Guillermo Bervejillo: Kojin Karatani’s The Structure of World History

Tripp Fuller

So I got pulled into this fascinating email exchange with Brian McLaren about Kojin Karatani’s The Structure of World History, and it turns out there’s this whole crew of organizers and academics who’ve been quietly working with these ideas to rethink everything from social movements to economic theory. My guest Guillermo Bervejillo—who went from being a disillusioned neoclassical economist to writing his dissertation on Chinese imperialism using Karatani’s framework—breaks down this mind-bending approach to history that shifts from Marx’s “modes of production” to “modes of exchange.” We’re talking about how gift-giving nomads, tribute-paying states, commodity markets, and the possibility of free exchange (think: exile Judaism, early Christianity) have shaped literally everything about how power works. It’s one of those conversations where suddenly all these questions you’ve been carrying around about why organizing feels so hard, why capitalism feels so totalizing, and what actual alternatives might look like start clicking into place. Plus, we barely scratched the surface on Jesus, which means we definitely need a follow-up.

You can find the YouTube playlist of videos outlining Karatani’s work here.

Guillermo Bervejillo is an economic geographer and community organizer who bridges critical theory and social movement practice. After earning his PhD in Economic Geography from Ohio State University, where he studied dependency theory and Chinese imperialism through the lens of Kojin Karatani’s modes of exchange framework, Guillermo has dedicated his work to translating complex theoretical insights into tools for grassroots organizing.

Originally trained as a neoclassical economist and former research analyst at the Department of Justice, Guillermo became disillusioned with mainstream economics following the 2011 financial crisis, particularly as it failed to address his lived experience growing up in Latin America amid U.S.-backed military dictatorships. This led him to pursue heterodox approaches to understanding global power dynamics and economic relationships.

Currently working in state policy, Guillermo collaborates with Ayni in Boston, an organization with decades of experience in social movement training and capacity building. He has been instrumental in developing educational materials and workshops that bring Karatani’s revolutionary historical framework to community organizers, movement leaders, and activists across the country. Guillermo is part of a team creating a six-part video series aimed at spreading these ideas to broader audiences working for social transformation.

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