World-Systems Analysis, Globalization, and Incorporated Comparison

Authors

  • Phillip McMichael Cornell University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2000.192

Abstract

When Immanuel Wallerstein (1974) subverted the mid-1970s social science scene with his concept of the ?world-system,? development, the ?master? concept of social theory, suffered a fatal blow. Wallerstein?s critique of development emphasized its misapplication as a national strategy in a hierarchical world where only some states can ?succeed.? Wallerstein?s path-breaking epistemological challenge to the modernization paradigm reformulated the unit of analysis of development from the nation-state to the ?world-system.? To be sure, the past three decades have seen reformulations, coined to address the failures of the development enterprise: frombasic needs, through participation in the world market, globalization, to local sustainability. But development, the organizing myth of our age, has never recovered.

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Published

2000-11-26

How to Cite

McMichael, P. (2000). World-Systems Analysis, Globalization, and Incorporated Comparison. Journal of World-Systems Research, 6(3), 668–689. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2000.192

Issue

Section

World-Systems Contemporary