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"World-Systems Analysis" published on by Oxford University Press.

World-systems analysis studies the development of our world-system. Its units of analysis to explain social change are not nation-states, but world-systems. There were until the nineteenth century many different and dissimilar types of world-systems – world-empires and world-economies - in the world. These have over the centuries been subjugated by the capitalist world-economy which emerged at the end of the Middle Ages in Europe. Analysing these long term historical processes is central in world-systems analysis. It focusses not on the newest features of globalisation, but on the processes which over the centuries have formed our modern world-system. This started as an European world-economy and has always functioned as a capitalist world-economy. It has over the centuries gone through several distinct phases of development and has subsequently incorporated all areas on the globe. The peripheralisation of these areas enabled the core to prosper. World-systems analysis focusses on the complex processes through which the inequalities in the world-system are reproduced at the systems level, but are changeable at the state level. The semi-periphery plays an important role in both stabilising the world-system as a whole and enabling some states to improve their position in the world-system. These changes in position in the world-system are linked to its economic cycle of growth and stagnation and its political cycle of rivalry and hegemony. Besides these recurrent cycles there are also trends which change and undermine the present world-system.

This is a review of recent research on world-systems. We cover studies of the current system and studies that compare the contemporary global system with earlier, smaller intersocietal systems. Research on the cycles and secular trends found in the modern world-system is discussed at length. This includes an examination of economic cycles of various lengths as well as their links with broader cycles like the rise and fall of hegemonic core powers, international financial crises, and the cycle of global war. We also survey recent studies of core-periphery hierarchy.

The acceptance of the decreasing relevance of the core- periphery structure as a one of the characteristic themes of globalization is contested to argue that the global political economy shows few signs of the superseding that form of stratification. The arguments by the globalization scholars that the North-South core periphery divide that are being superseded by the formation of a transnational capitalist class & a world proletariat are refuted as being based on cursory observations that do not pay much attention to the empirical evidence on global inequality & the conceptual problems of interpreting various models of global industrialization. The contention that the absolute novelty of contemporary globalization makes multi-century time frames irrelevant is also refuted by the rules of the comparative method that require identifying what is recurrent as opposed to the true peculiarities of contemporary globalization. The benefits to critical globalization studies of the world systems analysis are explained in terms of the reorganization of world society in which financialization & hypermobility of capital are premonitory signs, & the trajectories of such reorganization. Monitoring the unrealistic US universal world empire project is the important task for true critical globalization studies, as well as providing the global social justice movement with a reliable map to lead to more equitable & just world as opposed to exploit hated empire or endless chaos. References. J. Harwell

Using the world-systems perspective, this essay discusses the trajectories of several types of globalization over the last 100 years and the recent surge in public cognizance of global processes. It is found that different types of global-ization have different temporal characteristics. Some are long-term upward trends, while others display large cyclical oscillations. The factors that explain the recent emergence of the globalization discourse are examined, and this phenomenon is analyzed in terms of the contradictory interests of powerful and less-powerful groups. I contend that there is a lag between economic and political/cultural globalization, and that the latter needs to catch up if we are to convert the contemporary world-system of "casino capitalism" in to a more humane, democratic, balanced and sustainable world society.