Construct · 1 fields · 3 citations

world-systems theory: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

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world-systemstheory1 CONSTRUCTWorld-systemsWALLERSTEIN · WORLD-SYSTEM

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Sociology and political economy

The global economy analysed as one core-periphery division of labor

Immanuel Wallerstein introduced world-systems theory in 1974, first in The Modern World-System (volume 1) and in a companion article in Comparative Studies in Society and History, arguing that the proper unit for studying social change is not the individual nation-state but a single, integrated capitalist world-economy that has expanded since the sixteenth century. In this framework the world-economy is bound together by one transnational division of labor that sorts regions into a wealthy, industrialised core, a poor and dependent periphery that supplies raw materials and cheap labor, and an intermediate semi-periphery sharing features of both, with unequal exchange transferring surplus toward the core. Wallerstein drew on the French Annales school of long-run history, Marxian political economy, and dependency theory, and later set out a synthetic statement in World-systems analysis: An introduction (2004). What marks the construct as a landmark is its shift of the unit of analysis from the nation-state to the world-economy as a whole, treating cores, peripheries, and their inequalities as positions within one durable system rather than as traits of separate countries.[1][2][3]

Unit
A single capitalist world-economy spanning nation-states, structured as core, semi-periphery, and periphery
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Identified through comparative historical analysis of trade flows, the international division of labor, and states' positions in the world-economy, and operationalised with cross-national trade-network and world-income data

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Nearby constructs

hegemony3 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsstate4 fields · 6 citationsjingle · one word, four constructs

References

  1. Wallerstein, I. (1974). The modern world-system I: Capitalist agriculture and the origins of the European world-economy in the sixteenth century. Academic Press.
  2. Wallerstein, I. (1974). The rise and future demise of the world capitalist system: Concepts for comparative analysis. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 16(4), 387–415. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0010417500007520
  3. Wallerstein, I. (2004). World-systems analysis: An introduction. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822399018

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