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From: Paul S Ciccantell <ciccant@ksu.ksu.edu>
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 14:55:57 -0500
PEWS 1996: SPACE AND TRANSPORT IN THE WORLD-SYSTEM
Key metaphors in world-system analysis are profoundly
spatial, but there have been few systematic attempts to
understand how space, location, and topography affect
world-system organization and process. Most of the raw materials
needed for industrial production are located in specific places
with particular topographies that directly affect the
organization of their extraction and processing. Space and place
constitute strategic advantages and obstacles in the coordination
of commodity chains. National states plan and invest around
problems of space in their domestic territories as well as in
their location within the world economy.
The articulation and integration of core and periphery
across space depends on transport. As world systems incorporate
more space and transform more raw materials into commodities,
material flows across space and matter incorporated into
particular built environments increase as well. This increase
creates requirements and opportunities for scale-economic
innovations in railways, ports, loading and unloading equipment,
and ships. These innovations increase the amounts of inflexibly
sunk capital in vehicles and infrastructure, thereby fomenting
incentives and pressures for ever tighter coordination of
transport systems across regional and national boundaries.
Because the costs and benefits of building integrated transport
systems around the globe are unequally distributed, these systems
contribute directly to the creation and reproduction of
inequalities and subordination in the world- system.
In this sense, transport and transport systems provide a
critical medium for the structuring and periodic reorganization
and expansion of the world- system. The construction and
regulation of these complex systems provide a useful analytic
window into the interactions of technological, organizational,
and political change that occur as rising economies attempt to
restructure world markets for raw materials and finished goods to
their own advantage.
Similarly, the construction of global air travel and
telecommunications networks have also had profound impacts on the
flows of goods, capital, people, and information in the world
economy. These networks have thus also helped reshape and
reproportion location, distance, and position in the world-
system.
However, world-systems theory and many other perspectives on
the world economy, including international political economy and
analysis of globalization, typically pay only limited attention
to issues of space, location, and the role of transportation in
the world economy. The Annual Conference of the Political
Economy of the World-System, April 19-20, 1996 at Kansas State
University in Manhattan, Kansas will address these issues via
paper presentations and extended discussions involving both
presenters and the audience. This interactive format will allow
participants to identify key theoretical and empirical lines of
enquiry and to begin formulating research strategies to address
this gap in our understanding of the world economy.
PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
Friday, April 19, 1996:
5:00-7:00 p.m.: Welcome Reception at the Manhattan Ramada Inn
Saturday, April 20, 1996:
9:00-9:15: Welcome and Conference Overview
Michael Timberlake, Kansas State University
9:15-11:15: Theoretical Perspectives
1. Robert Clark, Dept. of Public and International Affairs,
George Mason University: "Bulk Flow Systems and Globalization"
2. Phil Steinberg, Dept. of Geography, Clark University:
"Ocean-Space and the Capitalist World-Economy"
3. Stephen G. Bunker, Dept. of Sociology, University of
Wisconsin: "Transport and Hegemony"
Discussion
11:15-11:30: Break
11:30-12:45: Transport and the Core
1. David Smith, Department of Sociology, Univ. of
California-Irvine and Michael Timberlake, Dept. of Sociology,
Anthropology and Social Work, Kansas State University: "The
Global Network of Cities: What Airline Exchanges Tell Us About
The Structure of the World-System's City System"
2. John Gulick, Dept. of Sociology, Univ. of California-Santa
Cruz: "Intermodal Transport and North American West Coast Ports"
3. Craig Harris, Dept. of Sociology, Michigan State Univ.:
"Fisheries in the World-System"
Discussion
12:45-2:15: Lunch
Ron Wilson, Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development,
Kansas State University: "The High Plains Transport Corridor"
2:15-4:15: Transport and the Periphery and Semiperiphery
1. Baldev Raj Nayar, Dept. of Political Science, McGill
University: ""Power and the Shaping of Markets: Imperialism and
Shipping Nationalism in Colonial India"
2. Saule Omarova, Dept. of Political Science, University of
Wisconsin: "Oil Pipelines in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan"
3. Richard Lee, Fernand Braudel Center, SUNY-Binghamton: "Rail
Transport in the Incorporation of West Africa"
Discussion
4. Jonathan Leitner, Dept. of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-
Madison: "Raw Materials, Transport, Capitalist Conflict, and
Regional (Under)Development: Upper Michigan's Copper Country,
1840-1940"
Discussion
4:15-4:30: Break
4:30-5:30: Discussion of Themes and Issues
6:30: Dinner
Conference Organizers:
Paul S. Ciccantell
Department of Sociology
Waters Hall
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
email: ciccant@ksu.ksu.edu
(913)532-4974
Stephen G. Bunker
Department of Sociology
1180 Observatory Drive
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706
For Further Information:
About the Program: contact Assistant Professor Ciccantell at the
above address.
About Your Registration: contact Conference Registration at
(913)532-5566
Accommodations: A block of rooms is being held until April 5 for
the nights of Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20 at the
Ramada Inn, Manhattan. It is located across the street from the
Kansas State Union. Rates are $59 for a single or double. Be
sure to mention the Political Economy of the World- System when
you make your reservations to get the special rate. Please call
them directly at (913)539-7531.
Registration Information: Registration check-in will be held from
8-9 a.m. on Saturday, April 20 on the second floor of the Kansas
State Union. The registration fee of $30 includes all conference
materials, breaks and lunch. Refunds, minus a $6 handling
charge, will be available if notification is received by April
12.
You may register in one of three ways: Call (913)532-5566 and ask
for Conference Registration; Fax the registration form to
(913)532-5637; Or mail the registration form with payment to:
Political Economy of the World-System
Division of Continuing Education
Kansas State University
141 College Court
Manhattan, KS 665065-6015
If we receive your registration by April 12, you will receive a
confirmation letter, your receipt, and a map directing you to
Manhattan and the Kansas State campus.
Location and Parking: All sessions will take place in the Kansas
State Student Union on the Kansas State University campus in
Manhattan, KS. There is a parking lot adjacent to the Union and
permits are not required on weekends. If you arrive on Friday
before 5:00 p.m. and wish to park on campus, you will need to
purchase a permit from the Visitors Booth next to the Union
parking lot.
ADA Policy: The Kansas State University Division of Continuing
Education is committed to making programs accessible to all
participants. If you have special requirements due to
disabilities or dietary restrictions, please contact the Division
of Continuing Education Registrar at (913)532-5566 by April 5.
After that date, we will make every effort to provide assistance
but cannot guarantee that requested services will be available.
Notice of Nondiscrimination: Kansas State University is committed
to a policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of race, sex,
national origin, disability, religion, age, sexual orientation,
or other nonmerit reasons, in admissions, educational programs or
activities, and employment (including employment of disabled
veterans and veterans of the Vietnam era), all as required by
applicable laws and regulations. Responsibility for coordination
of compliance efforts and receipt of inquiries, including those
concerning Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans
With Disabilities Act, has been delegated to Jane Rowlett, Ph.D.,
Director, Unclassified Affairs and University Compliance, Kansas
State University, 111 Anderson Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506-0124
(913-532- 4392).!POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE WORLD-SYSTEM CONFERENCE
April 19-20, 1996
Kansas State Union
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS
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