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"World-Systems Analysis" published on by Oxford University Press.

This paper is concerned with the application of systems analysis to problems of physical distribution. The principles of systems analysis and the concepts of the systems approach are outlined. Physical distribution is described as a set of major subsystems. The objective of this analysis is to provide a generalised framework for the solution of physical distribution problems. It may be noted that in the United Kingdom, systems analysis has come to be used in a narrower sense and to be concerned primarily with the design and specification of computer systems. In this paper, it is used in the wider sense, and for an appreciation the reader's attention is drawn to collections of papers by Emery, Opfner and Beishon and Peters. The use of a problem solving methodology is not unique to systems analysis except in the sense that systems analysis defines a particular process of problem solution. Similar processes are used in industrial engineering, method study, operational research, value analysis and management accounting. Other analyses of physical distribution systems are equally valid. That presented in this paper identifies a series of distribution units in the chain of distribution. It seeks to define the subsystems within each unit. The approach relies heavily on a series of diagrams which is intended to give a visual image of the relationships between elements in the chain.

Vol. 1: Overview. - 15. December 1981. - XIV,432 S., graph. Darst., Kt., Tab

World-systems analysis studies the development of our world-system. Its units of analysis to explain social change are not nation-states, but world-systems. There were until the nineteenth century many different and dissimilar types of world-systems – world-empires and world-economies - in the world. These have over the centuries been subjugated by the capitalist world-economy which emerged at the end of the Middle Ages in Europe. Analysing these long term historical processes is central in world-systems analysis. It focusses not on the newest features of globalisation, but on the processes which over the centuries have formed our modern world-system. This started as an European world-economy and has always functioned as a capitalist world-economy. It has over the centuries gone through several distinct phases of development and has subsequently incorporated all areas on the globe. The peripheralisation of these areas enabled the core to prosper. World-systems analysis focusses on the complex processes through which the inequalities in the world-system are reproduced at the systems level, but are changeable at the state level. The semi-periphery plays an important role in both stabilising the world-system as a whole and enabling some states to improve their position in the world-system. These changes in position in the world-system are linked to its economic cycle of growth and stagnation and its political cycle of rivalry and hegemony. Besides these recurrent cycles there are also trends which change and undermine the present world-system.

This is a review of recent research on world-systems. We cover studies of the current system and studies that compare the contemporary global system with earlier, smaller intersocietal systems. Research on the cycles and secular trends found in the modern world-system is discussed at length. This includes an examination of economic cycles of various lengths as well as their links with broader cycles like the rise and fall of hegemonic core powers, international financial crises, and the cycle of global war. We also survey recent studies of core-periphery hierarchy.