XVI International Colloquium on Political Economy of the World-Systems
THE CURRENT CONJUNCTURE OF THE CAPITALIST WORLD-ECONOMY AND CHANGES IN THE BALANCE OF POWER BETWEEN EAST AND WEST
December 5th and 6th, 2022
Florianópolis | SC | Brazil
hybrid event
CALL FOR PAPERS
The revolt against the West in South Asia and East Asia was a historical reality from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. After the Japanese military challenge was solved at the end of the Second World War, a new challenge arose and brought the United States (as a rising hegemonic nation) and a new China (invigorated by the adoption of a Chinese version of Marxism-Leninism and the reconstitution of his country as a modern state) face to face in the struggle for centrality in East Asia. The subsequent economic renaissance of this region, accelerated since the last quarter of the last century, has raised it to the condition of the most dynamic center of the processes of capital accumulation on a world scale, and points to a possible recentralization of the global economy in the East in the 21st century. It is a clear sign of the transfer of power from the West to the East and the imminent end of the long process of Western meddling and domination in Asia. It is not yet known how far this rapid economic expansion of the East Asia region will go, but we are tempted to follow and analyze the directions of the current shift in the balance between Western and non-Western civilizations.
The emergence of China as the epicenter of the processes of capital and power accumulation in East Asia and its growing prominence in the interstate system and the U.S. reaction to its hegemonic decline - seeking to contain the Chinese rise - are the two main processes that shape world politics, economy, and society. In this context, we have as possibilities both a period of systemic chaos, the destruction of the capitalist world-economy as we know it or even a hegemonic transition. What we know from historical experience is that since the late 1970s the U.S. hegemonic decline has been underway. The crisis of U.S. hegemony has entered a new stage in the 21st century, precipitated by 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, placing that country in the exclusive condition of dominator (and, therefore, lacking moral and intellectual leadership) in the interstate system of power. They remain the predominant military power in the world, and their influence has been, is and will be considerable in the new “balance of terror”. The transition from Dutch to British hegemony lasted about 150 years, while the transition from British to U.S. hegemony lasted less than 75 years. Half a century of the current transition has already passed, and it seems unlikely that we will witness an acceleration of historical time in terms of hegemonic transitions. Hence, we are called upon to monitor and analyze the processes of intensification of interstate and intercapitalist competition, the escalation of social conflicts and the emergence of new configurations of power. The recent war between Russia and Ukraine/NATO and the US provocation of the Chinese do not bring us good signs.
There is both a relative and an absolute loss in the ability of the United States to maintain centrality within the global political economy. China has been replacing them as the main driver of commercial and economic expansion, not only in the East Asian region, but also in other regions of the world. Does this relative decline of the United States and the rise of East Asia seem to indicate that we are in a period of hegemonic transition, along the lines outlined by Arrighi? Or is it about the terminal crisis of the Capitalist World-Economy, as defined by Wallerstein? Faced with these two scenarios, can China offer peripheral and semi-peripheral countries another path of development, that is, a non-capitalist global market economy? Or will it replicate the same productive and destructive logic of previous hegemonies, leading the Capitalist World-Economy to another systemic cycle of accumulation, this time centered in the East Asia? The adoption of the neoliberal recipe caused a series of economic disasters in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the countries of the former Soviet Union. The case of Latin America and Brazil in particular illustrates well the disappointment with neoliberal counter-reforms: low economic growth, social exclusion, misery, poverty, income concentration, precarious work relations, increased unemployment, expansion of violence, political instability etc.
Two questions are fundamental for us to monitor the situation of peripheral and semi-peripheral countries in the face of the social and ecological devastation caused by the development of historical capitalism. First, will countries be able to allocate eventual surpluses of their balance of payments to improve the structural conditions of inequality, or will they make them available to the bodies controlled by the dominant poles, maintaining the spoliation that characterizes historical capitalism? Second, will peripheral/semi-peripheral countries in general, and China and India in particular, be able to open a distinct path of development less unequal, and guided by ecological principles? The formation of a new Bandung, which has the potential to use the global market as an instrument to equalize power relations between core, semi-periphery and periphery, is also not ruled out.
In this sixteenth edition of the International Colloquium on Political Economy of the World-Systems, we invite all researchers, students and other interested parties to send papers on the current conjuncture of the capitalist world-economy. Lastly, contributions regarding PEWS itself are welcomed, either by criticizing or updating it.
Important Dates
Full Paper Submission: November 6, 2022
Notification of Acceptance: November 14, 2022
Presence Confirmation: November 21, 2022
Publication of the event schedule: November 25, 2022.
Submission Guidelines
Formatting guidelines: “Word for windows” or PDF file; Times New Roman 12 font; spacing 1.5; maximum of 20 pages.
Electronic e-mail address: 
Organizing Committee
Fabio Padua dos Santos (CNM/UFSC)
Pedro Antonio Vieira (PPGRI/UFSC)
Helton Ricardo Ouriques (PPGRI/UFSC)
Brenda Caroline Geraldo (PPGRI/UFSC)
Gustavo Gatto Gomes (PPGRI/UFSC)
Paola Huwe de Paoli (PPGRI/UFSC)
Scientific Committee
Antonio Brussi (UnB)
Bruno Hendler (UFSM)
Carlos Eduardo Martins (UFRJ)
Presented by
Research Group on Political Economy of World-Systems.
Support
UFSC, Socio-Economic Center, Department of Economics and International Relations and Graduate Program in International Relations.
