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Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein (; September 28, 1930 – August 31, 2019) was an American sociologist and economic historian. He is perhaps best known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his world-systems approach."Wallerstein, Immanuel (1930– )." The AZ Guide to Modern Social and Political Theorists. Ed. Noel Parker and Stuart Sim. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1997. 372-76. Print. He was a Senior Research Scholar at Yale 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. He was the 13th president of
International Sociological Association The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national soci ...
(1994–1998).


Personal life and education

His parents, Sara Günsberg (born in 1895) and Menachem Lazar Wallerstein (born in 1890), were Polish Jews from Galicia who moved to Berlin, because of the World War, where they married in 1919. Two years later, Sara gave birth to their first son, Solomon. In 1923, the Wallerstein family emigrated to
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...
, where Immanuel was born. 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. Having grown up in a politically conscious family, Wallerstein first became interested in world affairs as a teenager. He received all three of his degrees from Columbia University: a BA in 1951, an MA in 1954, and a PhD in 1959, where he completed his dissertation under the supervision of Hans L. Zetterberg and Robert Staughton Lynd. However, throughout his life, Wallerstein also studied at other universities around the world, including Oxford University from 1955 to 1956,Sica, Alan. 2005. "Immanuel Wallerstein". Pp. 734–739 in ''Social Thought: from the Enlightenment to the present''. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Université libre de Bruxelles, Universite Paris 7 Denis Diderot, and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. From 1951 to 1953 Wallerstein served in the
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
. After his discharge, he wrote a master's thesis on
McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term orig ...
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. Wallerstein married Beatrice Friedman in 1964, and had a daughter, Katharine, two years later. He was stepfather to Beatrice's two children from a previous marriage. He and Beatrice had five grandchildren.


Academic career

Wallerstein's academic and professional career began at Columbia University where he was first an instructor and then associate professor of sociology from 1958 to 1971. During his time there he became leading supporter for student who were protesting during the
Columbia University protests of 1968 In 1968, a series of protests at Columbia University in New York City were one among the various student demonstrations that occurred around the globe in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students dis ...
as they fought against Columbia's involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1971 he moved from New York to Montreal, where he taught at McGill University for five years. Originally, Wallerstein's prime area of intellectual concern was not American politics, but the politics of the non-European world, most especially of India and Africa. For two decades Wallerstein researched Africa, publishing numerous books and articles, and in 1973 he became president of the
African Studies Association The African Studies Association (ASA) is a US-based association of scholars, students, practitioners, and institutions with an interest in the continent of Africa. Founded in 1957, the ASA is the leading organization of African Studies in North ...
.Wallerstein, I. (April 2009). Curriculum Vitae. Retrieved from http://iwallerstein.com/wp-content/uploads/docs/iwallerstein-cv-eng-09.pdf In 1976 Wallerstein was offered the unique opportunity to pursue a new avenue of research, and so became head of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems and Civilization at
Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public research university with campuses in Binghamton, Vestal, and Johnson City, New York. It is one of the four university centers in the State ...
in New York, whose mission was "to engage in the analysis of large-scale social change over long periods of historical time". The Center opened with the publishing support of a new journal, ''Review'', (of which Wallerstein was the founding editor), and would go on to produce a body of work that "went a long way toward invigorating sociology and its sister disciplines, especially history and political-economy". Wallerstein would serve as a distinguished professor of sociology at Binghamton until his retirement in 1999. During his career Wallerstein held visiting-professor posts in Hong Kong, British Columbia, and Amsterdam, among numerous others. He was awarded multiple honorary titles, intermittently served as Directeur d'études associé at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and served as president of the
International Sociological Association The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national soci ...
between 1994 and 1998. 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. Between 2000 and his death in 2019 Wallerstein worked as a Senior Research Scholar at Yale University. He was also a member of the Advisory Editors Council of the '' Social Evolution & History'' journal. In 2003, he received the "Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award" from the
American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...
, and in 2004 the International N. D. Kondratieff Foundation and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN) awarded him the Gold Kondratieff Medal. Wallerstein died on August 31, 2019 from an infection, at the age of 88.


Theory

Wallerstein began as an expert on post-colonial African affairs, which he selected as the focus of his studies after attending international youth conferences in 1951 and 1952. 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 global
capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private p ...
economy on a macroscopic level. His early criticism of global capitalism and championship of "anti-systemic movements" made him an ''
éminence grise An ''éminence grise'' () or grey eminence is a powerful decision-maker or adviser who operates "behind the scenes", or in a non-public or unofficial capacity. This phrase originally referred to François Leclerc du Tremblay, the right-hand man ...
'' with the anti-globalization movement within and outside of the academic community, along with Noam Chomsky (1928- ) and Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002). Wallerstein's most important work, ''The Modern World-System'', appeared in four volumes between 1974 and 2011. In it, Wallerstein drew on several intellectual influences. From Karl Marx, Wallerstein took the underlying emphasis on economic factors and their dominance over ideological factors in
global politics Global politics, also known as world politics, names both the discipline that studies the political and economic patterns of the world and the field that is being studied. At the centre of that field are the different processes of political globa ...
, and such ideas as the dichotomy between
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
and labor, while criticizing the traditional Marxian view of world economic development through stages such as feudalism and capitalism, and while criticizing as well its account of the process of
accumulation of capital Capital accumulation is the dynamic that motivates the pursuit of profit, involving the investment of money or any financial asset with the goal of increasing the initial monetary value of said asset as a financial return whether in the form o ...
, and of dialectics. From dependency theory, he took the key concepts of "core" and "periphery". However, Wallerstein named
Frantz Fanon Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961), also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a French West Indian psychiatrist, and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have be ...
(1925-1961), Fernand Braudel (1902-1985), and Ilya 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)." In ''The 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."; 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."; and that "Prigogine forced me to face the implications of a world in which certainties did not exist – but knowledge still did." 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 the Cold 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. Wallerstein anticipated the growing importance of the North–South divide at a time when the main world conflict was the Cold War. Wallerstein was often mocked for arguing since 1980 that the United States is a " hegemon in decline", but since the Iraq 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.Paul Halsal
Modern History Sourcebook: Summary of Wallerstein on World System Theory
August 1997
Like Marx, Wallerstein predicted that capitalism will be replaced by a socialist economy, a view held in the 1970s, but reassessed in the 1980s.Carlos A. Martínez-Vela
World Systems Theory
paper prepared for th

November 2003
He concluded that the successor system(s) is unknowable. Wallerstein both participated in and wrote about the World Social Forum.


''The Modern World-System''

Wallerstein's first volume on world-systems theory (''The Modern World System'', 1974) was predominantly written during a year at the
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social and ...
(now affiliated with Stanford University). In it, he argues that the modern world system is distinguished from
empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
s by its reliance on economic control of the world order by a dominating capitalist center (
core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the central ...
) in systemic economic and political relation to
peripheral A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by the ...
and semi-peripheral world areas. Wallerstein rejected the notion of a "
Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the "First W ...
", 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. 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 in
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, the Dutch Republic, and France, 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. 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 of
modernization Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber ...
and capitalism, Wallerstein did not conceive of these differences as mere residues or irregularities that can and will be overcome as the system evolves. A lasting division of the world into ''core'', ''semi-periphery'', and ''periphery'' 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. 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 on unequal 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, and Mexico. It is important to note that core and peripheral zones can co-exist in the same location. One effect of the expansion of the world-system is the
commodification Within a capitalist economic system, commodification is the transformation of things such as goods, services, ideas, nature, personal information, people or animals into objects of trade or commodities.For animals"United Nations Commodity Trade ...
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 a market which determines their exchange value. 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 Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
, political science, economics, and the humanities, which he himself regarded as Eurocentric. In analyzing them, he was highly influenced by the "new sciences" of theorists like Ilya Prigogine.


Criticism

Wallerstein's theory provoked harsh criticism, not only from
neo-liberal Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
or
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
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; this reduces it to what some call "official" ideologies of states which can then easily be revealed as mere agencies of economic interest. Nevertheless, his analytical approach, along with that of associated theorists such as
Andre Gunder Frank Andre Gunder Frank (February 24, 1929 – April 25, 2005) was a German- American sociologist and economic historian who promoted dependency theory after 1970 and world-systems theory after 1984. He employed some Marxian concepts on politic ...
,
Terence Hopkins Terence Kilbourne Hopkins (1928 – January 3, 1997) was an American historical sociologist who collaborated with Immanuel Wallerstein, Giovanni Arrighi and others on world systems theory. Amongst world systems scholars, he was "considered the speci ...
, Samir Amin,
Christopher Chase-Dunn Christopher K. Chase-Dunn (born January 10, 1944, Corvallis, Oregon) is an American sociologist best known for his contributions to world-systems theory. Education and career Chase-Dunn earned his PhD in 1975 at Stanford University (studying ...
, Thomas D. Hall, Anibal Quijano and
Giovanni Arrighi Giovanni Arrighi (7 July 1937 – 18 June 2009) was an Italian economist, sociologist and world-systems analyst, from 1998 a Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. His work has been translated into over fifteen languages. Biography ...
, has made a significant impact on the field and has established an institutional base devoted to the general approach of intellectual inquiry. Their ideology has also attracted strong interest from the anti-globalization movement.
Arthur Stinchcombe Arthur Leonard Stinchcombe (1933–2018) was an American sociologist. Stinchcombe was born on May 16, 1933, in Clare County, Michigan, and attended Central Michigan University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He then pursued gr ...
was very critical of Wallerstein's ''The 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.


Terms and definitions


Capitalist world-system

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 the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
; instead, the capitalist world-system is identified by the global market economy. It is divided into core, semi-periphery, and periphery regions, and is ruled by the capitalist mode of production.


Core/periphery

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 term ''core'' to suggest a multicentric region containing a group of states rather than the term ''center'' , which implies a hierarchy with a single peak."


Semi-periphery

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.


Quasi-monopolies

Defines a kind of monopoly 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.


Kondratiev waves

A Kondratiev wave is defined as a cyclical tendency in the world's economy. It is also known as a ''supercycle.'' Wallerstein argues that global wars are tied to Kondratiev waves. 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.


Honors and fellowships

*
International Sociological Association The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national soci ...
Award for Excellence in Research and Practice, 2014 *N.D. Kondratieff Gold Medal, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, 2005 *Distinguished Fellow, St. John's College, University of British Columbia, 2004–present *Centro de Estudios, Información y Documentación Immanuel Wallerstein, Univ. de la Tierra-Chiapas y el CIDECI Las Casas, 2004–present *Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award,
American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...
, 2003 *Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, Political Economy of the World-System Section of
American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...
, 2003 *Premio Carlos Marx 2003, Fondo Cultural Tercer Mundo, Mexico *Leerstoel (Chair) Immanuel Wallerstein, University of Ghent, 2002– naugural Lecture by IW on Mar. 11, 2002*Fellow, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1998 *IPE Distinguished Scholar,
International Studies Association The International Studies Association (ISA) is a US-based professional association for scholars and practitioners in the field of international studies. Founded in 1959, ISA has been headquartered at the University of Connecticut in Storrs since ...
, 1998 *Gulbenkian Professor of Science and Technology, 1994 *Medal of the University, University of Helsinki, 1992 *Wei Lun Visiting Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991 *University Award for Excellence in Scholarship, Binghamton University, 1991 *George A. Miller Visiting Professor, University of Illinois-Urbana, 1989 *Officier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France, 1984 *Sorokin Prize (for Distinguished Scholarship), American Sociological Association, 1975 *Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, 1970–71 *Ford Fellow in Economics, Political Science and Sociology, 1970–71 *Foreign Area Fellowship, Africa, 1955–57 *
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ar ...
, 1951


Works


See also

*
Historical sociology Historical sociology is an interdisciplinary field of research that combines sociological and historical methods to understand the past, how societies have developed over time, and the impact this has on the present. It emphasises a mutual line ...
*
Late capitalism Late capitalism, late-stage capitalism, or end-stage capitalism is a term first used in print by German economist Werner Sombart around the turn of the 20th century. In the late 2010s, the term began to be used in the United States and Canada to ...


References


Further reading

*Kenneth, A. "Contemporary social and sociological theory: visualizing social worlds". Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2006. *Brewer, A., ''Marxist Theories of Imperialism: A Critical survey,'' London: Macmillan, 1990. * *Frank, A.G. and B. Gills (eds), ''The World System: 500 years or 5000?'', London: Routledge, 1993. *Hout, W., ''Capitalism and the Third World: Development, dependence and the world system'', Hants: Edward Elgar, 1993. *Sanderson, S., ''Civilizations and World Systems,'' London: Sage, 1955. *Shannon, T., ''An Introduction to the World-System Perspective,'' Oxford: Westview Press, 1989. *Wallerstein, I., ''The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century,'' New York: Academic Press, 1974.


External links

*
Immanuel Wallerstein's Official WebsiteImmanuel Wallerstein's profile at Yale.eduImmanuel Wallerstein's Full CVArticles at Monthly Review
– Fordham University
Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Compact Macromodels of the World System Growth
by Andrey Korotayev, Artemy Malkov, and
Daria Khaltourina Daria Andreyevna Khaltourina (russian: Дáрья Андрéевна Халтýрина; born 4 January 1979 in Chelyabinsk) is a Russian sociologist, anthropologist, demographer, and a public figure. She is the head of the Group of the Monitorin ...

Binghmaton University Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and CivilizationsJournal of World-Systems Research

"World-Economic Theories and Problems: Quigley vs. Wallerstein vs Central Civilization"
by David Wilkinson

by Immanuel Wallerstein

* ttp://www.campusincamps.ps/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Wallerstein-Reading-Fanon.pdf Reading Fanon in the 21st Century– 2009, New Left Review essay
Structural Crisis
– 2010, New Left Review essay

The Immanuel Wallerstein Collection Finding Aid, Binghamton University Libraries ;Video
"The U.S. As a World Power"
C-SPAN (2002)

– Fall 2006, Conference given by Immanuel Wallerstein at the Université de Montréal ''(in French)'' * – Immanuel Wallerstein comments on America's recent financial crisis in TV interview * * ;Audio
Grace Lee Boggs and Immanuel Wallerstein Dialogue
– U.S. Social Forum, 2010
"Global Africa: Liberation Movements Since 1945"
– Sept. 24, 2008, dialogue between Immanuel Wallerstein, Walter Turner, and Will Grant at CounterPULSE, part of the ongoing Shaping San Francisco Talks series
KPFA Radio Interview
– Nov. 12, 2008, Immanuel Wallerstein comments on the structural constraints faced by Obama and the current economic crisis {{DEFAULTSORT:Wallerstein, Immanuel 1930 births 2019 deaths American Africanists American foreign policy writers American socialists American sociologists American male non-fiction writers American people of Polish-Jewish descent American political writers American social sciences writers Columbia University faculty Binghamton University faculty Columbia College (New York) alumni Dependency theorists Geopoliticians Jewish historians Imperialism studies International relations scholars Jewish American social scientists Columbia University alumni Jewish sociologists Jewish philosophers Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Scientists from New York City N. D. Kondratieff Medal laureates Theoretical historians World system scholars Writers about globalization Writers from New York City Presidents of the International Sociological Association Presidents of the African Studies Association