WORLD SYSTEMS THEORYHaley WhitelawTheory in Interdisciplinary Studies | INDS500Wendy Schissel | Royal Roads UniversityMarch 13, 2016

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

sociologist & dependency theorist

• published Modern World System (1974); first volume of monumental trilogy• conviction that understanding global inequality requires thinking on a global scale• has since further developed, altered & refined this critical framework

• Originated as an attempt to correct inadequacies in modernization theory

• A theory of development (and underdevelopment)

• Explains historical & continuing exploitation of the rest of the world by the West

• Provides major breakthrough in explanation of origin & dynamics of the capitalist world-system(Simpson, 1990)

INTRODUCTION

ASSUMPTION 1| THE SOCIAL SYSTEM

• Three major systems exist in society: cultural, political, and economic

• These three systems combine and interact to create the social systems in which humans live (Babones, 2015)

• Social systems are characterized by being largely self-contained, the dynamics of which are largely internal

ASSUMPTION 2 | THE WORLD ECONOMY

• The world is divided into three main zones: core, periphery, semi-periphery

• This system is held together by exploitation, resulting in polarizing the nations of the earth

• A nation developed the way it did because of its position on this world-system (Wallerstein, 2004)

ASSUMPTION 3 | INTERPRETATION

•The forces that caused this polarization to occur in Europe in the 16, 17, 18th centuries continue to operate on a global level (Wallerstein, 2002)

•The core-periphery hierarchy can be understood in terms of state strength & cultural integration

•Comprador states exist in the periphery, acting on behalf of the core & seeking to maximize their own financial well-being (Wallerstein, 2008)

‘THEORY’ or ‘ANALYSIS’?Wallerstein himself has long resisted the appellation of 'theory', and believes that world-systems analysis is

"primarily a protest against the ways in which social

science is done, including theorizing"

(Wallerstein, 2002)

Wrote The Modern World System not as comparative organizational analysis, but

as the story of a singular phenomenon, informed by a mode of explanation called

world-systems analysis (Wallerstein, 2002)

Because there is only one world-system that can

effectively be studied in detail, WSA becomes a

perspective through which the detailed facts of the

modern world economy can be studied (Babones, 2015)

If world-systems 'analysis' as such is not a theory, there has been much theorizing

from a world-systems perspective, and as a result

there are many world-systems theories (Babones, 2015)

ASSESSMENT | CRITICISM

Why does the unit of analysis have to be the

world rather than a tribe, class, or nation?

(Palumbo-Liu et al., 2011)

WST over-emphasizes the global context of

development & misinterprets historical

evidence (Simpson, 1990)

WST is not a theory of global capitalism or a system, but rather a

history (Palumbo-Liu et al., 2011)

WST is insufficiently attentive to values & objexts of knowledge

such as culture, agency, difference, subjectivity

(Palumbo-Liu et al., 2011)

ASSESSMENT | VALUEInterdisciplinary

• Belief that the historic categorizations of the disciplines of the social sciences make no intellectual sense any more (Wallerstein, 2002)

Relevant• We live in an

international system of globalization & political multidimensionality

• Scholars in cultural disciplines have remained ambivalent about globalization (Palumbo-Liu et al., 2011)

Anticipatory• Global inequality

can be understood and eventually, hopefully, undone (Palumbo-Liu et al., 2011)

• The need for democratic alternatives to hierarchical capitalist power structures (Teivainen, 2015)

APPLICATION | TOURISMMedical Tourism: patient-tourists

travel to less affluent receiving countries (Masi de

Casanova & Sutton, 2013)

Tourism Resilience: complex adaptive

system of the ‘tourism area life-cycle’ (Cochrane,

2010)

Exploitation of local economy: Resort Properties owned by international

companies(Belk & Costa,

1995)

REFERENCESBabones, S. (2015). What is world-systems analysis? Distinguishing theory from perspective. Thesis Eleven, 127(1), 3-20. doi:10.1177/0725513615575324

Belk, R., & Costa, J. (1995). International tourism: An assessment and overview. Journal of Macromarketing, 15(2), 33-49. doi:10.1177/027614679501500204

Cochrane, J. (2010). The sphere of tourism resilience. Tourism Recreation Research, 35(2), 173-185. doi:10.1080/02508281.2010.11081632

Masi de Casanova, E. & Sutton, B. (2013). Transnational body projects: Media representations of cosmetic surgery tourism in Argentina and the United States. Journal of World - Systems Research, 19(1), 57-81.

Palumbo-Liu, D., Robbins, B., Tanoukhi, N. (2011). Immanuel Wallerstein and the problem of the world: System, scale, culture. Durham: Duke University Press.

Schouten, P. (2008). Theory Talk #13: Immanuel Wallerstein on World-Systems, the Imminent End of Capitalism and Unifying Social Science. Theory Talks Forum.

Simpson, G. (1990). Wallerstein's world-systems theory and the Cook Islands: A critical examination. Pacific Studies,14, 73-94.

REFERENCES ContinuedTeivainen, T. (2000). Towards a democratic theory of the world-system: Democracy, territoriality, and transnationalization. Journal of World-Systems Research, 6(3), 706-725.

Wallerstein, I. (2002). The itinerary of world-systems analysis; or, how to resist becoming a theory. In J. Berger & M. Zelditch (Eds.), New Directions in Contemporary Sociological Theory (358-376). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Wallerstein, I. (2004). World-System Analysis: An Introduction. Durham: Duke University Press.

Wallerstein, I. (2008). Remembering Andre Gunder Frank while thinking about the future. Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine, 60(2), 50-61.

Wallerstein, I. (2011). Structural crisis in the world system: Where do we go from here? Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine, 62 (10), 31-39.

The World-Systems Theory(2010). Core-Periphery Model Wallerstein [image]. Retrieved from http://www.lewishistoricalsociety.com/wiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=61 World-Systems Theory(2013). World-Systems Map [image]. Retrieved from http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Essays/Wallerstein%20files/World-Systems%20Map.jpg Enock Cavalcanti (2013). Immanuel Wallerstein [image]. Retrieved from http://paginadoenock.com.br/sociologo-immanuel-wallerstein