Global Issues Midterm Vocab (all)

World-Systems Theory

A macro-historical framework describing the capitalist world economy as a structured and relational hierarchy that has existed since the sixteenth century.

core-periphery (or core and periphery)*

A structural hierarchy within the global economy in which core regions dominate high-value production activities while peripheral regions specialize in lower-value activities.

semi-periphery

An intermediate position within the world-system combining elements of advantage and vulnerability.

uneven development*

The tendency of capitalist growth to cluster and compound in certain regions while other economies develop more slowly or become poorer.

dependency theory

A framework proposing that peripheral economies are structurally constrained by their integration into global capitalism.

structural power

The capacity to shape the overarching framework, rules, and norms within which other actors — states, firms, or individuals — operate.

relational power

The ability of one actor (e.g. a state) to get another actor to do something they would not otherwise do, typically through persuasion, bargaining, bribery, or coercion.

biophysical foundation*

The physical, energetic, and material basis — land, resources, ecosystems, and above all usable energy — that underlies and makes possible all economic activity, as opposed to treating the economy as a self-contained system of money and exchange.

energy blindness

A term used by energy analysts such as Nate Hagens to describe the tendency of mainstream economics to treat energy as one substitutable input among many, rather than as the physical precondition for all production, consumption, and growth.

EROI (Energy Return on Investment)

The ratio of usable energy delivered by an energy source to the energy expended in extracting and processing it. A declining EROI means progressively more of a society's energy and capital must be reinvested simply to maintain current energy supply.

currency hierarchy

An asymmetrical ranking of currencies based on their international liquidity, acceptability as a medium of payment, and degree of reserve currency status.

reserve currency*

A currency widely held and used in international transactions, granting its issuer structural advantages.

fiat currency

Money that has value because a government declares it legal tender and because people trust and accept it, rather than because it is backed by or convertible into a physical commodity such as gold.

neoliberalism*

A policy orientation emphasizing deregulation, capital mobility, privatization, and monetary discipline.

Volcker Shock

The early 1980s US interest rate increase that triggered a global debt crisis.

structural adjustment*

Conditional reforms imposed on borrowing states, typically including austerity and liberalization.

debt trap

A condition in which borrowing is required merely to service existing obligations.

financialization*

The increasing dominance of financial markets, financial institutions, and elite financiers over national economies.

growth imperative*

The structural requirement, built into debt-based monetary systems with compounding interest, that an economy must continually grow simply to service its existing financial obligations, regardless of whether physical or ecological conditions can sustain that growth.

austerity*

Fiscal policies aimed at reducing public deficits through spending cuts or tax increases, often justified as restoring market confidence.

bailout

A financial rescue, usually by a government, providing funds or loans to a struggling company, industry, or country to prevent bankruptcy, systemic failure, or mass job losses.

bailout state*

A form of governance characterized by repeated state intervention to stabilize financial markets.

legitimacy crisis

A decline in public trust in political and economic institutions.

imperial boomerang

A theory proposing that methods of repression, surveillance, and violence developed by imperial powers to control overseas colonies are eventually brought back to the home country (the imperial core) and deployed against its own citizens.

race to the bottom

A social and economic phenomenon in which governments or companies slash regulations, labor standards, taxes, or environmental protections to attract business and increase competitiveness.

complexity

In Joseph Tainter's specific sense, the accumulation of specialization, hierarchy, and institutional layers that societies develop in response to problems; each additional increment carries a real resource and energy cost and tends to yield diminishing returns over time.

emergence

The way in which large-scale patterns, institutions, or systems arise cumulatively from many smaller interactions and decisions, without being centrally planned or intended by any single actor.

carbon sink

Any natural or artificial reservoir — such as forests, oceans, or soil — that accumulates and stores carbon-containing compounds, absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases.

market failure*

A situation in which the free market mechanism fails to allocate resources efficiently, resulting in an inequitable or suboptimal distribution of goods and services for society as a whole.

collective action problem*

A scenario in which individuals would benefit from working together, but self-interest, lack of trust, or incentives to avoid costs lead to a worse outcome for all.

carbon lock-in

A process in which fossil-fuel-intensive infrastructure, technologies, and institutional behaviors persist over time, hindering the transition to low-carbon alternatives and perpetuating greenhouse gas emissions.

stranded assets

Fossil fuel infrastructure (pipelines, coal mines, etc.) or carbon-intensive investments that lose value when decarbonization occurs.

degrowth*

A planned reduction in the production and consumption of wealthy nations, intended to lower the environmental impact of economic activity.

climate justice*

A framing of the climate crisis as a social, ethical, and political issue rather than simply an environmental one, recognizing that the poorest members of the global community will experience its worst impacts and that this must form the basis of any negotiations on the issue.

decarbonization*

The process of stopping or reducing the release of carbon gases, especially carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere, chiefly by reducing the use of fossil fuels.

fossil capitalism

A term associated with historian Andreas Malm describing the specific historical fusion of industrial capitalism with fossil fuel energy, distinguishing this particular carbon-intensive economic form from capitalism as a general abstraction.

overshoot

A situation, described by ecologist William Catton, in which a population or economy consumes resources or produces waste beyond what its environment can regenerate or absorb, typically recognized only after the limit has already been exceeded.

carrying capacity

The maximum level of resource use or waste generation that an ecological system can sustain over time without long-term degradation of its capacity to support future activity.