World-Systems Theory Or How Did It All Happen

As the theory of relativity has shattered Newton’s discovered principles into a small space-time capsule in which they were relevant, and as philosophy constantly renders religion as useful mainly in the cultural field by dismantling its axiological monopoly, so does the world-system theory exercise a huge paradigm change in the fields of economics, history and politics.

And, as all good things in this world, it’s not mainstream.

On The Importance of Know-How Transfer

Hayek wrote in 1945 an essay on the use of knowledge in society. He has in this essay separated knowledge from know-how and insisted on the importance of the latter.

Starting from his assumptions, I am trying to argue why in the long run B2B consultancy services will become mainstream in Eastern Europe, instead of international MBAs and trans-European university programs, as is the case today.

Limiting Common Good in Southern Europe

Amoral familism: social action persistently oriented to the economic interests of the nuclear family.

This cultural phenomenon explains the mindset of how the Mafia, widespread corruption and widespread poverty became synonymous with Southern Europe.

Relevant words

Here’s a cloud of the most relevant words used in this blog.

Created with: Wordle

Towards The New Cultural “Triad”

Currently, we can say without any doubt that Western non-technical knowledge is mostly (if not solely) applicable to and useful for Western societies. By analyzing the distinct social pattern of the world’s macro-regional cultural entities, this conclusion becomes more than obvious.

For this, I have chosen to take a brief look upon , what I consider to be, the major cultural groups today: Western (mostly US and the EU), Islamic (the Middle East and Northern Africa) and Asian (with focus on Japan and China). These three entities are the “triad” of the modern economic and political context and represent the cultural basis upon which social integration structures will come to develop.

Insular Cities – Bucharest Case Study

Although cities are the main propellers of the world’s economies, it is becoming more and more obvious that their pattern of evolution is changing.

Such is the case of Bucharest, a relatively large city for Eastern Europe. With its almost 2 million inhabitants, it is one of the most economically developed places in the region. It alone produced more than 16 percent of Romania’s GDP in 2006, thus having a better GDP/capita (PPS) than other Western regions of the EU, such as Campania in Italy – the region around Naples -.

How Africa Still Remains An Economic Colony Of Europe

Unsurprisingly, nowadays Africa still depends significantly on the European economy. Furthermore, its behavior is that of a colony and the European Union is doing nothing to change this.

Finding CEE’s Greatest Asset

Many western-based firms speculate what is today the growth market in Europe, namely the Central and Eastern Europe region. This has led to the development of a great interest towards the mechanisms that affect the development in this area, particularly towards predicting the course of this evolution.

I will focus next on what I believe to be the biggest competitive advantage of the CEE region: the adaptiveness of its people.

Globalizarea şi integrarea europeană – perspective economice

Autarhia nu mai este la moda! Nu doar atât, dar aproape că astăzi este un fenomen pe cale de dispariţie, izolat doar în cadrul unor comunităţi în curs de dezvoltare şi insignifiante ca număr. Tendinţa majoră si omniprezentă este spre deschidere şi internaţionalizare, dar, ca peste tot, există piedici puse acestei evoluţii.

Diversitatea europeană – între toleranţă şi iraţionalitate

Uniunea Europeană se profilează tot mai mult ca fiind o soluţie de compromis între diferitele culturi existente, o manieră post-modernistă de perpetuare a unor sentimente poate prea putin înradacinate în mentalul colectiv generat de statele-naţiune. În fapt, de ce sa susţinem toleranţa şi să ne bucurăm de diversitate când main-stream-ul răspândit de educaţia etatistă şi de presa inerţiala ne îndeamnă a avea permanent reflexe de naţionalism?