Economic Cycles and Social Movements: Past, Present and Future (Political Economy of the World-System Annuals)

Economic Cycles and Social Movements: Past, Present and Future offers diverse perspectives on the complex interrelationship between social challenges and economic crises in the Modern World System. Written with a balance of quantitative, qualitative and theoretical contributions and insights, this volume provides a great opportunity to reflect upon the ongoing conceptual and empirical challenges when confronting the complex interrelations of various economic cycles and social movements. By engaging wide-ranging ideas and theoretical points of view from different disciplines, different countries and different perspectives, this study breaks new ground and offers novel insights into the way the capitalist world economy functions as well as the way social and political movements react to these constraints. Different chapters in this volume bring about novel interdisciplinary approaches to study business cycles, economic changes and social as well as political movements, offer new interpretations and, while examining the complexity of socioeconomic cycles in the long run, present epistemological challenges and a wide variety of empirical data that will increase our understanding of these complex interactions.

Eric Mielants is Professor of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University and Research Associate of the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris. He has written articles and essays on racism, capitalism, social theory, political economy and contemporary migration issues which have also been published in Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Turkish and Japanese. His comparative and historical social science research deals with the origins and nature of globalization/capitalism and the mass migration of people. How the modern world economy came into existence and how it continues to function in terms of political economy as well as racial formations is part of his ongoing research agenda. He also writes about the epistemological challenges of studying the world economy in all its complexity.

Katsiaryna Salavei Bardos received a PhD in Finance from the University of Connecticut. She is an Associate Professor of Finance at Fairfield University where she teaches Introduction to Finance, Financial Management and a Seminar in Real Estate at undergraduate level and Corporate Finance at graduate level. She serves as a faculty advisor to students competing in the Charted Financial Analyst Investment Research Challenge and Real Estate Club. Her research interests are real estate and corporate finance. She has published articles in top journals such as Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Financial Research and Journal of Behavioral Finance. Her research received an outstanding paper award at a national conference and at the Dolan School of Business; has been discussed in CFO magazine and a Harvard legal forum, presented at the US Securities and Exchange Commission and referenced in a US Treasury White Paper.