Chapter 2: The Changing Global Context

Question 1

capitalism

Answer 1

form of economic and social organization characterized by the profit motive and the control of the means of production, distribution and exchange of goods.

Question 2

colonialism

Answer 2

the establishment and maintenance of political and legal domination by a state over a separate and alien society.

Question 3

colonization

Answer 3

the action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area.

Question 4

commodity chain

Answer 4

networks of labor and production processes that originate in the extraction or production of raw materials and whose end result is the delivery and consumption of a finished commodity

Question 5

comparative advantage

Answer 5

in specializations that did not duplicate or compete with the domestic suppliers within core countries (e.g., tropical agricultural products like cocoa and bananas simply could not be grown in core countries).

Question 6

division of labor

Answer 6

involved the specialization of different people, regions, and countries in certain kinds of economic activities.

Question 7

environmental determinism

Answer 7

is a doctrine holding that human activities are shaped and constrained by the environment.

Question 8

ethnocentrism

Answer 8

is the attitude that one’s own race and culture are superior to those of others.

Question 9

external areas

Answer 9

regions not yet absorbed into the world-system

Question 10

globalization

Answer 10

is the increasing interconnectedness of different parts of the world through common processes of economic, environmental, political, and cultural change

Question 11

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Answer 11

the standard measure of the value added created through the production of goods and services in a country during a certain period.

Question 12

hearth areas

Answer 12

the five earliest location of urbanizations.

Question 13

hegemony

Answer 13

domination over the world economy, exercised—through a combination of economic, military, financial, and cultural means—by one national state in a particular historical epoch.

Question 14

hinterland

Answer 14

the sphere of economic influence- the area from which it collects products from which it collects products to be exported and through which it distributes imports.

Question 15

imperialism

Answer 15

a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through colonization, use of military force, or other means.

Question 16

import substitution

Answer 16

copying and making goods previously available only by trading

Question 17

jihad

Answer 17

is shorthand for cultural values that are underpinned by religious fundamentalism, traditional tribal allegiances, and opposition to Western materialism.

Question 18

law of diminishing returns

Answer 18

as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, cannot continue to increase if other variables remain at a constant.

Question 19

leadership cycle

Answer 19

periods of international power established by individual states through economic, political, and military competition.

Question 20

minisystem

Answer 20

societies small in size, homogeneous, and relatively simple in structure.

Question 21

neocolonialism

Answer 21

refers to economic and political strategies by which powerful states in core economies indirectly maintain or extend their influence over other areas or people.

Question 22

pandemic

Answer 22

an epidemic that spreads rapidly around the world with high rates of illness and death.

Question 23

peripheral regions

Answer 23

are characterized by dependent and disadvantageous trading relationships, by primitive or obsolescent technologies, and by undeveloped or narrowly specialized economies with low levels of productivity.

Question 24

plantations

Answer 24

large landholdings that usually specialize in the production of one particular crop for market.

Question 25

resilience

Answer 25

the ability of people, organizations or systems to prepare for, respond, recover from and thrive in the face of hazards. The goal is to ensure the continuity and advancement of economic prosperity, business success, environmental quality, and human well-being, despite external threats.

Question 26

risk society

Answer 26

the significance of wealth distribution is being eclipsed by the distribution of risk and in which politics—both domestic and international—is increasingly about avoiding hazards.

Question 27

semiperipheral regions

Answer 27

Regions that have the ability to exploit peripheral regions, but are being exploited by the core regions.

Question 28

slash-and-burn

Answer 28

method of growing food in which wild or forested land is clear cut and any remaining vegetation burned. The resulting layer of ash provides the newly-cleared land with a nutrient-rich layer to help fertilize crops

Question 29

spatial justice

Answer 29

the distribution of society’s benefits and burdens at different spatial scales, taking into account both variations in people’s need and in their contribution to the production of wealth and social well-being.

Question 30

sustainability

Answer 30

the interdependence of the economy, the environment, and social well-being

Question 31

transnational corporations

Answer 31

investments and activities that span international boundaries, with subsidiary companies, factories, offices, or facilities in several coun- tries.

Question 32

urbanization

Answer 32

the population shift from rural to urban areas

Question 33

world-empire

Answer 33

dominion over a sizeable part of. the globe and a correspondingly sizeable part of its inhabitants.

Question 34

world-system

Answer 34

is an interdependent system of countries linked by political and economic competition.