Immanuel Wallerstein and the critical perspective of the "world-systems analysis"

Abstract

This paper intends to rebuild global contributions to the distinct approaches of Immanuel Wallerstein work, according to this own author, in the perspective of “World-Systems Analysis”. Based on a comprehensive survey of the published works of this author, and also on a great deal of other works based on the world-system analysis, this paper deals with the four pillars of the Wallerstinian inheritance, which include from a new view of the history of capitalism between centuries XVI and XX to a proposal to build “new social sciences” – and also comprise a novel contribution of the history of “the long XXth century” (beginning in 1870 and still not finished) and critical diagnostic analysis of the main successful happenings unfolded since 1968-1973 (which are complemented by many prospective exercises regarding the possible world scenarios for the decades to come.