Giovanni Arrighi: Systemic Cycles of Accumulation, Hegemonic Transitions, and the Rise of China

Abstract

This article surveys and critically assesses the life work of Giovanni Arrighi, a renowned historical sociologist and world-systems scholar who passed away in 2009. In a trilogy of books published between 1994 and 2007 Arrighi develops the master concept of his theoretical legacy, systemic cycles of accumulation, and advances an original reading of the history and dynamics of world capitalism as a succession of hegemonic episodes, each one more expansive than the previous and culminating in crises and chaotic transitions. He anticipated the rise of a Chinese-led East Asia as the emergent twenty-first century centre of a reorganised world economy and society. Arrighi is faulted for failing to develop any theory of politics, the state and collective agency in his construct, for his lack of attention to social forces from below, and for his dismissal of recent theorising on globalization.

Keywords:

• Arrighi
• world-systems
• cycles of accumulation
• hegemony
• globalisation
• China

Notes

I would like to thank Christopher Chase-Dunn and Yousef Baker for the comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this essay. The content, of course, is my sole responsibility.

I first met Arrighi in 1996, when he awarded my book Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, U.S. Intervention, and Hegemony (Cambridge University Press, 1996) the annual prize of the Political Economy of the World System section of the American Sociological Association, a section that he chaired that year. Over the next 12 years I had the opportunity on a number of occasions to debate with him in public forums over our differences and to discuss these differences in private conversations. These debates were always friendly and respectful. I learned a great deal from Arrighi and remain indebted to him for the support he gave me at crucial junctures in my own career.