Introduction: inclusion and exclusion.(Editorial)

Publication: Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development

Publication Date: 22-MAR-03

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation

When I was approached to edit a special issue of URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY, it was on the basis of past work on industrial restructuring and its effects on local community organization. Having moved on to new fieldwork in the Florida Everglades, I suggested that we engage the current debates concerning the nature of globalization and the role of communities, regions and populations in the formation of the global ecumene. This change reflects topical currents in anthropology, and the role that anthropological analyses play in mirroring present social conditions (Wolf, 1974). Inclusion and Exclusion seemed an appropriate organizing reference for this discussion, for much of the current literature comments on the forces that are powering the current processes, and those peoples and places that may be affected but disenfranchised in the current language of globalization.

The papers in this volume thus update a recurring debate, most notably fostered by the publication of THE MODERN WORLD SYSTEM in 1974. Wallerstein's argument was that a world system had developed that separated areas into "cores" and "peripheries," with peripheral areas servicing the core states with capital, labor and...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.