WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY

World-Systems Theory is based on the work of Karl Marx and made into a developed set of ideas by Immanuel Wallerstein.

It shows that capitalism is not just an economic system bounded by national borders highlighting class inequality. Rather, capitalism must also be seen as involving relationships among nations and these relationships too are based on inequality.

Those nations which developed capitalistic economies early then went on to dominate other nations through colonization or simply through linking the economies of the nations in ways that favored the more dominant nation and placed the others into a condition of dependency on the dominant nation.

This state of dependency tended to hamper the development of the other economies.

The world-system perspective, indebted to Marxism, views capitalism as the engine of development in the modern era, and sees societies as bearing at least a peripheral relationship to capitalist expansion.

Books:

Ecology and the World-System (Contributions in Economics and Economic History)
by Walter L. Goldfrank (Editor), David Goodman (Editor), Andrew Szasz (Editor)

Integrating environmental and world-systems analyses in chapters ranging from the ancient to the contemporary, from the global to the local, from West to East, and from North to South, this book is the first collection to analyze environmental issues from the world-systems perspective. Early chapters diagnose the increasing environmental threats to global sustainability and suggest ways to arrive at an integrated theoretical understanding of those threats. The work then shows the historical and geographical range necessary to do justice to ecological considerations in chapters considering ancient civilizations, capitalism, the circumpolar North, the dam-builders of Asia, and the polluters of East Central Europe. The final chapters analyze the successes and limits of environmental movements in the United States, South Africa, and South Korea.

World-Systems Theory and Practice - American Anthropological Association P. Nick Kardulias

World-Systems Theory and Practice
In the quarter century since Wallerstein first developed world systems theory (WST), scholars in a variety of disciplines have adopted the approach to explain intersocietal interaction on a grand scale. These essays bring to light archaeological data and analysis to show that many historic and prehistoric states lacked the mechanisms to dominate the distant (and in some cases, nearby) societies with which they interacted. Core/periphery exploitation needs to be demonstrated, not simply assumed, as the interdisciplinary dialogue which occurs in this volume demonstrates. "World-Systems Theory in Practice" will appeal to individuals with an interest in the application of WST in both the Old World and the New World. The papers in this volume reflect the vitality of the debate concerning the use of such generalizing theories and will be of interest to archeologists, anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and those involved in the study of civilizations.

Emerging Issues in the 21st Century World-System  January 1,  2003
by Political Economy of the World-System Conference 2001 Virginia Polyte, Wilma A. Dunaway

As one-half of the latest edition of Immanuel Wallerstein's Political Economy of the World System series, this collection offers cutting-edge theoretical directions to explain the structural crises of the 21st century world system. Contributors argue that the capitalist world system has reached a critical bifurcation point, a short period which will be characterized by a sudden shift in the long-term structural forces that have created and sustained the world as we know it. Writers challenge conventional thinking about the most significant structural crises that face the 21st century world system, including terrorism, debt, the growth of megacities as global actors, the emergence of a powerful transnational capitalist class, and the world ecological crisis.

World System History: The Social Science of Long-Term Change
by Robert Allen Denemark (Editor), Jonathan Friedman, Barry K. Gills, George Modelski

This book is the fundamental starting point for the study of continuity and change in the global social, economic and political system over the longest historical term. Bringing together eminent interdisciplinary scholars, World System History considers the nature of social continuity back through history, resulting in a book which cuts across boundaries in social science and deals with at least 5000 years of the human past in a truly global perspective, No other volume offer so coordinated a picture of the issues of the prospects for the unified study of world system history. The kind of transdisciplinary cooperation needed to make sense of our complex world is made clear through the range of contributors' perspectives, This extraordinary book shows that in order to understand contemporary issues we must study the long term history of the world system. It will be a vital overview of perspective on the history of the world system for all graduates and researcher in a variety of fields such as international political economy, world history and sociology.

World Cities in a World-System
Paul L. Knox, Peter J. Taylor (Editors)

"The accessibility of the text and the compactness of the chapters make it a useful and lively textbook for graduate students in urban studies and planning as well as in courses that focus on the global dimensions of geography, political economy and sociology....World Cities in a World System makes available an important set of readings for planners and students of planning who are interested in the future shape of the public sector and the public's participation in setting urban agendas." Gerald Sussman, JAPA Journal
"This highly recommended book offers a challenging research agenda to those interested in overcoming these boundaries and advancing this important debate." Susan Clarke, American Political Science Review
Product Description:
The dominating influence of a relatively small number of cities has characterized the shift to a more global economy during the 1970s and 1980s. Eighteen original essays accordingly examine the nature, demands and relationships of world cities such as New York, Tokyo and London.

Questioning Geopolitics : Political Projects in a Changing World-System July 30, 2000
by Georgi M. Derluguian (Editor), Scott L. Greer (Editor)

This volume takes an enlightened step back from the ongoing discussion of globalization. The authors reject the notion that globalization is an analytically useful term. Rather, globalization is seen merely as the framework of the current political debate on the future of world power. Among many other novel ideas advanced by the authors are: the explicit prediction that East Asia is not going to become the center of the world; the contention that the USSR collapsed for the same reasons that nearly brought down the United States in 1973; and the notion that the regional economic networks that are emerging from under the modern states are in fact rather old formations.

The Historical Evolution of World-Systems (Evolutionary Processes in World Politics)

Edition - February 19, 2005 -  Christopher Chase-Dunn (Editor), E. N. Anderson (Editor)

"Professors Chase-Dunn and Anderson have put together a most valuable collection, showing current developments in research on large-scale political economies. The book is wide-ranging, covering cycles of Eurasian political-economic change and dominance over several millennia. And it lives up to its mission, which is to advance and extend research and theory examining historical development on a scale transcending traditional foci on single polities or societies in isolation. The work will of course be of great interest to historical and comparative scholars concerned with the established issues of world-systems thinking. But it also engages all sorts of researchers in the broad area of globalization. And substantively, the specific studies carry large-scale political-economic analyses far back into world history, greatly broadening conceptions of that history. Overall, the work shows how much has been accomplished in recent decades. As well, it opens up fascinating new research issues and foci."
--John W. Meyer, Professor of Sociology (emeritus), Stanford University

"The essays in this book offer a rich survey of different aspects of world-systems theory, demonstrating that it is currently the most disciplined, vibrant and fruitful way of studying relations between different parts of the world over the last five or six millennia. The book offers the best possible introduction to world-systems thinking and suggests why world-system theories are so important to scholarship in world history."--David Christian, San Diego State University

"This sweeping volume examines the rise and decline of cities, empires, and world-systems from the Bronze Age to the Modern Age. Bursting with fresh approaches to global trade, elites and state administrations, these essays are must-read material for scholars and students of global history."
----Jack A. Goldstone, Hazel Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University

In this book leading scholars explore the historical evolution of world systems through examining the ebb and flow of great powers over time, advancing understanding of the regularities in the dynamics of empire and the expansion of political, social and economic interaction networks, from the Bronze Age forward. The authors analyze the expansion and contraction of cross-cultural trade networks and systems of competing and allying political groupings. In premodern times, these ranged from small local trading networks (even the very small ones of hunting-gathering peoples) to the vast Mongol world-system. Within such systems, there is usually one, or a very few, hegemonic powers. How they achieve dominance and how transitions lead to systems change are important topics, particularly at a time when the United States' position is in flux. The chapters in this book review several recent approaches and present a wealth of new findings.

An Introduction to the World-System Perspective  Thomas R. Shannon

World-system theory grew out of a dissatisfaction with more conservative development theories which saw the sources of all societies within the societies themselves. The world-system perspective, heavily indebted to Marxism, views capitalism as the engine of development in the modern era, and sees all societies as bearing at least a peripheral relationship to capitalist expansion. This excellent undergraduate text describes the history, structure, and dynamics of the world-system. Shannon (sociology, Radford U.) both presents and critiques world-system theory in an easy-to-read style.

The World System: Five Hundred Years of Five Thousand?
by Andre Gunder Frank, Barry K. Gills

In the light of a non-Eurocentric perspective, The World System argues for the interconnectedness of historical patterns over 5,000 rather than 500 years. In doing so, the book undermines the primacy claimed for Europe as the major agent of economic change, an issue with implications far beyond the realm of history. With an important forward by William H. McNeill and contributions by Immanuel Wallerstein and Samir Amin, The World System is now available for the first time in paperback, making sure the arguments are accessible to students of world history, international relations and a variety of related disciplines. "I think it vital that this book should be widely read and discussed...."

Space and Transport in the World-System (Contributions in Economics and Economic History)
by Paul S. Ciccantell (Editor), Stephen G. Bunker (Editor)

Key metaphors in world-system analysis are profoundly spatial, but there have been few attempts to understand how space, location, and topography affect world-system organization and process. To fill this gap, this book examines case studies of the restructuring of space and transport in core, semiperipheral, and peripheral economies. It addresses such topics as the role of ocean transport in linking terrestrially based units of the capitalist world economy, the role of land transport systems in the construction and restructuring of relationships between raw materials peripheries and core economies, and the role of the airplane in transforming and representing changing spatial, economic, and social relations in the capitalist world economy.

The Historical Evolution of World Systems 21st Century World-System World System History Political Projects in a Changing World-System Ecology and the World-System World-Systems Theory and Practice Space and Transport in the World-System World System Five Hundred Years World-System Perspective World Cities in a World-System