global economy

economy

A cultural adaptation to the environment that enables a group of humans to use the available land, resources, and labor to satisfy their needs and thrive

food foragers

Humans who subsist by hunting, fishing, and gathering plants to eat.

pastoralism

A strategy for food production involving the domestication and herding of animals.

horticulture

The cultivation of plants for subsistence through nonintensive use of land and labor.

agriculture

Farming strategy for food production involving permanently cultivated land to create a surplus.

industrial agriculture

Intensive farming practices involving mechanization and mass production of foodstuffs.

reciprocity

The exchange of resources, goods, and services among people of equal status to create and reinforce social ties (generalized, balanced, negative)

redistribution

A form of exchange in which accumulated wealth is collected from the members of the group and reallocated in a different pattern.

triangle trade

Exchange of enslaved people, sugar, cotton, and furs between Europe, Africa, and the Americas that transformed economic, political, and social life

industrial revolution

The 18 and 19th century shift from agriculture and artisanal skill craft to machine-based manufacturing.

modernization theories

Post–WW2 economic theories that predicted that with the end of colonialism, less-developed countries would follow the same trajectory toward modernization as the industrialized countries.

development

Post–WW2 strategy of wealthy nations to spur global economic growth, alleviate poverty, and raise living standards through strategic investment in national economies of former colonies.

dependency theory

A critique of modernization theory arguing that despite the end of colonialism, the underlying economic relations of the modern world economic system had not changed.

neocolonialism

A continued pattern of unequal economic relations between former colonial states and former colonies despite the formal end of colonial political and military control.

core countries

Industrialized former colonial states that dominate the world economic system.

periphery countries

The least developed and powerful nations; often exploited by the core countries as sources of raw materials, cheap labor, and markets.

semiperiphery countries

Nations ranking in between core and periphery countries, with some attributes of the core countries but with less of a central role in the global economy.

fordism

The dominant model of industrial production for much of the 20th century, based on a social compact between labor, corporations, and government.

flexible accumulation

The increasingly flexible strategies that corporations use to accumulate profits in an era of globalization, enabled by innovative communication and transportation technologies.

neoliberalism

Sees the free market as the main mechanism for ensuring economic growth, with a severely restricted role for government.

outsourcing

engaging external parties, often with diverse cultural backgrounds, to handle tasks that a company would otherwise handle internally

offshoring

relocating business operations and functions to another country

structural adjustment

seek to stabilize a country’s long-term economic development by imposing neoliberal economic policies, on poor and underdeveloped countries

cryptocurrencies

decentralized digital or virtual currencies secured through encryption