Institute
for
Research
on World-Systems
University of California-Riverside
City Lights
from Satellite Images
IROWS
Annual Report
June 2003
This is the annual report on IROWS projects, accomplishments and initiatives from June 2002 to June 2003.
The main purpose of the Institute for Research on
World-Systems (IROWS) is to do long term, large scale interdisciplinary
research on:
·
Globalization and
the World Political Economy,
·
The Historical Evolution of Macrosocial Systems,
·
Sustainable Development, and
·
The Growth of Cities
The
Institute serves as an incubator for collaborative research proposals by organizing
interdisciplinary faculty seminars and research working groups. It has developed an electronic research
archive, a working paper series, and co-publishes a scholarly electronic
journal focusing on interdisciplinary global research, the Journal of
World-Systems Research.
IROWS
02-03 Accomplishments:
q
Publications from PEWS02 Conference:
IROWS hosted the annual spring Political
Economy of World-Systems (PEWS) conference at UCR May 3-4, 2002 on the theme of
“Hegemonic Decline: Present and Past.”
See http://www.irows.ucr.edu/conferences/pews02/pews02page.htm
Three
books composed mainly of papers presented at the conference are moving toward
publication:
v
Thomas E. Reifer (ed.) Hegemony,
Globalization and Antisystemic Movements. Paradigm Press.
v
Jonathan
Friedman and Christopher Chase-Dunn (eds.) Hegemonic Declines: Present and
Past. Paradigm Press, and
v
Christopher Chase-Dunn and E. N.
Anderson (eds.) The Historical Evolution of World-Systems, Palgrave
q
JWSR
Produces New Issues: The Journal
of World-Systems Research (JWSR), co-published by IROWS and the Center for
Global, International and Regional Studies at UC-Santa Cruz, produced three new
issues during this period. See http://jwsr.ucr.edu/index.php
q
Johns Hopkins Book Series:
IROWS Director Chase-Dunn is the Editor of
two book series at Johns Hopkins University Press. Books by Stephen Bunker and
William Robinson are imminently forthcoming.
q
POGS Speaker
Series: IROWS Director Chase-Dunn
and Juliann Allison of the UCR Department of Political Science are co-directors
of the Riverside branch of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation
(IGCC) entitled the Program on Global Studies. Thomas E. Reifer is the
Associate Director of POGS and has organized eight lectures in its speaker
series on “Globalization,
Inequality and Transnational Social Movements.” See https://irows.ucr.edu/pogs/pogs.htm
q
PEGSC Specialization: The Department of Sociology established a new
graduate specialization in Political Economy and Global Social Change with
help from IROWS. See http://www.sociology.ucr.edu/pegsc/index.html
q
Scientific American article: IROWS Director Christopher Chase-Dunn’s research
on long waves of trade globalization (with Yukio Kawano and Benjamin Brewer),
originally published in the American Sociological Review (February,
2000) was summarized in Scientific American June 2003. See http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?colID=19&articleID=00007A0F-1596-1EB7-BDC0809EC588EEDF
q
ISA-RC02: In December of 2002 IROWS Director Chase-Dunn was elected President
of the Research Committee on Economy and Society (RC02) of the International
Sociological Association.
q
Jorgenson’s Awards: Andrew Jorgenson is Senior
Research Assistant of IROWS and Assistant Editor on JWSR. This year Andrew won
the following academic awards:
v
The Annual
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award, Pacific Sociological Association
for “Consumption and Environmental Degradation: A Cross-National Analysis of
the Ecological Footprint.” which is being published in Social Problems
in August 2003.
v The
Annual Graduate Research Award, Graduate Student Association, University of
California, Riverside. This award is
for the paper that is being published in Social Problems.
v The
Marvin E Olsen Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award of the Section on
Environment, Technology and Society of the American Sociological Association.
This paper is being published in the Humboldt Journal of Social Relations
(“Globalization, the Environment, and Infant Mortality: A Cross-National Study.”)
in summer 2003 and another related paper is being published in the Social
Science Journal (“Global Inequalities, Water Pollution, and Infant
Mortality.”) in early 2004.
Research Projects: IROWS is currently sponsoring four on-going
research projects:
Ø Waves
of Globalization: the National Science Foundation’s Sociology
Program funded our study of economic globalization in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. Andrew
Jorgenson, Rebecca Giem, John Rogers and Shoon Lio have made major
contributions to the project this year. A paper based on the
results of this project was presented at the annual meetings of the American
Sociological Association in August 2002. See https://irows.ucr.edu/research/globres/globproj.htm
Ø
Cities and Empires: Another IROWS project focuses on time-mapping the
growth of cities and empires in Afroeurasia over the past 3000 years. Alexis
Alvarez and Daniel Pasciuti have contributed greatly to this project. A paper based on
the research of this project has been published in Cross-Cultural Research. See https://irows.ucr.edu/research/citemp/citemp.html
Ø Global
Elite Formation: IROWS has begun
research on the evolution of a global elite over the past 160 years, looking at
the wealthiest and most powerful individuals, families, firms and political
organizations since 1840. Dr. Thomas Reifer currently leads this project.
Christopher Schmitt applied for UC-MEXUS funding to study U.S.-Mexican elite ties.
Ø
Biotechnology and Hegemony: IROWS is starting a project that will time-map
the global emergence of the biotechnology industry in order to consider its
potential effects on regional and international economic comparative
advantages. Chase-Dunn presented a preliminary paper on this topic at the Hong
Kong University of Science and Technology in November of 2001 and at the World
Congress of Sociology in Brisbane, Australia in July of 2002. See https://irows.ucr.edu/papers/irows9/irows9.htm
New IROWS Initiatives:
IROWS has invested
considerable effort in several major research initiatives:
Ø UC-ILE
Proposal: A proposal to study
“Labor Solidarity and Transportation:
Global Capital and Labor in the Pacific Rim” was submitted in January
2003. The co-PIs are Thomas Reifer, Edna Bonacich and Christopher Chase-Dunn.
This proposal was funded for $30,000 and the research is proceeding. We are
also preparing to submit proposals on similar topics to UC-MEXUS and the
UC-PacRim programs in early 2004.
Ø NSF Geography Program: IROWS is preparing a proposal on “Measuring the Suburbanization of World Cities with Remote Sensing Data” for the NSF Geography Program with Professor John Weeks, Department of Geography, San Diego State University. The proposal will be submitted in August 2003. This research will focus on the Southern California conurbation as well as other world city regions. This research is relevant to concerns about urban sprawl and the new Center for Sustainable Suburban Development at UCR.
Ø NSF
Information Technology Research:
An interdisciplinary grant proposal to the National Science Foundation’s
program in Information Technology Research entitled “Time Mapping
3000 Years of Globalization: Knowledge Modeling Urbanization, Empire
Formation, Climate Change and Emerging Global Complexity” was submitted in November of 2002. The total
proposed budget for this project for five years of research support was
$4,271,446. The reviews of an earlier submission were quite encouraging.
Ø NSF
Sociology Program: IROWS submitted a proposal
to study global elite formation to the National Science Foundation’s Sociology
Program in August 2002. This proposal was not recommended for funding. A revised
version will be submitted in August of 2003.
Ø NSF Human and Social Dynamics: IROWS submitted a proposal on “Analyzing Complex Macrosystems As Dynamic Interaction Networks” to the NSF Human and Social Dynamics program in June 2003. And a co-proposal for a workshop was submitted to the Santa Fe Institute.
Ø MacArthur
Foundation Proposal: Thomas
Reifer is planning to submit a proposal to the MacArthur Foundation Research
and Writing Program for $100,000 on the theme of “Technological Change, Global
Security and Sustainability” in February 2004. The proposed research will
examine how public policy either shapes or responds to technological change –
and proposals on related social and economic issues - with a particular
emphasis on policy-making institutions, treaty regimes, or nongovernmental
organizations operating on a transnational or international scale.
IROWS Working
Papers are available at http://www.irows.ucr.edu/workpaptoc.htm
