World-Systems Analysis, Globalization, and Incorporated Comparison

When Immanuel Wallerstein (1974) subverted the mid-1970s social science scene with his concept of the world-system, development, the master concept of social theory, suffered a fatal blow. Wallersteins critique of development emphasized its misapplication as a national strategy in a hierarchical world where only some states can succeed. Wallersteins path-breaking epistemological challenge to the modernization paradigm reformulated the unit of analysis of development from the nation-state to the world-system. To be sure, the past three decades have seen reformulations, coined to address the failures of the development enterprise: frombasic needs, through participation in the world market, globalization, to local sustainability. But development, the organizing myth of our age, has never recovered

Immunotherapy with antibody-targeted HLA class I complexes: results of in vivo tumour cell killing and therapeutic vaccination

Background: The delivery of antibody-targeted major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I complexes containing immunogenic peptides to the surface of tumour cells allows cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) of non-tumour specificity to recognise and kill the tumour cell. Previous studies have demonstrated the activity of this system in vitro and in a simple pre-clinical model. This system has also been shown to be an effective method of expanding antigen-specific CTLs in vitro when used to target MHC class I complexes to the surface of B cells. Methods: Mice were immunised with ovalbumin and the survival of EL4Hu20 lymphoma cells targeted with H2-Db/Ova complexes and control MHC complexes was compared by FACS analysis. A tumour protection assay was performed where immunised mice were injected B16Hu20 melanoma cells targeted with H2-Kb/Ova or control complexes. T cell expansion in vivo was examined by administering B cells targeted with MHC class I/peptide complexes and assessing T cell expansion by tetramer analysis. Results: In vivo killing of H2-Db/Ova-targeted lymphoma cells in the immunised mice was demonstrated with these cells present at only 12% of the level of the control cells. In contrast, in non-immunised mice the survival of H2-Db/Ova-targeted and control cells was comparable. In the tumour protection assay, injection of melanoma cells targeted with H2-Kb/Ova complexes resulted in the development of only a solitary metastasis in each mouse. This compared to an average of 130 metastases in the control mice injected with B16Hu20 cells targeted with a control MHC peptide complex. In vivo CTL expansion was demonstrated after a single intravenous administration of Daudi B cells coated with H2-Db/Uty complexes produced an increase in the proportion of Uty-reactive CTLs from 3.3 to 21.5%. Conclusion: This study supports the development of antibody-delivered MHC complexes as a method of producing CTL-mediated lysis of cancer cells in vivo. As a therapeutic vaccine, the system may provide an effective approach for expanding oligoclonal T cell responses in vivo in the treatment of malignancy and infectious diseases.<br/

Recent changes to the IMF, WTO and SPD: emerging global mode of regulation or social structure of accumulation for long wave upswing?

This paper examines the degree to which a new global mode of regulation (MOR) or social structure of accumulation (SSA) has emerged which may help to promote long wave upswing in the world economy. A series of institutional proxies are employed in this paper. Attention is given to the system-functions of global productivity and demand , through the performance of the prevailing system of production-distribution (SPD); global financial stability , proxied by the operations of the IMF; and global conflict resolution over trade issues, proxied through the workings of the WTO. The main findings are threefold. First, the SPD is only partially developed so as to promote productivity and demand. Second, some significant financial stability functions have been instigated through the IMF. And third, the WTO is undergoing major conflict due to the opposing policy proposals and criticisms by non-government organizations. This supports the conclusion that only limited success has been made in the emergence of a global MOR or SSA, not yet enough to promote (sustained) long wave upswing. The emergence of an effective global MOR or SSA to propel long wave upswing in the global economy is thus in the early-to-medium phase of development. Periodic uncertainty and deep recession (of an uneven character, interspersed with short-cycle upswings), are thus expected in the dominant economies during the early years of the twenty-first century until suitable institutional innovations emerge

Labour process and workers' bargaining power in export grape production, North East Brazil

This article uses the Global Commodity Chain (GCC) framework to investigate labour regimes in export grape production in the São Francisco (SF) valley, North East Brazil. A combination of strict northern retailer requirements and producers’ ability to target export windows leads to an increasingly complex labour process. Whilst much GCC literature focusing on export agriculture concludes that labour is relatively powerless, this article presents a rather different case. The need to upgrade production continually in response to retailers’ demands gives workers strategic leverage which, together with a strong and continuing tradition of rural trade union organization, means that they have been able to extract significant concessions from exporting farms