World-System Theory after Andre Gunder Frank

Abstract

If relations spanning bodies of water are what make a world economy, this is not what makes the concept of the "modern world-system," for that is defined by a core-periphery division of labor which would include any inter-regional, inter-societal, or even inter-city division of labor with a dominant center and a dependent edge, e.g. with a core and periphery. The result is that one begins with the core-periphery distinction as the factual starting point and proceeds to theorize from there, when one should begin with the world economy instead as economic relations that span large bodies of water, and then go on to see what kind of theoretical model fits best-it may be the PEWS model, it may not, but it's an empirical question to be answered by fit of data.