Technological Revolutions and the Periphery

The investigation of the propagation of technological revolutions through the periphery needs a theoretical framework to capture the different forces of this process. This chapter suggests a dialogue among Kondratiev (Long cycles of economic conjuncture. In: Makasheva N, Samuels, WJ, Barnett, V (eds) The works of Nikolai D. Kondratiev, Vol 1. Pickering and Chato (1998), London, pp 25–60, 1926), Furtado (Underdevelopment: to conform or to reform. In: Meier G (ed) Pioneers of development. Second Series. Oxford University/World Bank, Oxford, pp 203–227, 1987), and Cohen and Levinthal (Econ J 99:569–596, 1989). Kondratiev elaborates how technical innovations are factors underlying long term changes and movements shaping the global capitalist system, and how the inclusion of new regions in the world economy is endogenous. Furtado discusses how the center-periphery divide is reshaped by the Industrial Revolution, a contribution to the understanding of how this divide might be reconfigured by subsequent technological revolutions. Cohen and Levinthal present the concept of absorptive capacity that is expanded – as shown in this chapter’s Appendix – to investigate how backward regions and countries need to create local resources to absorb the technologies developed abroad. These three approaches are integrated to introduce a dynamic between expansionary forces, emanating from the center, and assimilatory forces, developed at the periphery, that underpin the concrete propagation of technological revolutions through the periphery.

The mechanization of the textile production in Great Britain led the structural changes behind the “astonishing reversal” which was the transformation of India in an importer of cotton textiles – an important step in the reconfiguration of the center-periphery divide. Triggered in 1771, this technological revolution had among its sources a learning of techniques originating from the East, especially from India. Its initial impact included an expansion of slavery for the production of cotton, with long-lasting consequences in Africa and in the Americas. The global diffusion of cotton industrialization is a puzzle for Beckert (Empire of cotton: a global history. Vintage Books, New York, 2014). This chapter investigates that puzzle, after evaluating the impact of slavery as a form of cotton production and the effects of cheap British textiles on previous producing regions. The propagation of textile industrialization is related to changes at the center – the maturing of an industry of textile machines – and at the periphery – a delayed formation of absorption capacity at uneven speeds. This chapter evaluates the arrival and initial diffusion of the mechanized textile industry in India, China, Russia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, identifying its uneven spread.

The spread of railways consolidated the existing international division of labor. Triggered in 1829, in England, this innovation spread globally through foreign investments – a new form of expansionary forces. The expansion of railways witnessed the rising economic and technological capabilities of the United States, a new source of technological transfer at that time. Nock (World atlas of railways. London, Mitchell Beazley Artists House https://​archive.​org/​details/​worldatlasofrail​0000nock_​k9v9, 1978) presents data on arrivals and intensities of diffusion of railways. Their spread through India, China, Russia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America repeated the unequal pattern of the textile industrialization. However, at least in three regions – India, China, and Sub-Saharan Africa – the second technological revolution arrived earlier than the first. This different arrival order of technological revolutions is an indication of possible combination and overlapping of different technologies at the periphery. This Chapter highlights the role of political institutions, as that spread is related both to colonial projects in India and in Sub-Saharan Africa and to active governmental policies in Czarist Russia. These political conditions led also to different capacities of regions and countries to internalize potential backward and forward linkages enabled by railway construction.

The modern electric utility that triggered the third technological revolution in 1882 was inaugurated in New York, United States – indication of hegemonic transition. Hausman et al. (Global electrification: multinational enterprise and international finance in the history of light and power, 1878–2007. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008) show that expansionary forces related to electricity involved multinational companies, agents of initial electrification of peripheric regions. Electrification presented new challenges to peripheric countries: given its science-based nature, assimilation required new institutions, such as higher education schools – for electrical engineers –; and, considering the capital-intensity of the needed investments, larger financial resources. The answer to these challenges depended on political conditions, that once improved led to larger involvement of domestic resources of India, China, Russia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Chapter 5 evaluates how the interactions between a new form of expansionary force – multinational companies – and political changes at the periphery – Independence, elements of economic planning, industrial policies – led to different intensities of spread of electrification. The uneven arrival and spread of electrification at the periphery added another level of different overlapping among the various technological revolutions – in some regions the first textile plant was electric – and a new phenomenon – the superposition of backwardnesses.

Ford’s T-Model, in 1908, as the big bang of the fourth technological revolution, triggered changes in three interrelated fields – the automobile, the oil industry, and the construction of roads. These interrelated fields provided strong positive feedbacks for countries that could internalize them, and also made room for fragmented forms of propagation to the periphery. A new strategic input – oil – was the target of the process of inclusion of new regions in the international division of labor, and of rearrangements in already included regions. Expansionary forces changed, as multinationals could operate in three different areas. Assimilatory forces faced new challenges, as these interrelated technologies could be fragmented, and very specific new roles could be assumed by countries at the periphery – exclusive producers of crude oil, for instance. Over time, as industrialization policies matured, new roles could be assumed by peripheric countries – Beyazay-Odemis (The nature of the firm in the oil industry: international oil companies in global business. Routledge, New York/London, 2016) illustrated this, presenting changes regarding international oil industries and their production chains. This chapter outlines how the different assimilatory forces led to a more heterogeneous periphery, with different capacities of internalization of the strong potential positive feedbacks among the interrelated industries.

Intel’s microprocessor, in 1971, starts the fifth technological revolution. In this chapter summarizes the connections between the innovation scenario before the microprocessor and after the www. Four interrelated areas constitute a specific dynamic: components, computers, software, and networks. The interactions among them show a set of self-reinforcing mechanisms, with strong impact on the whole economy – one is how it affects all previous innovations: textiles are produced using computers. This is the first technological revolution that is faced by independent nations, able to design national policies for development. In this chapter shows how our five countries/regions had attempted to produce computers and/or components, but the intensity of the changes in these fields produced obsolete competencies – entry and exit from these technologies seems to be a peculiarity of this phase. Miller (Chip War: the fight for world’s most critical technology. Scribner, New York, 2022) describes the current situation, with the production of semiconductors concentrated in East Asia – China included –, and a very special firm – ASML – monopolizing the production of advanced chipmaking machines. A very difficult challenge for countries in our five regions, that have been trying to devise specific roles within those four areas to join global markets – such as India in the realm of software.

As Part II presented information on the expansionary forces emanating from the center after each big bang and how the assimilatory forces were created and recreated to deal with different technologies, it summarized the arrival and spread of each big bang in India, China, Russia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. With these data, it is possible now to have a broader overview of their dynamics. During the investigations of this book, it became clear that expansionary and assimilatory forces did not operate in isolation, therefore it is necessary to understand their interaction. In this chapter, revisiting the theoretical framework, investigates this interplay, starting from the synthesis resulting from the consolidation of the data from the six technological revolutions reaching the periphery. The aggregate picture shows how this process is turbulent, as different technologies arrive at different times, in different orders, with different intensities of diffusion, creating different overlapping and superposition among them. This broad overview shows different processes of mutual influence between expansionary and assimilatory forces, suggesting a complex pattern of interaction showing how the periphery influences the center, before, during and after each big bang.

The heterogeneous periphery is the outcome of the impact of six technological revolutions throughout the world. The interplay between expansionary and assimilatory forces discussed in this book led to the current reconfiguration of global capitalism, with opportunities and challenges, both old and new. It also depicts changes in the international division of labor, problems derived from global warming and consequences such as emerging new infectious diseases, and a mismatch between the level of internationalization of the economy and the strength of international institutions. An agenda of global reform would contribute to a new pattern of interaction between the expansionary and assimilatory forces discussed in this book, bring them together to build a more innovative and shared world based on human diversity.