ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the long-term shifts in the location of major regions of accumulation within the capitalist system and the major shifts in the role of knowledge and innovation design. The perspective applied draws from the notion of multiple world systems of Braudel (1972) rather than the notion of a singular world system. Braudellian world systems cluster around centres of accumulation and their capacity to establish inter-nation political economies governed by rules which benefit the core. In a neo-Gramscian perspective the world systems appear to be economies rather than empires because the justifying ideology typically emphasises a solution to the problem of regulating markets. Key concepts to be defined, explained and illustrated include hegemony and dependence. Cores are distinguished from dependent areas because of a combination of mode of production with forms of military power (Arrighi 1994; Kennedy 1987).
