Immanuel Wallerstein

Immanuel Wallerstein (1930–2019) was an American sociologist and historian who developed world-systems theory, analyzing capitalism as a historically formed global system.

World-systems theory: A framework that analyzes the modern world as a capitalist system structured by unequal relations among regions. Wallerstein’s major theoretical contribution, developed through his study of global economic history.
Fernand Braudel: A French historian associated with the Annales school and the study of long-term historical structures. Braudel’s emphasis on long historical durations and world-economies shaped Wallerstein’s approach.
Terence K. Hopkins: An American sociologist who collaborated with Wallerstein on world-systems analysis and historical social science. Hopkins was a close collaborator in developing the research program around world-systems theory.
Modernization theory: A theory that explains social change as societies moving through stages toward industrial modernity. Wallerstein rejected its national-stage model in favor of unequal relations within one global system.
Historical sociology: The study of how societies and social structures change over time using historical evidence and sociological questions. Wallerstein helped establish large-scale historical comparison as a central sociological method.
Core–periphery structure: A model of spatial inequality distinguishing powerful, wealthy centers from subordinated regions in a larger system. Wallerstein used this relation to explain how the world economy distributes power and wealth.
Annales school: A historical movement that emphasized social structures, geography, and long-term processes over event-centered political history. Its structural, long-duration history offered a model for Wallerstein’s global historical analysis.
Giovanni Arrighi: An Italian sociologist whose work examined global capitalism, hegemonic transitions, and cycles of accumulation. Arrighi developed a related historical analysis of capitalism and global power.
Methodological nationalism: An approach that treats the nation-state as the primary unit for studying social and economic processes. World-systems analysis challenges this assumption by making the larger system its principal unit.
Global inequality: Unequal distributions of wealth, power, and opportunity among people and regions worldwide. His framework explains persistent global disparities through the structure of the capitalist world-economy.

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