Suchergebnisse

Once an international pariah, South Africa has emerged as a respected and influential African state, projecting its economic and political power across the continent. South Africa and the World-Economy: Remaking Race, State, and Region chronicles the volatile history of this resurgence, from the nation's rise as an industrialized, white state and subsequent decline as a newly under-developing country to its current standing as a leading member of the Global South. Contrasting with much of the latest scholarship, which examines South Africa as a discrete national case, this volume places the country in the global social system, analyzing its relationships with the colonial powers and white settlers of the early twentieth century, the costs of the neoliberal alliances with the North, and the more recent challenges from the East. This approach offers a bold reinterpretation of South Africa's developmental successes and failures over the last century -- as well as clear yet contentious lessons for the present. William G. Martin is Chair of the Department of Sociology at Binghamton University, coeditor of From Toussaint to Tupac: The Black International since the Age of Revolution, and coauthor of Making Waves: Worldwide Social Movements, 1760-2005

Sam Moyo's insurgent intelligence and discipline made him a compelling and controversial intellectual leader. This article examines his life and work as part of the transnational production of intellectuals and institutions dedicated to the study of Africa. Tracing his passage sharply etches the global divisions and inequalities that mark the positions and struggles of scholars of Africa. Tracing Sam's choices and commitments over time offer however something far richer: examples of how we might move beyond the stultifying past and open up the possibility of disrupting and decolonizing the institutions and intellectual frameworks surrounding the study of Africa.

After 30 years of relentless expansion, the United States' prison system faces the prospect of considerable contraction. This was certainly not expected and continues to be refuted by policy makers, activists, and academic theorists alike. Using evidence drawn from New York State, this essay argues that decarceration is taking place and may be expected to continue. Preliminary findings indicate, however, that the outcome is not likely to be the most commonly speculated ones: a return to a rehabilitative model, liberal reform along the lines of justice reinvestment, or the straightforward replacement of mass incarceration with parole and probation. Evidence to date suggests that a new and harsher criminal justice regime marked by justice disinvestment is being forged, entailing a significant shift from state penal institutions to differentiated, community-based social control, new private and non-profit actors, and new data and hardware technologies. These observations suggest a substantial rethinking of the political economy and theories of mass incarceration and the 'carceral' or 'centaur' state.

Is South Africa a 'sub/imperialist' state, a leader of the Global South, or a victim of imperial power from the North? This essay unpacks the debate surrounding South Africa's role in the 'new scramble for Africa' by critically contrasting competing theoretical conceptions against historical and empirical evidence. The conclusion projects a radical—and unexpected—rupture in South Africa's power and position in the world-economy as North–South networks are broken and East–South relations replace North–South relations.

Abstract

This article reviews US policy towards Africa, arguing that continuity over the past four administrations far outweighs differences between presidential candidate Senator Kerry and President George Bush. If Kerry were to win the Presidential elections in November, this would not lead to any radical change in US-Africa relations. What is new over the longer term, and is posed so starkly by Bush's unilateralist and militarised actions, is the relentless development of a post-liberal world order and policy agenda. Opposition to this agenda by progressive movements and organisations focused upon such issues as debt cancellation, privatisation, and public health has already born fruit in Africa and elsewhere. The successes, failures, and contradictions of these new campaigns and organisations reflect the post-liberal conditions they work under, and are thus significantly different from the solidarity struggles of the past.
The assistance of Jim Cason was invaluable in constructing this essay, for which the author is very grateful.

This essay owes its origins to the provocative title of a recent article by Immanuel Wallerstein: "The Rise and Future Demise of World-systems Analysis" (1998a). "Demise"? What might this mean? The title evokes, of course, Wallerstein's pathbreaking 1974 essay that spoke of "The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System." Twenty-?ve years later, Wallerstein is bold enough to speak of the demise of the perspective, a perspective that now encompasses a global group of scholars. For world-systems scholarship has, since 1974, thrived in book series, journals, universities and professional organizations—creating in the process a world-systems diaspora scattered around the planet.