Journal of World-Systems Research
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 Archive  |  Vol. 11   |  Num. 1 (July 2005)
Vol. XI
Number 1
Fall 2005
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Front Material (Cover, Table of Contents, Masthead)
Articles
Manuela Boatcă Peripheral Solutions to Peripheral Development: The Case of Early 20th Century Romania
  Abstract

Salvatore J. Babones The Country-Level Income Structure of the World-Economy
xlsStucture of the World-Economy Analytical Tool

  Abstract

Andrew K. Jorgenson
& James Rice
Structural Dynamics of International Trade and Material Consumption: A Cross-National Study of the Ecological Footprints of Less-Developed
  Abstract

Andrey Korotayev A Compact Macromodel of World System Evolution
  Abstract
The fact that up to the 1960s world population growth had been characterized by a hyperbolic trend was discovered quite some time ago. A number of mathematical models describing this trend have already been proposed. Some of these models are rather compact but do not account for the mechanisms of this trend; others account for this trend in a very convincing way, but are rather complex. In fact, the general shape of world population growth dynamics could be accounted for with strikingly simple models like the one which we would like to propose ourselves: dN/dt = a (bK – N) N (1); dK/dt = cNK (2), where N is the world population, K is the level of technology/knowledge, bK corresponds to the number of people (N), which the earth can support with the given level of technology (K). Empirical tests performed by us suggest that the proposed set of two differential equations account for 96.2–99.78% of all the variation in demographic macrodynamics of the world in the last 12,000 years. We believe that the patterns observed in pre-modern world population growth are not coincidental at all. In fact, they reflect population dynamics of quite a real entity, the world system. Note that the presence of a more or less well integrated world system comprising most of the world population is a necessary pre-condition, without which the correlation between the world population numbers generated by hyperbolic growth models and the observed ones would not be especially high. In fact, our findings could be regarded as a striking illustration of the fact well known in complexity studies—that chaotic dynamics at the microlevel can generate a highly deterministic macrolevel behavior. Against this background it is hardly surprising to find that the simplest regularities accounting for extremely high proportions of all the macrovariation can be found just for the largest possible social system—the world system.


Shirley A. Hollis Contact, Incorporation, and the North American Southeast
  Abstract

Book Reviews
Joe Bandy and Jackie Smith, eds.
Coalitions Across Borders: Transnational Protest and the Neoliberal Order
Reviewed by Angela G. Mertig

John H. Bodley
Power of Scale: A Global History Approach
Reviewed by Thomas D. Hall & Kimberly Peyser

Wilson P. Dizard Jr.
Inventing Public Diplomacy: The Story of the U.S. Information Agency
Reviewed by Andrew Austin
Victor M. Ortíz-González
El Paso: Local Frontiers at a Global Crossroads
Reviewed by Dag MacLeod

John M. Talbot
Grounds for Agreement: The Political Economy of the Coffee Commodity Chain
Reviewed by Paul K. Gellert
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