Section members may be interested in the publication of the Summer/Fall 2015 issue of the Journal of World-Systems Research (http://jwsr.pitt.edu), which is a special issue on World-System Biographies, guest edited by Kevan Harris and Brendan McQuade.
The papers in this special issue explore the intersections of biography and history, demonstrating how decisions and actions of particular individuals were shaped by the larger world-historical context, and how in turn the agency of individuals affects history. In this issue, David Huyssen explores the life of Alfred Winslow Jones, the socialist inventor of the hedge fund. Brendan McQuade explains George Orwell’s role in the Old Left. Roberto Ortiz considers Ruben Darío, the master poet of the periphery, identifying the continuing dilemmas of intellectuals from the periphery. Similarly, Ana Candela analyzes Chen Da’s transformation of sociology during the crises of social and political life in early 20th century China. Expanding the geographic range of cases, Şahan Savaş Karataşlı sifts through the career of Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Özal to unpack the heterodox path of neoliberal Turkey. Kevan Harris looks at the rise of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad as a harbinger of 21st century forms of political struggle. Finally, Georgi Derluguian reflects on world-system biography as a method and uses it to frame the life of Immanuel Wallerstein himself.
In addition to the special issue, the journal has two outstanding articles: Jonathan Shefner, Aaron Rowland, and GeorgePasdirtz explore how austerity policies and the hardships they generate for people and communities affect protest. And Cristina A. Lucier and Brian J. Gareau show how the framing of discourse around the toxic waste trade undermines efforts of environmental activists.
Recognizing the upcoming meeting of the Framework Convention on Climate Change this December. The journal has invited leading environmental researchers and scholar/activists—Patrick Bond, Nora McKeon, and Andrew Jorgenson—to share their insights in a special symposium on the climate crisis and antisystemic movements.
The book review section features a special symposium on Nancy Plankey-Videla’s We are in this Dance Together: Gender, Power, and Globalization at a Mexican Garment Firm. In addition to this symposium, there is also the usual complement of reviews, including a review of a non-English language book.
The Journal of World-Systems Research is available free online at www.jwsr.org. It is the official journal of the American Sociological Association’s section on Political Economy of the World-System and one of the first scholarly, open access journals. Please help us spread the word about the issue and forward the details below to friends and colleagues. You can also now find JWSR and PEWS on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/groups/PEWSJWSR).
Journal of World-Systems Research
Volume 21 Number 2
Summer 2015
Table of Contents
SYMPOSIUM
The Climate Crisis & Anti-Systemic Movements
Nora McKeon | La Via Campesina: The ‘Peasants’ Way’ to Changing the System, not the Climate
Patrick Bond | Can Climate Activists’ ‘Movement Below’ Transcend Negotiators’ ‘Paralysis Above’?
Andrew K. Jorgenson | Five Points on Sociology, PEWS, and Climate Change
SPECIAL ISSUE
World-System Biographies
Guest Editors, Kevan Harris & Brendan McQuade
Kevan Harris and Brendan McQuade | Notes on the Method of World-System Biography
David Huyssen | From Socialism to Hedge Fund: The Human Element and the New History of Capitalism
Brendan McQuade | “The road from Mandalay to Wigan is a long one and the reasons for taking it aren’t immediately clear”: A World System Biography of George Orwell
Roberto José Ortiz | Aristocratic Rebellion: Ruben Darío and the Creation of Artistic Freedom in the World-System
Ana Maria Candela | Sociology in Times of Crisis: Chen Da, National Salvation and the Indigenization of Knowledge
Şahan Savaş Karataşlı | The Origins of Turkey’s “Heterodox” Transition to Neoliberalism: The Özal Decade and Beyond
Kevan Harris | The Breakaway Boss: Semiperipheral Innovations and the Rise of Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad
ARTICLES
Jonathan Shefner, Aaron Rowland, and George Pasdirtz Pasdirtz | Austerity and Anti-Systemic Protest: Bringing Hardships Back In
Cristina A. Lucier and Brian J. Gareau | From Waste to Resources? Interrogating ‘Race to the Bottom’ in the Global Environmental Governance of the Hazardous Waste Trade
REVIEW SYMPOSIUM ON NANCY PLANKEY-VIDELA’S WE ARE IN THIS DANCE TOGETHER: GENDER, POWER, AND GLOBALIZATION AT A MEXICAN GARMENT FIRM
Contributions from Aurelia Lorena Murga, Cristina Morales, Marina Karides, Jennifer Bair, Carol Walther, Smitha Radhakrishnan, and Nancy Plankey Videla
BOOK REVIEWS
Is the American Century Over? by Joseph S. Nye Jr., reviewed by Salvatore Babones
The Myth of the Democratic Peacekeeper by Arturo Sotomayor, reviewed by Robert Rubinstein
Ancestors and Antiretrovirals: The Biopolitics of HIV/AIDS in Post-Apartheid South Africa by Claire Decoteau,reviewed by Lauren Paremoer
The Run of the Red Queen: Government, Innovation, Globalization, and Economic Growth in China by Dan Bresnitz and Michael Murphree, reviewed by Lu Zhang
Global Urban Analysis: A Survey of Cities in Globalization, edited by Peter Taylor, Pengfei Ni, Ben Derudder, Michael Hoyler, Jin Huang, Frank Witlox, reviewed by David Smith
Structural Human Ecology by Thomas Dietz and Andrew Jorgensen, reviewed by Beth Schaefer Caniglia
Factor Analysis of Historical Process: The History of the East [Faktornyy analiz istoricheskoho processa: Istoriya Vostoka] by Sergey A. Nefedov, reviewed by Dmytro Khutkyy
Organizations, Occupations and Work 