. The conference addressed the theme of "Global Inequalities: Hegemonic Shifts and Regional Differentiations," drawing attention to how the longue durée shapes contemporary struggles for hegemony. More than 40 researchers from all five continents presented and discussed research on the conference theme. To help readers appreciate the context of the discussions that have shaped the following articles, we provide excerpts from the texts that provided the organizing framework for the conference:During its 500-year history, the modern world-system has seen several shifts in hegemony. Since the decline of the United States in the 1970s, however, no single
The article introduces the concept of long waves or business cycles. It argues that by framing business cycles in a world-system perspective, its initially Western centric character could be overcome and could be used for analyzing the polarizing tendencies of global capitalism as an uneven and combined economic system, constantly producing and reproducing cores and peripheries. Moreover, world-system scholars interconnected business cycles with hegemonic cycles, characterized by a primus inter pares among the dominant core powers. While the hegemon is acquiring an accepted leading position based on economic, military and cultural power, cyclical change is undermining this position, giving way for competing successors. Based on historical explorations of British and US hegemony, the article discusses the prospects of a hegemonic succession after the decline of the United States. It analyzes whether such a hegemonic change will take place in the framework of the capitalist world system, eventually leading to a period of presumably Chinese hegemony, or whether the current global turmoil will rather open a period of chaos, putting an end to the cyclical renewal of global capitalism, as we experienced during the last 500 years.
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