Unequal inclusion or expulsion: on the persistence of the North-South divide

Description

Since the late 1980s, the notion of “centre” and “periphery” as spatio-temporal universals is increasingly the subject of criticism. Background for this is, firstly, the growing cultural and economic differentiation among post-colonial states. Secondly, in the course of neoliberal restructuring phenomena like precarity, informality and income inequality, originally attributed to the developing world, returned to the OECD world. More recently, the growth rates of the BRICS countries supported the perception of the “rise of the global South”. Accordingly, the concept of South and North seemed to have lost its analytical strength. In this paper I argue the opposite. My core argument is that the tunnel vision of economic growth and income gains in China and some small and city states in East Asia obscures the fact that the North-South divide still exists. This general statement is based on empirical findings. I will focus on processes of industrialization / de-industrialization, the dependent and uneven integration into global commodity chains and long term trends on the upward mobility in the world system. The term “world system” (already) indicates that the theoretical background of my paper is a world systems perspective.

Period	05 Jul 2017
Event title	Time for Another Revolution? 10th International Critical Management Studies (CMS) Conference
Event type	Conference
Location	United KingdomShow on map