The Role of the Semi-Periphery in Ecologically Unequal Exchange: A Case Study of Land Investments in Cambodia

ABSTRACTED FROM BOOK INTRODUCTION: In Chapter 4, Mariko Frame observes that EUE relations, and the related phenomenon of ecological imperialism, underlie the deep inequalities of the world-system and the exploitation of peripheral countries by core countries. But she notes that semi-peripheral economies are increasingly engaging in economic activities in peripheral countries as they attempt to develop that are as exploitative as those between core and periphery. Frame illustrates her argument by examining land grabbing in Cambodia by various semi-peripheral countries in the Asia region, including Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Even as these countries are engaging in ecological imperialism with Cambodia and other peripheral countries, they remain subordinate to the core economies and experience adverse socioecological consequences of EUE relations with their core counterparts. Frame concludes that greater theoretical clarity is needed regarding the role played by semi-peripheral countries in EUE relations in the world-system.

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