bifurcate, equilibrium , disequilibrium

The river bifurcated as it reached the ocean.

To make any sense of this discussion, we have to think first about the world-systemic context within which an agenda of any kind can be constructed. I have been arguing in many recent articles and books that the capitalist world-economy, our modern world-system, is in a systemic crisis, by which I mean something that is quite different from one of its repeated economic downturns or stagnations that are a built-in feature of the way it functions, or the kinds of processes that allow for the emergence of new hegemonic powers.2 What I am calling a systemic crisis occurs only once in the life of a historical system. It occurs when the mechanisms that exist to bring the system back to some kind of equilibrium no longer function adequately, and the system can be seen to be moving far from equilibrium, thereby becoming “chaotic.” Chaos is here a technical term that describes a situation in which a system fluctuates wildly, erratically, and severely. At that point, the system “bifurcates” and there ensues an acute struggle over which of two alternative paths to new systemic order it might take.3

在討論任何運動議題之前，我們首先必須考量它所置身的世界體系脈絡。近年來我一再指出，當代資本主義世界經濟正面臨一個體制危機。我所說的危機，既不是那種作為資本主義運作固有特徵的循環性經濟衰退或停滯，也不是有關新的世界霸權得以崛起的過程，它在一個歷史體系的生命歷程中，通常只會發生一次：當世界體系自我均衡的內在機制失靈從而陷入「混亂 」時，它就會「一分為二」（ bifurcates ）同時展開兩條路線的尖銳鬥爭，一直到新的秩序取而代之為止。這種鬥爭的結果在本質上是不可預測的，換句話說，最終走向哪一條道路的機會是各佔一半。如此一來，鬥爭所涉及的就不是現行體系的存廢，而是有關哪一個類型的世界體系將取而代之的問題。

bi·fur·cate (bī'fər-kāt', bī-fûr'-)


v., -cat·ed, -cat·ing, -cates. v.tr.
To divide into two parts or branches.

v.intr.
To separate into two parts or branches; fork.

adj. (-kāt', -kĭt)
Forked or divided into two parts or branches, as the Y-shaped styles of certain flowers.

[Medieval Latin bifurcāre, bifurcāt-, to divide, from Latin bifurcus, two-pronged : bi-, two; see bi-¹ + furca, fork.]

bifurcately bi'fur·cate'ly adv.
bifurcation bi'fur·ca'tion n.

equilibrium[e・qui・lib・ri・um]

• レベル：社会人必須
• 発音記号[ìːkwəlíbriəm]
• 
  

[名]（複〜s, -ri・a 〔-ri〕）[U]

1 つり合い, 平衡, 均衡

restore ［maintain］ one's equilibrium
体の平衡をとり戻す［保つ］

a political equilibrium
政治的均衡

equilibrium price
均衡価格

demographic equilibrium
人口均衡（年齢配分の均衡のこと）

keep both Powers in (an) equilibrium.
両強国の勢力の均衡を保つ.

2 （心の）平静, 落ち着き

lose one's equilibrium
心の平静を失う.

3 《化学》（反応の）平衡.