Andre Gunder Frank

Andre Gunder Frank (Berlin, February 24, 1929 – Luxembourg, April 23, 2005) was a German economic historian and sociologist who was one of the founders of the Dependency theory and the World Systems Theory in the 1960s. He employed some marxian concepts on political economy, but rejected Marx's stages of history, and economic history generally.

Biography

Frank was born in Germany, but his family fled the country when Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor. Frank received schooling in several places in Switzerland, where his family settled, until they emigrated to the United States in 1941. Frank's undergraduate studies were at Swarthmore College. He earned his Ph.D. in economics in 1957 at the University of Chicago, ironically. His doctorate was a study of Soviet agriculture entitled "Growth and Productivity in Ukrainian Agriculture from 1928 to 1955". Even more ironically, his dissertation supervisor was Milton Friedman, a man whose laissez faire approach to economics Frank would thoroughly come to criticize.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s Frank taught at American universities. In 1962 he moved to Latin America, inaugurating a remarkable period of travel that served to confirm his peripatetic tendencies. His most notable work during this time was his stint as Professor of Sociology and Economics at the University of Chile, where he was involved in reforms under the government of Salvador Allende. After Allende's government was toppled by a coup d'état in 1973, Frank fled to Europe, where he continued to take up a series of positions. In 1994 he retired as emeritus professor at the University of Amsterdam.

He was married to Marta Fuentes, with whom he wrote several studies about social movements, and they have two sons. Marta died in Amsterdam in June 1993. His second wife was sociologist Nancy Howell, a friend for forty years: while married to her, they lived in Toronto. Frank died in 2005 of complications related to his cancer under the care of his third wife, Alison Candela.

Works and ideas

During his career, Frank taught and did research in departments of anthropology, economics, geography, history, international relations, political science, and sociology. He worked at nine universities in North America, three in Latin America, and five in Europe. He gave countless lectures and seminars at dozens of universities and other institutions all around the world in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Dutch. Frank wrote widely on the economic, social and political history and contemporary development of the world system, the industrially developed countries, and especially of the Third World and Latin America. He produced over 1,000 publications in 30 languages. His last major article, "East and West ", appeared in the volume: "Dar al Islam. The Mediterranean, the World System and the Wider Europe: The "Cultural Enlargement" of the EU and Europe's Identity" edited by Peter Herrmann (Cork University College) and Arno Tausch (Innsbruck University), published by Nova Science Publishers, New York.

His work in the 1990s focused on global world history. He returned to his analysis of global political economy in the new millennium inspired by a lecture he gave at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga). In 2006 SSE Riga received Andre Gunder Frank's personal library collection and set-up the Andre Gunder Frank Memorial Library in his honor, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Frank was a prolific author, including 40 books. He published widely on political economy, economic history, international relations, historical sociology, and world history. Perhaps his most notable work is "Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America." Published in 1967, it was one of the formative texts in dependency theory. In his later career he produced works such as "ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age" and, with Barry Gills, "The World System: Five Hundred Years or Five Thousand". Frank's theories center on the idea that a nation's economic strength, largely determined by historical circumstances--especially geography--dictates its global power. He is also well known for suggesting that purely export oriented solutions to development create imbalances detrimental to poor countries. Frank has made significant contributions to the World Systems Theory (which, according to him, should be rather called the World System one). He has argued that a World System was formed no later than in the 4th millennium BCE--his argument contrasts sharply with the scholarly majority who posit beginnings in the "long 16th century" (a position held, for example, by Immanuel Wallerstein). Frank also insisted that the idea of numerous "world-systems" did not make much sense (indeed, if there are many "world-systems" in the world, then they simply do not deserve to be called "world-systems"), and we should rather speak about one single World System.

elected publication

* General Productivity in Soviet Agriculture and Industry, 1958, JPE
* Goal Ambiguity and Conflicting Standards: An approach to the study of organization, 1958, Human Organization
* The Development of Underdevelopment, 1966, MRP
* Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America, 1967
* Latin America: Underdevelopment or revolution, 1969
* Lumpenbourgeoisie, Lumpendevelopment, 1972
* On Capitalist Underdevelopment, 1975
* Economic Genocide in Chile: Equilibrium on the point of a bayonet, 1976
* Long Live Transideological Enterprise: the socialist economies in the capitalist international division of labor, 1977, Review
* World Accumulation, 1492-1789, 1978
* Dependent Accumulation and Underdevelopment, 1978
* Mexican Agriculture 1521-1630: Transformation and the mode of production, 1979
* Crisis in the World Economy, 1980
* Crisis in the Third World, 1981
* Reflections on the World Economic Crisis, 1981
* Dynamics of Global Crisis, with S. Amin, G. Arrighi and I. Wallerstein, 1982
* The European Challenge, 1983
* Critique and Anti-Critique, 1984
* Ten Theses on Social Movements, with M. Fuentes, 1989, World Development
* Theoretical Introduction to Five Thousand Years of World System History, 1990, Review
* Civil Democracy, Social Movements in World History, with M. Fuentes, 1990, in Amin et al., Transforming the Revolution
* Revolution in Eastern Europe: Lessons for democratic socialist movements (and socialists), 1990, in Tabb, editor, Future of Socialism
* The Underdevelopment of Development, with M.F. Frank, in Savoie, editor, Equity and Efficiency in Economic Development.
* Globalization, 1400-1800 - excerpts
* Third World War - excerpts
* Reorient: Global economy in the Asian age, 1998 - Preface, Excerpts

External links

* [http://rrojasdatabank.info/agfrank/ Andre Gunder Frank's website]
* Samir Amin, [http://www.monthlyreview.org/0405amin.htm A Note on the Death of André Gunder Frank (1929-2005)] , "Monthly Review", April 2005.
* Theotonio dos Santos, [http://www.monthlyreview.org/0505dossantos.htm André Gunder Frank (1929-2005)] , "Monthly Review", May 2005.
* Barry K Gills, [http://education.guardian.co.uk/obituary/story/0,,1476070,00.html Obituary: Andre Gunder Frank] , "The Guardian", May 4, 2005
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article526085.ece Andre Gunder Frank] , "The Times", May 25, 2005
* [http://www.economyprofessor.com/theorists/andregunderfrank.php Andre Gunder Frank (1929-2005)]
* [http://www.networkideas.org/news/apr2005/news26_Andre_Gunder_Frank.htm Andre Gunder Frank : 'Prophet in the Wilderness' (1929 -2005)]
* Jeff Sommers, [http://worldhistoryconnected.press.uiuc.edu/2.2/sommers.html The Contradictions of a Contrarian: Andre Gunder Frank]
* [http://www.worldhistorynetwork.org/dev/AGFRANK-conference.htm Andre Gunder Frank's Legacy of Critical Social Science]

Further reading

* Wallerstein, Immanuel, "Remembering Andre Gunder Frank", History Workshop Journal, Volume 61, Number 1, 2006 , pp. 305-306(2), Oxford University Press
* Gills, Barry, "In Memoriam: Andre Gunder Frank (24 February 1929 to 23 April 2005)", Globalizations, Volume 2, Number 1, May 2005, pp. 1-4(4), Routledge
* Alberto Castrillón M, "In memoriam. André Gunder Frank (1929-2005)", Revista de Economía Institucional 7 (2005) 273-278
*
* Gregory Shank, "In Memoriam: Remembering Andre Gunder Frank (February 24, 1929, to April 23, 2005)", Social Justice Vol. 32, No. 2 (2005), [http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/SJEdits/100Edit_AGF.html]