 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Immanuel Wallerstein" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Immanuel Wallerstein | |
|---|---|
 Wallerstein giving a talk at a seminar at theEuropean University at St. Petersburg in May 2008 | |
| Born | (1930-09-28)September 28, 1930 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | August 31, 2019(2019-08-31) (aged 88) Branford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Known for | World-systems theory |
| Spouse | Beatrice Friedman |
| Children | Katharine Wallerstein, Robert Morgenstern, Susan Morgenstern |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Columbia University (BA: 1951, MA: 1954, PhD: 1959) |
| Thesis | The Emergence of Two West African Nations: Ghana and the Ivory Coast[1] (1959) |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans L Zetterberg [sv],Robert Staughton Lynd[1] |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Sociologist,Historian |
| Sub-discipline | Historical sociology,Comparative sociology,World-systems theory |
| Institutions | Columbia University McGill University Binghamton University École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales Yale University |
| Notable students | Georgi Derluguian,Michael Hechter,John R. Logan,Beverly J. Silver |
| Website | http://www.iwallerstein.com/ |
Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein (/ˈwɔːlərstiːn/;[2] September 28, 1930 – August 31, 2019) was an Americansociologist andeconomic historian. He is perhaps best known for his development in sociology ofworld-systems approach.[3] He was a Senior Research Scholar atYale University from 2000 until his death in 2019, and published bimonthly syndicated commentaries through Agence Global on world affairs from October 1998 to July 2019.[4][5]
He was the 13th president ofInternational Sociological Association (1994–1998).[6]
His parents, Sara Günsberg (born in 1895) and Menachem Lazar Wallerstein (born in 1890), werePolish Jews fromGalicia who moved toBerlin, because of World War I, where they married in 1919. Two years later, Sara gave birth to their first son,Solomon. In 1923, the Wallerstein family emigrated toNew York, where Immanuel was born.[7] On the "list of alien passengers for the United States" at the time of his family's emigration, the nationality of his mother and brother was described as Polish.[7]
Having grown up in a politically conscious family, Wallerstein first became interested in world affairs as a teenager.[8] He received all three of his degrees fromColumbia University: aBA in 1951, anMA in 1954, and aPhD in 1959, where he completed his dissertation under the supervision ofHans L. Zetterberg andRobert Staughton Lynd.[1] However, throughout his life, Wallerstein also studied at other universities around the world, includingOxford University from 1955 to 1956,[9]Université libre de Bruxelles,Universite Paris 7 Denis Diderot, andUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
From 1951 to 1953 Wallerstein served in theU.S. Army.[8] After his discharge, he wrote a master's thesis onMcCarthyism as a phenomenon of American political culture. The widely cited work, as Wallerstein himself later stated, "confirmed my sense that I should consider myself, in the language of the 1950s, a 'political sociologist'".[8]
Wallerstein married Beatrice Friedman in 1964, and had a daughter, Katharine Wallerstein, two years later. He was stepfather to Beatrice's two children from a previous marriage, Susan Morgenstern and Robert Morgenstern.[10] He and Beatrice had five grandchildren.
During his time at Columbia University he was a supporter of students who were active duringColumbia University protests of 1968 opposing the university's involvement in the Vietnam War.[11]
Originally, Wallerstein's principal sub-area of study was not American affairs, but the politics of the non-European world, specifically India and Africa.[8] For two decades Wallersteinresearched Africa, publishing numerous books and articles,[8] and in 1973 he became president of theAfrican Studies Association.[12]
Wallerstein's academic career began at Columbia University where he was an instructor and then associate professor of sociology from 1958 to 1971.[9] From there he moved toMcGill University, in Montreal where he taught from 1971 to 1976. He became distinguished professor of sociology at SUNYBinghamton University from 1976 to 1999.[13]
In 1976 Wallerstein was offered the unique opportunity to pursue a new avenue of research, and so became head of theFernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems and Civilization at Binghamton University in New York,[14] whose mission was "to engage in the analysis of large-scale social change over long periods of historical time".[15] The Center opened with the publishing support of a new journal,Review,[9] (of which Wallerstein was the founding editor), and produced a body of work that "went a long way toward invigorating sociology and its sister disciplines, especially history andpolitical-economy".[9] Wallerstein served as a distinguished professor of sociology at SUNY-Binghamton until his retirement in 1999.[12]
During his career Wallerstein held visiting-professor posts inHong Kong, British Columbia, and Amsterdam, among numerous others.[16] He was awarded multiple honorary titles, intermittently served as Directeur d'études associé at theÉcole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and served as president of theInternational Sociological Association between 1994 and 1998.[17] At this time he also held a titled professorship atNew York University and lectured atColumbia University. Similarly, during the 1990s he chaired the Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the Social Sciences, whose object was to indicate a direction for social scientific inquiry for the next 50 years.[18]
Between 2000 and his death in 2019, Wallerstein worked as a senior research scholar atYale University.[19] He was also a member of the Advisory Editors Council of theSocial Evolution & History journal. In 2003, he received the "Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award" from theAmerican Sociological Association,[12] and in 2004 theInternational N. D. Kondratieff Foundation and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN) awarded him the Gold Kondratieff Medal.[20] Wallerstein died on August 31, 2019, from an infection, at the age of 88.[21]
During his time as a lecturer some of the students in attendance recalled him as "a calm, reserved, elegant man".[22] When taking criticism for his thesis, he would usually be calm and collected. As well as hinting at the fact that he was almost disappointed for the people or audience for not fully comprehending what he wished to establish.[23]
Wallerstein began as an expert onpost-colonial African affairs, which he selected as the focus of his studies after attending international youth conferences in 1951 and 1952.[24] His publications focused almost exclusively on this topic until the early 1970s, when he began to distinguish himself as a historian and theorist of the globalcapitalisteconomy on a macroscopic level. His early criticism of global capitalism and championship of "anti-systemic movements" made him anéminence grise with theanti-globalization movement within and outside of the academic community, along withNoam Chomsky (1928- ) andPierre Bourdieu (1930-2002).
Wallerstein's most important work,The Modern World-System, appeared in four volumes between 1974 and 2011.[25] In it, Wallerstein drew on several intellectual influences. FromKarl Marx, Wallerstein took the underlying emphasis on economic factors and their dominance over ideological factors inglobal politics, and such ideas as the dichotomy betweencapital and labor, while criticizing deterministic orteleological Marxian views of world economic development through stages such asfeudalism and capitalism. Fromdependency theory, he took the key concepts of "core" and "periphery".[citation needed]
However, Wallerstein namedFrantz Fanon (1925-1961),Fernand Braudel (1902-1985), andIlya Prigogine (1917-2003) as the three individuals who exerted the greatest influence "in modifying my line of argument (as opposed to deepening a parallel line of argument)."[8] InThe Essential Wallerstein, he stated that: "Fanon represented for me the expression of the insistence by those disenfranchised by the modern world‑system that they have a voice, a vision, and a claim not merely to justice but to intellectual valuation.";[8] that Braudel, for his description of the development and political implications of extensive networks of economic exchange in the European world between 1400 and 1800, "more than anyone else made me conscious of the central importance of the social construction of time and space and its impact on our analyses.";[8] and that "Prigogine forced me to face the implications of a world in which certainties did not exist – but knowledge still did."[8]
Wallerstein also stated that another major influence on his work was the"world revolution" of 1968. A member of the faculty of Columbia University at the time of the student protests, he participated in a faculty committee that attempted to resolve the dispute. He argued in several works that this revolution marked the end of "liberalism" as a viable ideology in the modern world system. He also argued that the end of theCold War, rather than marking a triumph for liberalism, indicates that the current system has entered its 'end' phase: a period of crisis that will end only when it is replaced by another system.[26] Wallerstein anticipated the growing importance of theNorth–South divide at a time when the main world conflict was theCold War.[citation needed]
Wallerstein was often mocked for arguing since 1980 that the United States is a "hegemon in decline",[citation needed] but since theIraq War this argument has become more widespread. During this time, Wallerstein also argued that the development of the capitalist world economy was detrimental to a large proportion of the world's population.[27] Like Marx, Wallerstein predicted that capitalism will be replaced by asocialist economy, a view held in the 1970s, but reassessed in the 1980s.[28] He concluded that the successor system(s) is unknowable.[citation needed]
Wallerstein both participated in and wrote about theWorld Social Forum.
Wallerstein's first volume on world-systems theory (The Modern World System, 1974) was predominantly written during a year at theCenter for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (now affiliated withStanford University).[3] In it, he argues that the modern world system is distinguished fromempires by its reliance on economic control of the world order by a dominating capitalist center (core) in systemic economic and political relation toperipheral andsemi-peripheral world areas.[29]
Wallerstein rejected the notion of a "Third World", claiming that there is only one world connected by a complex network of economic exchange relationships — i.e., a "world-economy" or "world-system" in which the "dichotomy of capital and labor" and the endless "accumulation of capital" by competing agents (historically including, but not limited, to nation-states) account for frictions.[30] This approach is known as the world-system theory.
Wallerstein located the origin of the modern world-system in 16th-century Western Europe and the Americas. An initially slight advance in capital accumulation inBritain, theDutch Republic, andFrance, due to specific political circumstances at the end of the period of feudalism, set in motion a process of gradual expansion. As a result, only one global network or system of economic exchange exists in modern society. By the 19th century, virtually every area on earth was incorporated into the capitalist world-economy.[citation needed]
The capitalist world-system is far from homogeneous in cultural, political, and economic terms; instead, it is characterized by fundamental differences in social development, accumulation of political power, and capital. Contrary to affirmative theories ofmodernization and capitalism, Wallerstein did not conceive of these differences as mere residues or irregularities that can and will be overcome as the system evolves.[citation needed]
A lasting division of the world intocore,semi-periphery, andperiphery is an inherent feature of world-system theory. Other theories, partially drawn on by Wallerstein, leave out the semi-periphery and do not allow for a grayscale of development.[30] Areas which have so far remained outside the reach of the world-system enter it at the stage of "periphery". There is a fundamental and institutionally stabilized "division of labor" between core and periphery: while the core has a high level of technological development and manufactures complex products, the role of the periphery is to supply raw materials, agricultural products, and cheap labor for the expanding agents of the core. Economic exchange between core and periphery takes place onunequal terms: the periphery is forced to sell its products at low prices, but has to buy the core's products at comparatively high prices. Once established, this unequal state tends to stabilize itself due to inherent, quasi-deterministic constraints. The statuses of core and periphery are not exclusive and fixed geographically, but are relative to each other. A zone defined as "semi-periphery" acts as a periphery to the core and as a core to the periphery. At the end of the 20th century, this zone would comprise Eastern Europe,China,Brazil, andMexico. It is important to note that core and peripheral zones can co-exist in the same location.[citation needed]
One effect of the expansion of the world-system is thecommodification of things, including human labor. Natural resources, land, labor, and human relationships are gradually being stripped of their "intrinsic" value and turned into commodities in amarket which determines their exchange value.[citation needed]
In the last two decades of his life, Wallerstein increasingly focused on the intellectual foundations of the modern world-system and the pursuit of universal theories of human behavior. In addition, he showed interest in the "structures of knowledge" defined by the disciplinary division between sociology,anthropology,political science,economics, and thehumanities, which he himself regarded asEurocentric. In analyzing them, he was highly influenced by the "new sciences" of theorists likeIlya Prigogine.[citation needed]
| This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Immanuel Wallerstein" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Wallerstein's theory provoked harsh criticism, not only fromneo-liberal orconservative circles but even from some historians who say that some of his assertions may be historically incorrect. Some critics suggest that Wallerstein tended to neglect the cultural dimension of the modern world-system, arguing that there is a world system of global culture which is independent from the economic processes of capitalism;[31] this reduces it to what some call "official" ideologies of states which can then easily be revealed as mere agencies of economic interest.[citation needed]
Nevertheless, his analytical approach, along with that of associated theorists such asAndre Gunder Frank,Terence Hopkins,Samir Amin,Christopher Chase-Dunn, Thomas D. Hall,Aníbal Quijano andGiovanni Arrighi, has made a significant impact on the field and has established an institutional base devoted to the general approach of intellectual inquiry. Their works has also attracted strong interest from the anti-globalization movement.[citation needed]
Arthur Stinchcombe was very critical of Wallerstein'sThe Modern World-System, writing that the book presents no theoretical argument and no determinate mechanisms. Instead, the theory of the book "reduces to a general imperative for the scholar to look for world system influences, perhaps wise advice but not very specific." Stinchcombe also argues that the book does not define its concepts independently of their effects, thus entailing tautologies regarding cores, peripheries and semi-peripheries.[32]
Wallerstein's definition follows dependency theory, which intended to combine the developments of the different societies since the 16th century in different regions into one collective development. The main characteristic of his definition is the development of a global division of labour, including the existence of independent political units (in this case, states) at the same time. There is no political center, compared to global empires like theRoman Empire; instead, the capitalist world-system is identified by the globalmarket economy. It is divided into core, semi-periphery, and periphery regions, and is ruled by thecapitalist mode of production.
Defines the difference between developed and developing countries, characterized e.g. by power or wealth. The core refers to developed countries, the periphery to the dependent developing countries. The main reason for the position of the developed countries is economic power. Wallerstein "used the termcore to suggest a multicentric region containing a group of states rather than the termcenter, which implies a hierarchy with a single peak."[33]
Defines states that are located between core and periphery, and who benefit from the periphery through unequal exchange relations. At the same time, the core benefits from the semi-periphery through unequal exchange relations.
Defines a kind ofmonopoly where there is more than one service provider for a particular good/service. Wallerstein claims that quasi-monopolies are self-liquidating because new sellers go into the market by exerting political pressure to open markets to competition.[34]
AKondratiev wave is defined as a cyclical tendency in the world's economy. It is also known as asupercycle. Wallerstein argues that global wars are tied to Kondratiev waves.[citation needed] According to him, global conflicts occur as the summer phase of a wave begins, which is when production of goods and services around the world are on an upswing.[35]
 | This sectioncontains a list that has not been properly sorted. Specifically, it does not follow theManual of Style for lists of works (often, though not always, due to being in reverse-chronological order). SeeMOS:LISTSORT for more information. Pleaseimprove this section if you can.(June 2025) |
| Year | Title | Author(s) | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Africa, The Politics of Independence | Immanuel Wallerstein | New York:Vintage Books |
| 1964 | The Road to Independence: Ghana and the Ivory Coast | Immanuel Wallerstein | Paris & The Hague: Mouton |
| 1967 | Africa: The Politics of Unity | Immanuel Wallerstein | New York:Random House |
| 1969 | University in Turmoil: The Politics of Change | Immanuel Wallerstein | New York:Atheneum |
| 1972 | Africa: Tradition & Change | Immanuel Wallerstein with Evelyn Jones Rich | New York: Random House |
| 1974 | The Modern World-System, vol. I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century | Immanuel Wallerstein | New York/London:Academic Press |
| 1979 | The Capitalist World-Economy | Immanuel Wallerstein | Cambridge University Press |
| 1980 | The Modern World-System, vol. II: Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the European World-Economy, 1600–1750 | Immanuel Wallerstein | New York: Academic Press |
| 1982 | World-Systems Analysis: Theory and Methodology | Immanuel Wallerstein with Terence K. Hopkins et al. | Beverly Hills: Sage |
| 1982 | Dynamics of Global Crisis | Immanuel Wallerstein withSamir Amin,Giovanni Arrighi andAndre Gunder Frank | London:Macmillan |
| 1983 | Historical Capitalism | Immanuel Wallerstein | London:Verso |
| 1984 | The Politics of the World-Economy. The States, the Movements and the Civilizations | Immanuel Wallerstein | Cambridge: Cambridge University Press |
| 1986 | Africa and the Modern World | Immanuel Wallerstein | Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press |
| 1989 | The Modern World-System, vol. III: The Second Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840s | Immanuel Wallerstein | San Diego: Academic Press |
| 1989 | Antisystemic Movements | Immanuel Wallerstein withGiovanni Arrighi and Terence K. Hopkins | London: Verso |
| 1990 | Transforming the Revolution: Social Movements and the World-System | Immanuel Wallerstein withSamir Amin,Giovanni Arrighi andAndre Gunder Frank | New York:Monthly Review Press |
| 1991 | Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities | Immanuel Wallerstein withÉtienne Balibar | London: Verso. |
| 1991 | Geopolitics and Geoculture: Essays on the Changing World-System | Immanuel Wallerstein | Cambridge: Cambridge University Press |
| 1991 | Unthinking Social Science: The Limits of Nineteenth Century Paradigms | Immanuel Wallerstein | Cambridge: Polity |
| 1995 | After Liberalism | Immanuel Wallerstein | New York: New Press |
| 1995 | Historical Capitalism, with Capitalist Civilization | Immanuel Wallerstein | London: Verso |
| 1998 | Utopistics: Or, Historical Choices of the Twenty-first Century | Immanuel Wallerstein | New York: New Press |
| 1999 | The End of the World As We Know It: Social Science for the Twenty-first Century | Immanuel Wallerstein | Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press |
| 2001 | Democracy, Capitalism, and Transformation | Immanuel Wallerstein | Documenta 11, Vienna, March 16, 2001 |
| 2003 | Decline of American Power: The U.S. in a Chaotic World | Immanuel Wallerstein | New York: New Press |
| 2004 | The Uncertainties of Knowledge | Immanuel Wallerstein | Philadelphia:Temple University Press |
| 2004 | World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction | Immanuel Wallerstein | Durham, North Carolina:Duke University Press |
| 2004 | Alternatives: The U.S. Confronts the World | Immanuel Wallerstein | Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Press |
| 2006 | European Universalism: The Rhetoric of Power | Immanuel Wallerstein | New York: New Press |
| 2011 | The Modern World-System, vol. IV: Centrist Liberalism Triumphant, 1789–1914 | Immanuel Wallerstein | Berkeley:University of California Press |
| 2013 | Uncertain Worlds: World-Systems Analysis in Changing Times | Immanuel Wallerstein withCharles Lemert and Carlos Antonio Aguirre Rojas | Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers |
| 2013 | Does Capitalism Have a Future? | Immanuel Wallerstein withRandall Collins,Michael Mann,Georgi Derluguian andCraig Calhoun | New York:Oxford University Press |
| 2015 | The World is Out of Joint: World-Historical Interpretations of Continuing Polarizations | Immanuel Wallerstein (editor) | Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers |
| 2022 | The Global Left: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow | Immanuel Wallerstein (editor) | Routledge |
Media related toImmanuel Wallerstein at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related toImmanuel Wallerstein at WikiquoteVideo
Audio
