Geographies of capital accumulation: Tracing the emergence of multi-polarity, 1980-2014

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Articlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    To properly assess the relative places of China and the United States in the world system, the fact of the transformation of old, and the emergence of new, centers of capital accumulation needs to be established, and some attempt made to develop means of measuring these developments. This paper, working within the framework of Uneven and Combined Development, will suggest a new metric by which we can assess the geography of capital accumulation in the world economy, a metric with three components. The first component examines national income, both per capita and as shares of the world total. The second component refines the latter to an examination of share of world manufacturing, with a specific examination of distribution of the key sector of high-technology manufacturing. The third and final component examines the distribution of large corporations through the world economy, and introduces a new term - the relative weight of large corporations. All components of this metric suggest that key aspects of the modern economy remain "territorially bound" and clearly reveal the steady, long-term decline of the United States as the dominant center of capital accumulation, and the simultaneous emergence of new centers of capital accumulation in an increasingly multipolar world economy.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)259-294
    Number of pages36
    JournalResearch in Political Economy
    Volume30A
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015

    Keywords

    • Capital accumulation
    • China
    • High-technology manufacturing
    • Multi-polar
    • Uneven and combined development
    • World economy

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Geographies of capital accumulation: Tracing the emergence of multi-polarity, 1980-2014'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this