Institute for

Research on

World-Systems

https://irows.ucr.edu/

University of California-Riverside

 

Ozone hole over Antarctica

 

IROWS Annual Report

September 2004

This is the annual report on IROWS projects, accomplishments and initiatives from June 2003 to September 2004. IROWS is the world’s premier institute doing research on globalization, global social change and the historical development of intersocietal systems. Thanks to Thomas E. Reifer who served as Associate Director of IROWS from January 2001 to June 2004. Tom has taken a job at the University of San Diego and continues to serve as co-PI on our project on the social bases of global elite integration (funded by the NSF Sociology Program). Kenneth Barr from the University of Puget Sound will serve as the new Associate Director of IROWS. Thanks also to Shante Morton who served as the IROWS Administrative Assistant from February 2002 to June 2004. Shante did the heavy lifting for the PEWS02 conference and the Globalization and GIS specialist meeting and was a major asset at IROWS. She has taken a new job with the Dean of the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. Nelda Thomas is the new IROWS Administrative Assistant.

The main purpose of the Institute for Research on World-Systems (IROWS) is to do long term, large scale interdisciplinary research on:

·         Global Social Change,

·        The Historical Evolution of Cities and Polities,

·        Global and Regional Political Ecology,

·        Biotechnology and Global Political Economy

·        Waves and Contours of Global Elite Integration Since 1840

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 03-04 Accomplishments: 

 

·        Globalization and GIS Meeting: A Specialist Meeting on “Globalization in the World-System: Mapping Change Over Time” was held at UCR February 7-8, 2004. The meeting focused on the application of Geographical Information Systems and network analysis techniques to studies of global social change. The meeting was co-sponsored by the Center for the Spatially Integrated Social Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and at University of California, Riverside the sponsors were: the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the Office of the Chancellor, the Institute for Research on World-Systems, and the Program on Global Studies.

·        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 have either been published or are moving toward publication:

v     Thomas E. Reifer (ed.) 2004 Hegemony, Globalization and Antisystemic Movements. Paradigm Press.

v     Jonathan Friedman and Christopher Chase-Dunn (eds.) Forthcoming  Hegemonic Declines: Present and Past. Paradigm Press, and

v     Christopher Chase-Dunn and E. N. Anderson (eds.) Forthcoming 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, is now housed and electronically distributed by UCR. JWSR produced three new issues during this period, including a Special Issue on “Global Social Movements Before & After 9/11.” The Political Economy of World-Systems (PEWS) section of the American Sociological Association is preparing a proposal to the ASA Publications Committee that will make JWSR the official journal of the PEWS section. Ed Kick has agreed to serve as the new Book Review Editor <mailto:ekick@mtsu.edu>. Many thanks to Joya Misra for the fine work she did as Book Review Editor from 2000 to 2004. Ken Barr has taken over from Tom Reifer as Managing Editor kennethjbarr@yahoo.com We are grateful to the immense service rendered by Tom since he became Managing Editor in 2001. Andrew Jorgenson is forming a Book Review Production unit at the Washington State University. The Assistant Editors are Anders Carlson, Brooke Johnson, Linda Kim, Rebecca Giem, Hiroko Inoue, Annabelle Nery, Christine Petit and Michelle Ysais.

q       Johns Hopkins Book Series: IROWS Director Chase-Dunn is the Editor of two book series at Johns Hopkins University Press. William I. Robinson’s A Theory of Global Capitalism was published in the series in 2004. Valentine Moghadam’s Globalizing Women is forthcoming in November.

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 (POGS). Kenneth Barr is the Associate Director of POGS and is organizing lectures in a speaker series on “Globalization, Inequality and Transnational Social Movements.” 

q       International Sociological Association-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. He is organizing a program of sessions for the World Congress of Sociology in Durban, South Africa in 2006.

 

Research Projects: IROWS is currently sponsoring three on-going research projects:

New IROWS Initiatives:

 

IROWS has invested considerable effort in several major research and programmatic initiatives:

 

 

IROWS Working Papers are available at: http://www.irows.ucr.edu/workpaptoc.htm