Dünya Sistemi Teorisini Tarihselleştirmek: Karayipler’de Şeker ve Chiapas’ta Kahve Üretimi

Year 2018, Volume: 17 Issue: 4, 1298 - 1310, 27.09.2018

Özgür Balkılıç

https://doi.org/10.21547/jss.380759

Abstract

Dünya sistemi
teorisi 1960’lı ve 1970’li yıllarda gelişmemiş, gelişmekte
olan ve gelişmiş ülkeler arasındaki iktisadi, siyasi ve kültürel ilişkileri
açıklamak için geliştirildi. Teorinin temel varsayımı dünya ölçeğinde 16.
yüzyıldan günümüze değin meydana gelen iktisadi ve siyasi gelişmelerin bu
coğrafyalar arasında eşitsiz ve bağımlı ilişkilere yol açtığıydı. Sonuç olarak,
gelişmiş ülkelerde gelişkin bir ekonomi ve köklü demokratik-siyasi kurumlar
ortaya çıkarken, doğal kaynaklarına ve iktisadi varlıklarına gelişkin ülkeler
tarafından el konulan gelişmemiş ve gelişmekte olan ülkelerde geri bir ekonomi
ve istikrarsız bir siyasi sistem meydana gelmektedir. Ancak, araştırmacılar dünya
sistemi teorisinin ciddi eksikleri olduğunu belirtmekten de geri durmadılar. Bu
teorinin en ciddi eksiklikleri yerel tarihsel süreçleri dikkate almaması ve bu
noktayla ilintili olarak da alt sınıfları tarihsel dönüşümlerin basit nesneleri
durumuna indirgemesiydi. Bu eksikliği gidermek için araştırmacılar kapitalizmin
Avrupa dışındaki coğrafyalarda yayılışını açıklarken meta zincirlerinin yerel
dinamiklerine ve yerelliklerdeki emek süreçlerine eğildiler. Bu makalede, 16.
yüzyıldan itibaren dünya ticaretinin en önemli metalarından ikisi olan şeker ve
kahve üretiminin yerel dinamikleri hesaba katmadan anlaşılamayacağı
vurgulanıyor ve özellikle potansiyel üreticiyi toprağa ve üretime bağlamak için
uygulanan emek stratejilerinin yerel boyutlarının kahve ve şeker üretimini
belirleyen faktörlerden biri olduğu iddia ediliyor. Bu anlamda, makale 16. ve
17. yüzyılda Karayipler’de şeker ve 19. yüzyılda Meksika-Chiapas’da kahve
üretiminde emek stratejileri üzerine odaklanıyor.

Keywords

Dünya Sistemi Teorisi, Emek Süreci, Karayipler’de Şeker Üretimi, Chiapas’da Kahve Üretimi

Historicisizing World System Theory: Sugar and Coffee in Caribbean and in Chiapas

Abstract

The world system
theory has been developed during the 1960s and 1970s in order to explain the
relationship between developed, developing and underdeveloped countries. The
main assumption of this theory is that economic and political dynamics in the
world have progressed from the late 16th century towards contemporary ages to
meet the necessities of the core capitalist countries and resulted in unequal
and dependent relations. Consequently, while an advanced economy and democratic
political institutions emerged in the developed countries, the developing and
underdeveloped countries whose natural resources and economic assets are being
exploited by the core countries are subjected to a backward economy and
politically instable systems. However, the world system theory has not gone
unchallenged; on the contrary, a considerable amount of social scientists
accused it of being overwhelmingly functionalist. According to them, this
theory can be misleading especially when it ignores the local dynamics that
have not been necessarily shaped by the necessities of the core countries.
Following this criticisms, this paper will argue that the world system theory
should be revised by incorporating local factors in developing and
underdeveloped countries as well as those existed in the developed countries in
an effort to develop a more comprehensive approach. In doing so, the article
will analyze the development of labor processes in sugar and coffee production
in Caribbean and Chiapas, respectively.

Keywords

The World System Theory, Labor Process, Sugar Production in Caribbean, Coffee Production in Chiapas

References

• Adelman, J. (2004). Latin America and world histories: Old and new approaches to the pluribus and unum. Hispanic American Historical Review, 84(3), 399-409.
• Clarence-Smith, W. G. and Topik, S. (2003). Introduction: Coffee and Global Development. W. G. Clarence-Smith and S. Topik (Ed.), The global coffee economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1989 (pp. 1-21). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Curtin, P. D. (1999). The rise and fall of the plantation complex. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Frank, A. G. (1966). The development of underdevelopment. Monthly Review, 18(4), 17-31.
• Klein, H. (2004). The Atlantic slave trade to 1650. B. Schwartz (Ed.), Tropical babylons: Sugar and the making of the Atlantic World (pp. 201- 236). Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press.
• Marichal, C. et al. (2006). Conclusion. S. Topik, C. Marichal and Z. Frank (Ed.), From silver to cocaine: Latin American commodity chains and the building of the world economy, 1500-2000 (pp. 352-360). Durham and London: Duke University Press.
• Mccusker, J. J. and Menard, R. R. (2004). The sugar industry in the seventeenth century: A new perspective on the barbadian ‘sugar revolution’.” B. Schwartz (Ed.), Tropical babylons: Sugar and the making of the Atlantic World (pp. 289-330). Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press.
• Mintz, S. W. (1985). Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. New York: Penguin Books.
• Phillips, W. D. (2004). Sugar in Iberia. B. Schwartz (Ed.), Tropical babylons: Sugar and the making of the Atlantic World (pp. 27-41). Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press.
• Rus, J. (2003). Coffee and the recolonization of highland Chiapas, Mexico: Indian communities and plantation labor, 1892-1912. W. G. Clarence-Smith and S. Topik (Ed.), The global coffee economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1989 (pp. 257-285). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Samper, M. and Topik, S. (2006). The Latin American coffee commodity chain: Brazil and Costa Rica. S. Topik, C. Marichal and Z. Frank (Ed.), From silver to cocaine: Latin American commodity chains and the building of the world economy, 1500-2000 (pp. 118-146). Durham and London: Duke University Press.
• Schwartz, S. B. (2004). Introduction. B. Schwartz (Ed.), Tropical babylons: Sugar and the making of the Atlantic World (pp. 1-26). Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press.
• Stern, S. J. (1988). Feudalism, capitalism, and the world-system in the perspective of Latin America and the Caribbean. The American Historical Review, 93(4), 829-872.
• Topik, S. (2003). The integration of the world coffee market. W. G. Clarence-Smith and S. Topik (Ed.), The global coffee economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1989 (pp. 21-49). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Topik, S.,Marichal, C. and Frank Z. (2006). Introduction. S. Topik, C. Marichal and Z. Frank (Ed.), From silver to cocaine: Latin American
• commodity chains and the building of the world economy, 1500-2000 (pp. 1-24). Durham and London: Duke University Press.
• Tuchscherer, M. (2003). Coffee in the Red Sea from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. W. G. Clarence-Smith and S. Topik (Ed.), The global coffee economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1989 (pp. 50-66). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Wallerstein, I. (1974). The rise and future demise of the World capitalist system: Concepts for comparative analysis. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 16(4), 387-415.
• Wolf, E R. (2010). Europe and the people without history. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Wood, E. M. (2002). The origin of capitalism: A Longer View. London & New York: Verso.