Global System Interdependence: The New

Structural Analyses of the Dynamics of

Industrial-Capitalism

Thounaojam Somokanta
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
SOC470A
somo@iitk.ac.in
 Preston, P.W. (1996). Development theory: an introduction.
Blackwell, Oxford (Chapter 15, 16, 18)
 Chapter 15: Global system interdependence: The new
structural analyses of the dynamics of industrial-capitalism
 Chapter 16: Agent-centred analyses of the diversity of
forms-of-life
Chapter 15 highlights
 In 1980s, various scholars expressed new concern for global
industrial-capitalist system and its interdependence
 This emerging global system has been theorized from:
 1). Market-oriented postmodernist theorists (transformation
of capitalism; knowledge based system; consumption)
 2). Reconstruction of global capitalist system (rise of East
Asia, collapse of Second World bloc, etc)
 3). Global interdependence (global development, global level
rule)
What is Post-Modernism?

Shifting towards Post-Modernism:

 Early modernity: Renaissance
 Modernity: Industrial Revolution, Enlightenment
 Post-Modernism: Period of mass media and consumption
(from 1980s to present)
Postmodernist theory
 The decade of 1980s marked the knowledge-based economy with a
postmodern culture
 Shifts from fordist to post-fordist modes of production
 Shifts in social institutions which revolve around individual who
freely chooses patterns of consumption to construct a life-style
 The culture of postmodernism stress on the contemporary life of
commercial consumer market
Third World context
 Postmodernists argued that the extent of penetration of industrial
capitalist forms of life into Third World has increased rapidly
 Global production systems (restricted in their availability to rich
West) are now widely available in Third World (e.g., Song, IBM,
etc)
 Global cultural forms around consumptions (used to restrict to
West) are available in Third World (e.g., Hollywood movies, Coco-
Cola, satellite TV, etc)
 Global travel in the forms of migration (of poor people to richer
areas) and mass tourism (often of rich people to poorer areas)
ensures mixing of people
 Standardization of activities became widespread (e.g., leisure
activities )
Reconstruction of global industrial-capitalism
 A series of tendencies within the global system can be
identified as patterns and styles of production change:
 1). Flexible specialization
 2). Emergence of tripolarity
 3). Collapse of the socialist bloc
 4). Dependent integration in Third World
 5). Strategies for complex change in global system
 Flexible specialization
 Large-plant fordist mass products has given way in 1980s to the
geographically dispersed small-plant post-fordist innovative
production of individual products
 Problems of fordist mass production (oil crisis of 1970s; labor
problems, not fulfil consumer demands, etc)
 This can be addressed by shifting towards flexible specialization of
a post-fordist system of production
 Third World increased industrial production (export-oriented
development strategies)
 Exports goods served the demands of consumer markets of First
World
 New global markets for goods and rise of MNCs favor new
international division of labor
 Strong labor force, advance of technology, transport and
communications could help to achieve production and
distribution by MNCs
 Emergence of tripolarity
 Global system became more integrated into three distinct
blocs: Americas, Europe and Pacific Asia
 Each bloc has its industrial-capitalism; e.g., export oriented
industrial-capitalism has been developed in Pacific Asia
 In 1980s, economies of Japan, Southeast and East Asia grew
very rapidly; Japan is a core capitalist developmental state
 Pacific Asian countries successfully achieved take-off stage
Collapse of the socialist bloc and emerging market economy
 In late 1970s, People’s Republic of China inaugurated an
economic policy shifting towards the global marketplace
 Another example is the liberalization of USSR in late 1980s
 A transition is in process from the command economies of
state socialism towards a market-based economy
Third World context
 The long post-WWII economic expansion became challenging in the
early 1970s
 Oil shocked damaged Third World economies (debt crisis in Latin
America in early 1980s)
 However, Third World countries in post-colonial period has evident a
diverse mix of advance, drift and stagnant economy:
 In Asia Pacific, Japanese economic miracle
 In Middle East, the economic success depends on exporting oils, but also
war and revolution
 In Latin America, the extent of success is more problematic as social
inequalities, environmental problems and political instability work
against economic successes

Greater global interdependence
 Various groups live within the global system to identify common
problems, and to reinforce global level rules
 Example: United Nations and its agencies
 Interdependence of peoples is evident in the environmentalist
movements (economic development vs environmental protection)
 There is a series of ‘global commons’, common concerns of
humankind (resource depletion, pollution)
 UN as a global level process of rule setting with nation-state
relations
 Besides, the role of NGOs for local-small scale development