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Land, Space, and People: Constraints of the Capitalist World-Economy

Journal of World-Systems Research

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Title Land, Space, and People: Constraints of the Capitalist World-Economy
 
Creator Wallerstein, Immanuel
 
Description The coming into existence of the capitalist world-economy created new constraints on utilizingthe land for productive purposes. The single most important change is that it established asystematic legal basis for what is called title to the land. Title to the land is fundamentally apolitical question masked by a legal veneer. The amount of land that is governed by title is, eventoday, not 100% of the global land surface. But it has grown as a percentage of the total globalland surface throughout the history of the modern world-system. Population growth has led totwo forms of expansion. There is extensive growth, the bringing of more and more land areasinto the system of titled land. But there is also intensive growth, the ever greater concentration ofthe population of the world into close-contact areas. We call this urbanization. The world leftfaces a fundamental dilemma. On the one hand, the world left has stood for measures that wouldreduce the enormous real north-south gap. On the other hand, the world left (or at least agrowing portion of it) is standing against further commodification of land rights and furtherecological degradation of the world. The two strategies are contradictory and incompatible onewith the other. Land rights stand as the crucial deciding point.
 
Publisher University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
 
Date 2012-02-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/485
10.5195/jwsr.2012.485
 
Source Journal of World-Systems Research; Volume 18, Issue 1, 2012; 6 - 14
1076-156X
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/485/497
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2015 Immanuel Wallerstein
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0