Reconsidering The Wealth of Nations: China and the future of capitalism – Presentation by Giovanni Arrighi, Professor of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University

Discussant: Duncan Foley, Leo Model Professor of Economics, The New School for Social Research

Chair and Moderator: Arjun Appadurai, John Dewey Distinguished Professor in the Social Sciences, The New School for Social Research

Giovanni Arrighi’s main interests are in the fields of long-term, large-scale social change and of inequality within and between nations. The publication of Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-first Century (2007) completes the investigation of the origins and transformations of the world capitalist system that he initiated with The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times (1994) and continued with Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System (1999) co-authored with Beverly J. Silver. Dr. Arrighi has taught in Africa, Europe, and North America. His work has been published in more than fifteen languages. His current research focuses on regional differentiation within the global South with special reference to the contrasting developmental trajectories of Southern Africa and East Asia.