Customer Reviews
Excellent short introduction - By: ldxar1, 18 Jun 2007 
This excellent short introduction (around 100 pages long) also serves to present the interpretation of World-Systems analysis endorsed by its author at the time of writing. Its author, Immanuel Wallerstein, is the leading global World-Systems analyst following the death of the perspective's founder Andre Gunder Frank, &in many respects the ideal person to write a guide of this kind. Despite his theoretical importance, Wallerstein is more than able to writein an accessible, introductory way. The work also serves as a brief intellectual history of the social sciences, from the split between sciences & arts to the rise of World-Systems analysis itself.
The first chapter provides an intellectual history of the emergence of the perspective, a summary of the ideas it borrows from Braudel, & a brief summary of several critical perspectives on it. The second chapter sets out the theory & explains why it views the global South as exploited. It explores different kinds of household income & explains why capital might prefer semi-proletarianised labour, sets out the tension between universalist & discriminatory discoursesin the world system, & explains the account of cycles & changesin the world economy, including the quasi-monopoly status of core production, its gradual outward diffusion, & Kondratieff cycles, as well as defining key concepts such as capitalism, oligopoly, class & status-group. The third chapter looks at the state & the state system, explaining the functions performed by the state on behalf of capital, as well as discussing relations between firms & states, the issue of "externalising" costs, & mobility of multinational firms. The fourth chapter explores "geoculture" & ideologies (conservatism, liberalism, radicalism), briefly exploring the history of social movements. The fifth chapter locates the accountin terms of where we are now, theorising the present as a phase of systemic crisis, a downturn made disastrous by the exhaustion of the usual means of recovery, ending with a call for the creation of a more egalitarian systemin its place.
As an introduction, this text can hardly be faulted. All the major contributions & concepts are therein some form, from core-periphery models to unequal exchange. The only partial weakness is that the presentation by way of history & explanation tends to fuse together the distinct contributions of different individual authors. The work would also have benefited from a clearer sense of what case-studies using this framework might look like. These are, however, minor points. Overall, this is a great way into the perspective it introduces, clearly presented & easy to read.
Interesting... - By: E N Cuentro, 30 Dec 2006 
Three stars on this site may come across as a snub - it's not meant to be, this is interesting enough, & a worthy (though opinionated) introduction to a vast subject.
World Systems theorists propose, first of all, that to study 'subjects' such as we do,in relative isolation (or at any rate, to only do this) is misleading & unhelpful,in an increasingly integrated world. They then develop particular theories & methodologies for approaching & analysing the world as a whole.
The first sections of the book are perhaps the most interesting; setting out the origins of the current divisions of subjects which we assume as the basis for intellectual work: the sciences, the humanities, the arts; & the particular divisions within them - history, sociology, political science, for example. If that sounds dry, there's actually a much more interesting story behind much of that than you'd think: the need of imperial powers for anthropology & the organisation of knowledge through monastic medieval universities being two topics touched upon. The case is made that these divisions, having arisen for particular functional reasons, are now unhelpful.
The remainder of the volume functions at such a level of abstraction as to be tantalising, though not particularly helpfulin itself. It introduces & defines core conceptsin world-systems theory: core & periphery, the 'world system' & so on;in the process hinting at the some of the ways we might begin to think about the world as an integrated system. But, as an introduction, it never really gets into the detail or grit of a theory, or allows room for empirical debates or analysis (there's almost no referencingin the volume, though there is a guide to further reading at the end). The Marxist influence on Wallerstein remains strong, though he clearly feels beholden to respect no sacred cows.
Allin all; a good enough introduction, which could maybe do with a bit more focus on hard empirical example, & a bit less high theory.
