ho-Fung Hung 2013 Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstrations, Riots, and Petitions in the Mid-Qing

Dynasty New York: Columbia University Press

Peter Turchin 2016 Ages of Discord: Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History. Chaplin, CT: Beresta

Books

Readings: Those readings marked with an asterisk (*) are required. Others are suggested.

January 10: intro and overview.

Thomas R. Shannon, An Introduction to the World-Systems Perspective (Westview 1996).

Immanuel Wallerstein, World-Systems Analysis, Duke University Press 2004

Thomas D. Hall, A World-Systems Reader (Rowman and Littlefield 2000).  

C. Chase-Dunn and B. Lerro. Social Change: Globalization from the Stone Age to the Present (Routledge

2016)

Giovanni Arrighi, The Long 20^th Century

January 17 * Immanuel Wallerstein, The World-System and Africa., Introduction and Chapters 1-4.

C. Chase-Dunn and T.D. Hall, Rise and Demise

January 24: * Immanuel Wallerstein, The World-System and Africa., Chapters 5-8

Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

January 31: * Immanuel Wallerstein, The World-System and Africa., Chapters 9-14

Walter Rodney, A History of the Upper Guinea Coast

February 7 : Midterm Questions Handed out in class

*Ho-Fung Hung Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstrations, Riots, and Petitions in the Mid-Qing

Dynasty, Intro and Chapters 1-2.

February 14 : Midterm Answers are Due in Class

*Ho-Fung Hung Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstrations, Riots, and Petitions in the Mid-Qing

Dynasty, Chapters 3-4.

Arrighi, Giovanni, Takeshi Hamashita, and Mark Selden 2003 The Resurgence of East Asia :

            500, 150 and 50 Year Perspectives. London: Routledge

C. Chase-Dunn and B. Lerro. Social Change, Chapter 15: “The Early Modern Systems in the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries” 

Franz H. Michael 1966 The Taiping Rebellion. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Jonathan Spence God’s Chinese Son

February 21 : hand in description of topic for 5-page discussion paper

*Ho-Fung Hung Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstrations, Riots, and Petitions in the Mid-Qing

Dynasty, Chapters 5-6, Epilogue.

Frank, Andre Gunder. 1992. "The Centrality of Central Asia." Comparative Asian Studies

            Number 8.

Frank, Andre Gunder 1998 Reorient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley, CA.:

            University of California Press.

February 28 : *Peter Turchin Ages of Discord: Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History Preface and

Chapters 1-4.

C. Chase-Dunn, "The development of core capitalism in the antebellum United States: tariff politics and class struggle in an upwardly mobile semiperiphery" in Albert J. Bergesen (ed.) Studies of the Modern World-System. New York: Academic Press. http://www.irows.ucr.edu/cd/papers/ustariffpol.htm

Peter Turchin is giving a talk at ucr on “ Testing Theories of Cultural Evolution with Seshat: Global History Databank” on Thursday March 1, 2918 Seshat has made the first wave of their data available: http://seshatdatabank.info/first-batch-seshat-data/

March 7 : 5-page discussion paper is due

*Peter Turchin Ages of Discord: Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History Chapters 5-9.

C. Chase-Dunn, Roy Kwon, Kirk Lawrence and Hiroko Inoue 2011 Last of the Hegemons: U.S. Hegemonic Decline and Global Governance International Review of Modern Sociology 37,1: 1-29 (Spring)

John W. Meyer, World Society

March 14

*Peter Turchin Ages of Discord: Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History Chapters 10-14.