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World-Systems Theory
World-systems theory is a macro-sociological and historical framework, developed primarily by Immanuel Wallerstein in the 1970s, that treats the modern global economy as a single integrated capitalist system structured around unequal exchange between nations.
Overview
The framework divides the world into core economies (capital-intensive, wealth-extracting), periphery regions (exploited for cheap labour and raw materials), and a semi-periphery that absorbs pressures from both ends. Underdevelopment is thus an active consequence of global integration, not a failure of modernization.
Why it matters
The theory profoundly shaped development studies and historical sociology by challenging both liberal modernization theory and orthodox Marxism, shifting the fundamental unit of analysis from the nation-state to the world-system as a whole and influencing generations of scholars studying global inequality.
Related concepts
- Longue DureeconceptualWorld-systems theory operates at longue duree timescales, analyzing capitalism as a 500-year historical structure reshaping global relations
- Supply and DemandlogicalWorld-systems theory critiques pure supply-demand explanations by showing how political power structures distort market exchange between core and periphery
- GlobalizationconceptualWorld-systems theory sees contemporary globalization as the latest phase of a centuries-old capitalist world-economy rather than a new phenomenon
- Power StructuresappliedCore-periphery hierarchy is maintained through military, economic, and institutional power structures that perpetuate unequal exchange
- HistorylogicalWorld-Systems Theory provides conceptual grounding that helps explain History in this knowledge graph.
- Connected/Global HistorylogicalWorld-Systems Theory provides conceptual grounding that helps explain Connected/Global History in this knowledge graph.