Giovanni Arrighi (7 July 1937 – 18 June 2009) was an Italian

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, sociologist and world-systems analyst, from 1998 a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

of Sociology at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

. His work has been translated into over fifteen languages.

Biography

Arrighi was born in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in 1937. He received his

Laurea In Italy, the ''laurea'' is the main post-secondary academic degree. The name originally referred literally to the laurel wreath, since ancient times a sign of honor and now worn by Italian students right after their official graduation ceremony ...

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

from the Bocconi University in 1960. Arrighi began his career teaching at the

University College of Rhodesia The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It opened in 1952 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. It was later renamed the University o ...

(now

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

) and later at the University College of Dar es Salaam in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

, where he developed arguments about how the

labor supply In mainstream economic theories, the labour supply is the total hours (adjusted for intensity of effort) that workers wish to work at a given real wage rate. It is frequently represented graphically by a labour supply curve, which shows hypotheti ...

and labor resistance affected the development of

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their reli ...

and

national liberation movements National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

, and where he met

Immanuel Wallerstein Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein (; September 28, 1930 – August 31, 2019) was an American sociologist and economic historian. He is perhaps best known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his wo ...

with whom he late collaborated on a number of research projects. After returning to Italy in 1969, Arrighi and others formed the "Gruppo Gramsci" in 1971. In 1979 Arrighi joined Wallerstein and

Terence Hopkins Terence Kilbourne Hopkins (1928 – January 3, 1997) was an American historical sociologist who collaborated with Immanuel Wallerstein, Giovanni Arrighi and others on world systems theory. Amongst world systems scholars, he was "considered the speci ...

as a professor of sociology at the

Fernand Braudel Center The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public research university with campuses in Binghamton, Vestal, and Johnson City, New York. It is one of the four university centers in the State ...

for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations at

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public research university with campuses in Binghamton, Vestal, and Johnson City, New York. It is one of the four university centers in the Stat ...

. It was during this time that the Fernand Braudel Center became known as the main center of world-systems analysis, attracting scholars from all over the world. His trilogy on the origins and transformations of

global capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...

began in 1994 with a book that reinterpreted the evolution of capitalism, '' The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times''. The book was published in at least ten languages. Giovanni completed a second edition of ''The Long Twentieth Century'' in 2009. In 1999, he published ''Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System'' with

Beverly Silver Beverly J. Silver (born 1957) is an American scholar of labor and development whose work has been translated into over twelve languages. She is a professor of Sociology at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. ...

, and in 2007, he published ''Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century'', comparing Western and East Asian economic development and exploring

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

’s rise as an economic world power. Although in many ways intellectually close to

, Arrighi tends to ascribe greater significance to the recent shift in economic power to

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

. He also emphasized his debt to

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——� ...

Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas p ...

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a fo ...

, Karl Polanyi and

Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at H ...

. Arrighi died in his home in Baltimore on June 18, 2009. He had been diagnosed with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in July 2008. His widow and collaborator is Professor

. A retrospective interview by

David Harvey David W. Harvey (born 31 October 1935) is a British-born Marxist economic geographer, podcaster and Distinguished Professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He received his P ...

on his intellectual trajectory
The Winding Paths of Capital
was published in the March/April 2009 issue of New Left Review.

Works

Monographs * 1967 ''The Political Economy of Rhodesia'' * 1973 ''Essays on the Political Economy of Africa'' * 1978 ''Geometry of Imperialism'' * 1982 ''Dynamics of Global Crisis'' * 1985 ''Semiperipheral Development: The Politics of Southern Europe in the Twentieth Century'' * 1989 ''Antisystemic Movements'' * 1990 ''Transforming the Revolution: Social Movements and the World System'' (with Samir Amin,

Andre Gunder Frank Andre Gunder Frank (February 24, 1929 – April 25, 2005) was a German-American sociologist and economic historian who promoted dependency theory after 1970 and world-systems theory after 1984. He employed some Marxian concepts on politi ...

and

) * 1994
The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times
' * 1999 ''Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System'' (with

Beverly J. Silver Beverly J. Silver (born 1957) is an American scholar of labor and development whose work has been translated into over twelve languages. She is a professor of Sociology at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

) * 2003 ''The Resurgence of East Asia: 500, 150 And 50 Year Perspectives'' * 2007 ''Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century'' :: Review of ''Adam Smith in Beijing'': Journal articles and book chapters since 2001 *"Workers North and South" (with B.J. Silver) in C. Leys and L. Panich, eds., ''The Socialist Register'' 2001. London: The Merlin Press, 2000. Reprinted (abridged) in L. Amoore, ed., ''The Global Resistance Reader''. London and New York: Routledge, 2005.
Braudel, Capitalism and the New Economic Sociology
, ''Review'', XXIV, 1, 2001.
Capitalist development in World-historical Perspective
, (wit
Jason W. Moore
. In R. Albritton, M. Itoh, R. Westra, A. Zuege, (eds.), ''Phases of Capitalist Development: Booms, Crises and Globalization''. London: Macmillan, 2001. *"Capitalism and World Dis(order)" (with B. J. Silver), ''Review of International Studies'', XXVII, 2001. *"Global Capitalism and the Persistence of the North-South Divide", ''Science and Society'', LXIV, 4, 2001. *
Lineages of Empire
. ''Historical Materialism'' 10, 3, 2002. Reprinted In G. Balakrishnan, ed., ''Debating Empire''. London and New York: Verso, 2003.
Industrial Convergence, Globalization, and the Persistence of the North-South Divide
. ''Studies in Comparative International Development'' 38: 1 (2003) (with B.J. Silver and B.D. Brewer). *"Response". ''Studies in Comparative International Development'' 38: 1 (2003) (with B.J. Silver and B.D. Brewer). * *"Kindai Sekai Shisutem no Keisei to Henyou ni okeru Hegemonii Kokka no Yakuwari" ("The Role of Hegemonic States in the Formation and Transitions of the Modern World-System"). In T. Matsuda and S. Akita, eds., ''Hegemonii Kokka to Sekai Shisutem'' (''Hegemonic States and the Modern World-System''). Tokyo: Yamakawa Publishing Company, 2002. *"Historical Capitalism East and West" (with P.K. Hui, H. Hung, and M. Selden). In G. Arrighi, T. Hamashita and M. Selden, eds., ''The Resurgence of East Asia: 500, 150 and 50 Year Perspectives''. London and New York: Routledge, 2003. *"Global Inequalities and the Legacy of Dependency Theory". ''Radical Philosophy Review'' 5: 1-2 (2002/2003). *"Polanyi’s ‘Double Movement’: The Belles Epoques of British and US Hegemony Compared" (with B.J. Silver). ''Politics and Society'' 31: 2 (2003). *"Il lungo XX secolo. Una replica". ''Contemporanea'' 6:4 (2003). *"Poza hegemoniami zachodnimi" (with I. Ahmad and M. Shih). ''Lewa Noga'' 15 (2003). *"Hegemony and Antisystemic Movements". In I. Wallerstein, ed., ''The Modern World-System in the Longue Duree''. Boulder, Co: Paradigm Publishers, 2004 *"Globalization in World-Systems Perspective". In R. Appelbaum and W. Robinson, eds., ''Critical Globalization Studies''. New York and London: Routledge, 2005. * * *"Rough Road to Empire". In F. Tabak, ed., ''Allies as Rivals: The U.S., Europe, and Japan in a Changing World-System''. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Press, 2005.
States, Markets and Capitalism, East and West
. In M. Miller, ed., ''Worlds of Capitalism. Institutions, Economic Performance, and Governance in the Era of Globalization''. London: Routledge, 2005
Industrial Convergence and the Persistence of the North-South Industrial Divide: A Rejoinder
(with Beverly J. Silver and Benjamin D. Brewer). ''Studies in Comparative International Development'', Summer 2005, in press. *

External links

Johns Hopkins homepage
.
Video on Giovanni Arrighi, David Harvey, and Joel Andreas
on Arrighi's ''Adam Smith in Beijing'' (2008)
Article on Giovanni Arrighi
In memoriam, by Tom Reifer
Giovanni Arrighi: Systemic Cycles of Accumulation, Hegemonic Transitions, and the Rise of China
by William I. Robinson {{DEFAULTSORT:Arrighi, Giovanni 1937 births Writers from Milan Bocconi University alumni Italian economists Italian sociologists Imperialism studies World system scholars 2009 deaths Writers about globalization Binghamton University faculty University of Zimbabwe faculty

Biography

Works

See also

External links