Arif Maftuhin

Reading the beginning chapters of the book, I am confused by the fact elaborated in the book that there is no such great divergence in Europe and Asia. Most of the book is provided to explain that pre-1800 world is polycentric, no hegemonic and dominant Europe. No fact we can relay on to believe that we can find the great divergence in that time. So, we have to underline that the title of the book refer not to pre-industrial world, instead the current world — where we are induced to ask why do we find this great divergence today? (Another form of Yali’s question) There are many ways to answer. Diamond answer the question by emphasizing on gun, germ, steel, and Wallerstein explained it by implementing his world system theory. Kenneth Pomeranz, writer of the book discussed this week, tries to answer the question as he compared West Europe and China. Among trends in European economic history, Pomeranz realizes that his approach is similar to recent trend with some different points. First,...

The Core, The Periphery, and The External In the chapter 5, Wallerstein set out to discuss his main idea of economy world system. In this context, understanding what was going on in England is very important because here was in England we find the most prominent form of industrial transformation depicting the second 16th century onwards — the industrial transformation that, in its turn, become the very pillar of the new world economy existing nowadays. What happened in England, then, that make her so important? While heavy industry in other parts of Western Europe drastically declined, in England there was an expansion of heavy industry and, consequently, of her output — for which there had been no precedent. While many consider England backwater of the continent, in the last part of 16th and the outset of 17th centuries, the position had been reversed. There was a major shift in the composition of England’s export trade. From 14th, cereal play important role, but by the 16th century i...

Suzallo Library, 16.08, menunggu Maghrib. This is the second day I have my fasting in the US. Sound challenging and difficult, but, really, I am very well and no problem to face. It is as easy as in Indonesia. Even, I can say that fasting Ramadhan here is much easier than in Indonesia. Why? The weather is cold (14C), and the time is relatively adjustable. I have my sahur on 05.30 (sound interesting alright?) and maghrib at 6.45, not to mention that I will have my fast-breaking at 6.15 next two weeks. What about taraweh? Never imagine that as a minority we don't have big enough community to have a Masjid (my fellow muslim here prefer to use Masjid to Mosque). This is the first masjid has an "Islamic architecture" in the west cost of US. And I live only two blocks (500m) from the mosque. As I've ever told you, I pray jamaah more here than in Indonesia. We have more than 75 male Muslims in the first floor praying tarawih and fast-breaking together (I don't really kno...

Wallerstein is identical with theory of world system. He elaborates the theory in his classic work, The Modern World System; Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century where he develops a theoretical framework to understand the historical changes involved in the rise of the modern world. How to understand modern world? First, we need to understand his main theory in this work where he proposed the theory of world system. By “world system” he means “a social system, one that has boundaries, structure, member groups, rules of legitimacy, and coherence.” Social system is like living organism that change in some aspects and remains stable in others. Its special character is self contained and internal dynamic. According to him, there are only two “types” of social system. One lives in such remote areas, untouched by “the world”, i.e., the small and subsistence communities; and the other one is “the world” itself. He suggest that the world ...