THE MATERIAL FOUNDATIONS OF GLOBAL HEGEMONY: ENERGY TRANSITIONS AND ARCHITECTURE OF WORLD DOMINANCE

Date

2026-7-3

Author

Turna, Can Deniz

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This thesis is written to analyze how the balance of power in the world has changed, the possibility of a new hegemony, and capital's quest for new investment areas, by using energy transformations as a prism. With this aim, I will make a historical analysis and determine the role of coal in 19th century British hegemony in first chapter and the role of oil in 20th century US hegemony in the second chapter. The energy transformations have been leverage points for the last two hegemonies and have radically changed daily life and the areas in which capital is invested. In the third chapter, I investigate whether global capitalism is on the verge of a new hegemony, namely, Chinese hegemony, and an accompanying energy transformation: renewable energy, or more specifically, solar and wind energy transformations. The pillars to be focused on during this research will be the main energy source(s), the industrial counterparts that enable/will enable the formation of the new energy economy and their innovation processes, the sectors that will be its carriers in the world, new organizational forms and the position of the new hegemon in the world system during its hegemony and its possible contributions to capitalism. Lastly, I will speculate about future projections in energy, China’s capacity (or incapacity) to usher in a new era of material expansion, and how energy matters there.

Subject Keywords

cycles of accumulation, hegemonic crisis, energy transitions, renewable energies, hegemony-energy relation

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/119731

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis