research material

The making of a digital world: the evolution of technological change and how it shaped our world

Rennstich, Joachim K. (2008). The making of a digital world: the evolution of technological change and how it shaped our world. Evolutionary processes in world politics series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Providing a unique, empirically based perspective on the past and future development of globalization as a long-term process emerging in different parts of the world, this book puts current changes in a historical context in a systematic fashion, unpacking the global political, economic, social, and cultural implications of this change. It traces the resemblance of past commercial networks with emerging digital networks and contrasts them with industrial production systems.

BibTeX


@book{Rennstich2008ab,
Address = {New York },
Author = {Joachim K. Rennstich},
Booktitle = {The making of a digital world: the evolution of technological change and how it shaped our world },
Call-Number = {HM831},
Dewey-Call-Number = {303.48/201},
Genre = {Social change},
Isbn = {1403974489},
Keywords = {iNet economy, digital commercial system, evolutionary theory, complex adaptive systems},
Library-Id = {2007027280},
Publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan},
Rating = {5},
Series = {Evolutionary processes in world politics series},
Title = {The making of a digital world: the evolution of technological change and how it shaped our world},
Year = {2008},
Abstract = {Providing a unique, empirically based perspective on the past and future development of globalization as a long-term process emerging in different parts of the world, this book puts current changes in a historical context in a systematic fashion, unpacking the global political, economic, social, and cultural implications of this change. It traces the resemblance of past commercial networks with emerging digital networks and contrasts them with industrial production systems.},
Annote = {Develops a model of world system development as complex adaptive social system.},
Bdsk-Url-1 = {http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/product.aspx?isbn=1403974489}}

Is globalization self-organizing?

In: Globalization as evolutionary process: Modeling, simulating, and forecasting global change, edited by George Modelski and Tessalino Devezas and William R. Thompson. 2007. London: Routledge.

The observance of a relatively stable pattern of global system development has often been criticised for the lack of theoretical underpinnings of its pulsating behavior. This paper contributes to the growing literature that combines complex system explanations with theories of global system development, providing a generational perspective on the rise and demise of centers of socio-economic leadership. It argues, that the pattern of roughly one-hundred year long waves of alternating leadership clusters - characterized by their innovative development of a coherent socio-technological paradigm - can be empirically traced and analyzed through the observance of a three-step generational cohort pattern, what is termed here as the ``Buddenbrook cycle.'' Based of innovations originating in new forms of socio-technological behavior of the first generation, the following second generation groomed in this new environment, transforms these innovations into a coherent socio-technological paradigm, whereas the third generation remains ``stuck'' in this formerly superior paradigm, unable to adapt to emerging new alternative socio-technological innovations, and allowing new socio-economic innovations to arise in alternative and geographically separate clusters.

BibTeX


@inbook{Rennstich2007aa,
Address = {London},
Author = {Joachim K. Rennstich},
Booktitle = {Globalization as evolutionary process: Modeling, simulating, and forecasting global change},
Editor = {George Modelski and Tessalino Devezas and William R. Thompson},
Keywords = {complex systems; evolutionary models; long-cycles; generational theory},
Pages = {88--108},
Publisher = {Routledge},
Title = {Is globalization self-organizing?},
Year = {2007},
Abstract = {The observance of a relatively stable pattern of global system development has often been criticised for the lack of theoretical underpinnings of its pulsating behavior. This paper contributes to the growing literature that combines complex system explanations with theories of global system development, providing a generational perspective on the rise and demise of centers of socio-economic leadership. It argues, that the pattern of roughly one-hundred year long waves of alternating leadership clusters - characterized by their innovative development of a coherent socio-technological paradigm - can be empirically traced and analyzed through the observance of a three-step generational cohort pattern, what is termed here as the ``Buddenbrook cycle.'' Based of innovations originating in new forms of socio-technological behavior of the first generation, the following second generation groomed in this new environment, transforms these innovations into a coherent socio-technological paradigm, whereas the third generation remains ``stuck'' in this formerly superior paradigm, unable to adapt to emerging new alternative socio-technological innovations, and allowing new socio-economic innovations to arise in alternative and geographically separate clusters.},
Bdsk-Url-1 = {http://www.routledge.com/books/Globalization-as-Evolutionary-Process-isbn9780415773614}}

Book review: Territory, authority, rights: From medieval to global assemblages

Rennstich, J. K. (2007). Book review of "Territory, authority, rights: From medieval to global assemblages". Perspectives on Politics, 5(2):416–417.

Book review of Sassen, Saskia. 2006. Territory, authority, rights: From medieval to global assemblages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Chaos or ReOrder? The Future of Hegemony in a World-System in Upheaval

Journal of World-Systems Research. 2005. 11(2): 209-38

v11n2_cover_hmpg
Observing the latest trends of a rise in interest in the development of power distribution in a world-system created and dominated by states but increasingly challenged as such, this paper takes a deeper look at the historical evolution of this system, its current transformation, and likely future development. After a brief discussion of prevalent concepts of world(-)system development and its sociopolitical control, this work offers an evolutionary perspective to place current changes of power and its distribution in the dynamic long-term development of global system formation. It then presents alternative visions of the future development of political and economic hegemony. It concludes that a further rise in instability of global political power distribution accompanied by a likely challenge to existing distributional patterns has a high probability of occurrence.

BibTeX


Podcasting

In: Handbuch E-Learning. Expertenwissen aus Wissenschaft und Praxis. Strategien - Instrumente - Fallstudien, edited by Hohenstein, Andreas und Karl Wilbera. Köln: Fachverlag Deutscher Wirtschaftsdienst. 2002ff. (wird laufend ergänzt).

hohenstein_wilbers-727568
Podcasting ist spätestens seit diesem Jahr ein Massenmedium geworden und hat sich als Radio-on-Demand im Internet durchgesetzt. Der folgende Beitrag zeigt jedoch, dass dieses Medium nicht nur in dem relativ beschränktem Umfang als Online-Audio-Datei zum herunterladen verstanden werden sollte, sondern vielmehr als wirkungsvolles kostengünstiges plattform-übergreifendes Medium gerade im E-Learning-Bereich. Bestehende PC-Technologien machen semi-professionelle Ergebnisse in der Produktions-stufe auch mit geringstem Budget und Personal möglich.

BibTeX


The Future of Hegemony and Global System Leadership (2005)

In: The Future of World Society, edited by Mark Herkenrath, Claudia König, Hanno Scholtz, and Thomas Volken (2005) Zurich, CH: Intelligent.

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order here]

The latest resurgence of interest in the concept of hegemony and empire – both in the popular and academic realm – has been mostly the result of a change in perception of power, specifically its sources, application, and distribution. Here we argue, that this can largely be explained as the result of the dynamic changes inherent in the process of global system formation. After a brief discussion of prevalent concepts of political and economic hegemony, this work offers an evolutionary perspective to place current changes of power and its distribution in the dynamic long-term development of global system formation. It then presents alternative visions of the future development of political and economic hegemony. It concludes that a further rise in instability of global political power distribution accompanied by a likely challenge to existing distributional patterns has a high probability of occurrence.

BibTeX


Three Steps in the Globalization of the International System: Global Networks from 1000 B.C.E. to 2053 C.E. (2005)

In Globalization and Global History, edited by Barry K. Gills and William R. Thompson (2005) London: Routledge.

Most treatments of globalization view it as a relatively recent and unique process. Combining frameworks of political geography (world city and network analysis) with a long-term oriented IR framework, further evidence is provided for the emergence of an informational network economy, global in extent, cyclical in occurrence, and evolutionary in nature. The chapter empirically traces the origins of today's global digital infrastructure (in the form of ICT networks) from the emergence of a commercial Phoenician system emerging 1000B C.E. over the 13/14th century Italian city-state and 16th century Dutch maritime commercial networks. The focus on networks and the re-emergence of global cities as central nodes in the world economy highlights the need to add data beyond the state as the level of analysis for studies of the international system. At the same time, however, it makes evident the need to view these nodes as an embedded part of a state-based international system.

BibTeX


The Phoenix-Cycle: Global Leadership Transition in a Long-Wave Perspective (2004)

In Hegemony, Globalization and Antisystemic Movements, edited by Thomas E. Reifer. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.

The reoccurring shift in the geographical and political location of power as a result of hegemonic transitions has been explained as the outcome of the leader’s experience of success in the current setting, creating an entrenched institutional setting (in a broader sense) that proves adaptive in defending its turf but less so in fostering the rise of new leading sectors. This paper introduces the concept of internal and external global network environments in the world system and argues that the extension of leadership from an old to a new commercial and organizational arrangement is dependent on the systemic nature of the world system. A shift from an external to an internal network environment (or vice versa) allows the parallel development and rise of new leading sectors because they pose no threat to the existing institutional setting of the established leading sectors. The emerging new leading sectors do profit from the relative advantages of the current leadership position (in terms of capital, costs, etc.) without the resistance usually encountered from the established leading sectors. The paper develops a systematic account of the shifts from maritime commercial (external network environment) phases, over industrial (internal network environment) phases, to the rise of a digital commercial (external network environment) phase. It concludes that the shift from an industrial phase to the new digital commercial phase puts the current systemic leader, the United States, in a position of continued leadership over two long-waves.

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previous, more detailed draft]

BibTeX


The Future of Great Power Rivalries (2003)

Ch. 9 (pp. 143-61) in: New Theoretical Directions for the 21st Century, edited by W. A. Dunaway. 2003. Westport, CT: Praeger

Grounded in the expanding literature on the concept of rivalry this chapter examines the question whether we should expect the number of rivalries in the twenty-first century to rise, to remain steady, or even to fall and why so. It introduces a categorization of “contexts” in the form of global rivalry environments in which interstate rivalries occur. Combining the framework of the leadership long cycle and the concept of rivalries we are able to identify global long cycle environments that determine the way rivalries are established, how they “behave,” and how they end. Just as major shocks cause the equilibria of interstate rival behavior to rearrange and create a new stable environment, so do major global shocks create a phase of transition after which a new global environment is established in which the rivalries take place. The chapter offers a unique view on the past, presence, and future of major power rivalry behavior in the international system by developing three main global rivalry environments (and two transitional phases) stretching from 1200 to 1990 and describing selected parameters influencing rivalry behavior unique in their character in each of those global rivalry environments. It concludes, that the number of strategic rivalries can be expected to remain relatively low, the number of commercial rivalries, however, is very likely to increase significantly in the not too distant future.

BibTeX


The New Economy, the Leadership Long Cycle, and the Nineteenth K-Wave (2002)

The Review of International Political Economy. 2002. 9 (1): 150-82

Most authors analyzing the ‘New Economy’ study it as an isolated phenomenon. This approach, however, misses the continued significance of structural economic and sociopolitical fundamentals, both domestically and within the world economy. This paper examines the current changes in the global economic environment in a historical and structural context and identifies change as a pattern constantly discernible in at least the past one thousand years. The changes leading to the New Economy are neither unique in a historical context, nor do they represent the end of the nation state and its role in the global economy. Instead, the changes represent a common pattern observed over an extended period of time. A convincing framework to study and explain the question of economic and political global leadership in the course of history is the leadership long cycle paradigm. The paper identifies the Internet as the new leading sector of the nineteenth K-wave and the United States as the country most likely to be the old and new leading economy in the world economic and political system.

BibTeX