Creating and Transforming Households: The Constraints of the World-Economy (Studies in Modern Capitalism)

by ImmanuelWallerstein (Author), JoanSmith (Author), Lanny Thompson (Contributor), RandallH.McGuire (Contributor), KathleenStanley (Contributor), WilliamG.Martin (Contributor), Cynthia Woodsong (Contributor), KathieFriedmanKasaba (Contributor), Mark Beittel (Contributor), Mariadel Carmen Baerga (Contributor)

• New

  Paperback
  1992

  $34.16

  This book, first published in 1992, seeks an explanation of the pattern of sharp discrepancy of wage levels across the world-economy for work of comparable productivity. It explores how far such differences can be explained by the different structures of households as 'income-pooling units', examining three key variables: location in the core or periphery of the world-economy; periods of expansion versus periods of contraction in the world-economy; and secular transformation over time. The authors argue that both the boundaries of households and their sources of income are molded by the changing patterns of the world-economy, but are also modes of defense against its pressures. Drawing empirical data from eight local regions in three different zones - the United States, Mexico and southern Africa - this book presents a systematic and original approach to the intimate link between the micro-structures of households and the structures of the capitalist world-economy at a global level.