Recent Research on World-Systems

Abstract

Surveys current research conducted from a world-systems perspective, identifying three themes: (1) how different definitions of the world system or world market imply different ways of dividing history into distinct periods, (2) how the changes initiated by patterns & cycles (eg, of economic development, state formation, population, commodification, technological development, & capital) structure the reproduction of the world system, & (3) how the global hierarchy of power & wealth reproduces itself via constraints it imposes on policy options available to most nations. Leading concepts in world-systems analysis are reviewed, & their capacity for providing insight into historical change processes on a global level is documented. 1 Table, 112 References. K. Hyatt Stewart