This article studies the development of Warsaw's Służewiec neighbourhood, Poland's largest business district, as a case of real estate financialization. We argue that the neighbourhood's chaotic ...‘de‐contextualized’ growth was shaped by Poland's semi‐peripheral position in the global economy on the one hand—enabling a process of subordinate financialization—and legacies of state socialism on the other. In so doing, we mobilize research on peripheral financialization and global economic hierarchies, and studies of post‐socialism to enhance debates about real estate financialization. Commercial real estate—and office development in particular—is a crucial domain in which contemporary core–periphery structures are produced and negotiated. A key function of subordinate financialization is to absorb globally mobile capital—the product of financialization in the core. The case of Służewiec shows that only by considering the interplay of global hierarchies (Poland's position as capital absorbent), local dynamics (fragmented urban development, which was characterized by competition among these unequal municipalities, with local growth coalitions in some municipalities, but not in others) and specific historical legacies (Warsaw's socialist‐time functional organization and its transformation, which weakened the city) can we fully understand the specific dynamics that shape real estate financialization in different places.
The economic crisis which has affected the southern EU countries since 2008 set in motion new migration trends. In the case of Portugal, post‐crisis migrations have been in two main directions: ...northwards to more prosperous European countries, and southwards to former colonies in Africa, notably the oil‐producing state of Angola. Focusing on this latter migration, the paper is structured around two main questions. First, which migration‐theoretic frameworks can be deployed to explain this new North–South migration flow? Relevant concepts include the notion of Portugal as “semi‐periphery” within European and global migration systems; the role of post‐colonial theory, especially ideas about “coloniality” and “Lusotropicalism”; and the function of myth and racialised discourse in constructing this as a high‐skilled migration. The second question is more empirical and relates to the descriptive characteristics of the Portuguese migration to Angola and to the experiences of the migrants and their Angolan co‐workers and employers. Key here is a deconstruction of the notion of “skill” in Portuguese migrants’ experiences of employment in Angola. The empirical analysis is based on interviews with 45 migrants, their co‐workers and employers, and other key informants.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) to the global South has increased, but very little research has gone into analysing the diverse FDI flows between unequally related groups of countries. This paper ...contributes by investigating (a) the distribution of global FDI into and between semi‐peripheral and peripheral countries in the global South (2006–2014), and (b) the country location factors of FDI in these two regions. We introduce a distinction between multinational enterprises from emerging (EMNE) and from peripheral countries (PMNE) and show evidence of their different investment behaviour. Our results uniquely demonstrate intra‐regional investment differences, the increasing sophistication of peripheries as hosts and sources of FDI (developmental undercurrents) and a rich set of location factors explaining FDI into these regions. We also show that EMNEs invest in semi‐peripheral countries so as to benefit from their emerging capacity to innovate.
Anarchy in the World-System Ege Demirel
Journal of world-systems research,
04/2024, Letnik:
30, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The world-system has been in a crisis for a while. The decline of U.S. hegemony, the rise of China, and Russia’s assertive foreign policy are the most important issues regarding the course of the ...world-system. On the one hand, the United States and its allies (in Samir Amin’s words, “the triad”) have desperately tried to protect the status quo. On the other hand, China and Russia have tried to create an alternative to sustain the capitalist world-system instead of U.S. hegemony. For this reason, to analyze the world-system, I argue that core-periphery relations should be reevaluated regarding China and Russia with the concept of semi-core. This study aims to evaluate the possible outcomes and prospects in the world-system in light of the rivalry between core and semi-core, and asserts that the world-system is in the phase of interregnum that consists of instabilities and disorders. This phase of interregnum has stemmed from the existence of semi-core and the structural crisis of the system.
ABSTRACT
Restructuring of the automotive industry in the post‐2000 period has led to the emergence of three strata of automotive manufacturing jurisdictions. Core automotive countries host the ...headquarters of global automakers. They retain most research and development (R&D) and high levels of production. By contrast, integrated peripheries offer low‐cost labour. While increasing levels of vehicle production have gravitated there, they have been unable to attract mandates for knowledge‐intensive portions of the automotive value chain. Finally, semi‐peripheries have neither a home‐grown automaker nor low‐cost labour. Consequently, they have been unable to gain mandates for R&D and struggle to maintain production. Thus, policy makers in non‐core countries consider a range of tools to either retain their position or ‘graduate’ from one category to another. Recently, the demand for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) has given rise to new vehicle manufacturers. Turkey is attempting to develop a BEV automaker and jump from an automotive integrated periphery country to one having a key attribute of an automotive core: a home‐grown automaker. This article reveals and discusses Turkey's generous incentives and assesses the challenges the Turkish BEV entrant will confront, as well as its potential to generate wider economic benefits. The authors also consider the application the Turkey case study has for our understanding of power and upgrading in automotive global value chains.
Following the military coup of April 25th, 1974, Portugal experienced a revolutionary period characterized by unprecedented levels of labor unrest and political radicalization. As the social ...landscape suffered a profound transformation, key-sectors of the economy were nationalized, many firms went into self-management, and large areas of the south were swept by land occupation. When the country’s democratic Constitution was brought to vote on April 2, 1976, it contained numerous references to “socialism,” “self-management,” “planning,” and “agrarian reform,” bearing witness to a widespread commitment to build a “classless society.” What eventually took shape, however, was a mixed economy under a parliamentary regime, very similar to that of countries like Greece and Spain, both of which experienced far less dramatic democratic transitions. Drawing on the writings of Immanuel Wallerstein, Giovanni Arrighi, and Boaventura de Sousa Santos, this article analyzes the plans and strategies devised to ensure a socialist transition in the semiperiphery of the capitalist world-system during the 1970s.
Peripheral municipalities are defined in the article based on their substantial time remoteness from higher settlement centres. Inside the catchment region of these centres, on the continuum: higher ...settlement centre – periphery, the zone of the remote peripheral municipalities, and zone of semi-peripheral and suburban municipalities can be distinguished. The human capital of municipalities in these zones is evaluated and compared subsequently in the article. This is necessary because the low human capital of peripheral municipalities is often due to their remoteness. In addition, the remoteness and low level of human capital require different mitigating and stimulating instruments and measures. The assumption of low level of human capital in peripheral municipalities can only be partially confirmed – only one third of the peripheral municipalities in South Bohemia report significantly unfavourable values of human capital indicators. The level of the human capital in some peripheral municipalities improves thanks to tourism, counter-urbanization, quality municipality management and government instruments and measures specified in the article.
•Peripheral municipalities should be delimited by considerable time remoteness from commuting towns.•This delineation is necessary to distinguish problems of remoteness and low (human) capital.•Peripheral municipalities have low human capital compared to semi-peripheral and especially suburban municipalities.•However, some peripheral municipalities have a high human capital due to specific factors.•The effects of remoteness need to be mitigated mainly in municipalities located both on micro- and mezzo-regional periphery.
Ireland, Portugal and Slovenia – three states with different historical legacies and institutional frameworks – promoted labour market flexibility and active labour market policies before and during ...the 2008 crisis. These policies were postulated as basic poli-cies on the EU level. However, a significant change came with the COVID-19 crisis when governments in all three states implemented measures much more resembling neo-Keynesian policies. In the article, we show that the crucial mechanisms for the various labour market poli-cy choices made in these three countries were due to the two crises being of distinct types, the (non)coincidence of interests of a range of actors and classes, and the dif-ferent policy frameworks promoted by the EU. Keywords: crises, flexibility, labour market, European union, semi-periphery, COVID-19
Since the 2000s, Latin America is experiencing an increase in activities related to the software and computer services (SSI) sector. However, what are the alternatives and challenges that new ...technologies open up to promote processes of technological change and new productive dynamics in peripheral countries? This paper wants to show some elements that contribute to answering these concerns and the general debate on the current phase of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within what some authors have called the "techno-economic paradigm" (Pérez 2010) in the Argentine case. In order to do so, we explore the characteristics that the ICT sector - and SSI in particular - assumes on an international scale, and then stop at the singularities of SSI at the local level. From a critical view of the innovation economy (with some elements of Latin American structuralism), it is investigated in the problematic raised from the collection and analysis of secondary sources and the review of a broad set of public policies designed for the sector during the post-devaluation period.
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