Space and Transport in the World-System

by Stephen G. Bunker, Paul S. Ciccantell

Overview

Key metaphors in world-system analysis are profoundly spatial, but there have been few attempts to understand how space, location, and topography affect world-system organization and process. To fill this gap, this book examines case studies of the restructuring of space and transport in core, semiperipheral, and peripheral economies. It addresses such topics as the role of ocean transport in linking terrestrially based units of the capitalist world economy, the role of land transport systems in the construction and restructuring of relationships between raw materials peripheries and core economies, and the role of the airplane in transforming and representing changing spatial, economic, and social relations in the capitalist world economy.

World-systems theory and many other perspectives on the world economy, including international political economy and analysis of globalization, typically pay only limited attention to issues of space, location, and the role of transportation in the world economy. This book identifies key theoretical and empirical issues and provides the basis for formulating research strategies to address this gap in our understanding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313305023
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/28/1998
Series:	Contributions in Economics and Economic History , #191
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

PAUL S. CICCANTELL is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kansas State University. His research interests include the role of natural resource industries and transport systems in economic development in Latin America, North America, and Japan, organizational analysis of global natural resource industries, and the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

STEPHEN G. BUNKER is Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He has done research on peasant economies in Uganda, Guatemala, Peru, and Brazil. His recent work focuses on the organization of natural resource extraction, transport, and trade.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Space, Transport, and World-Systems Theory by Paul S. Ciccantell and Stephen G. Bunker
Ocean Transport
Transportation Space: A Fourth Spatial Category for the World-Systems Perspective? by Philip E. Steinberg
Power and the Shaping of Markets: The Global Order, Imperialism, and Shipping Nationalism by Baldev Raj Nayar
"It's All About Market Share": Competition Among U.S. West Coast Ports for Trans-Pacific Containerized Cargo by John Gulick
The Hazardous Waste Stream in the World-System by R. Scott Frey
Land Transport
The Spatial Reorganization of Trade and Class Struggle Over Transport Infrastructure: Southern Appalachia, 1830-1860 by Wilma A. Dunaway
Raw Materials Transport and Regional Underdevelopment: Upper Michigan's Copper Country by Jonathan Leitner
The Incorporation of West Africa: A Numerical Analysis of Railroad Expansion by Richard Lee
Oil, Pipelines, and the "Scramble for the Caspian": Contextualizing Politics of Oil in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan by Saule Omarova
Bulk Flow Systems and Globalization by Robert P. Clark
Air Transport
Cities and Spatial Articulation in the World-Economy: What Air Passenger Travel Tells Us About the Global City System by David Smith and Michael Timberlake
Afterword: Space, Transport, and the Future of the Capitalist World Economy by Paul S. Ciccantell and Stephen G. Bunker
Index

Editorial Reviews

Contains papers from a conference resulting from a 1996 meeting, focusing on themes of technical and organizational innovation in transport as a factor in hegemonic ascent and decline, aspects of space and the built environment in core and periphery, transport as a component in raw materials access strategies, and transport, location, and information flows in the construction of commodity chains. Contains sections on ocean, air, and land transport. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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