Summarize sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein's world systems theory of global inequality

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

World systems theory suggests that what exists under capitalism is a truly

global system that is held together by economic ties. From this approach,

global inequality does not emerge solely as a result of the exploitation of

one country by another. Instead, economic domination involves a complex

world system in which the industrialized, high-income nations benefit from

other nations and exploit their citizens. This theory is most closely

associated with sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, who believed that a

country's mode of incorporation into the capitalistic work economy is the

key feature in determining how economic development takes place in that

nation.

According to world systems theory, the capitalist world economy is a global

system divided into a hierarchy of three major types of nations—core,

semiperipheral, and peripheral—in which upward or downward mobility is

conditioned by the resources and obstacles that characterize the international

system. Core nations are dominant capitalist centers characterized by high

levels of industrialization and urbanization. Core nations such as the United

States, Japan, and Germany possess most of the world's capital and

technology. Even more importantly for their position of domination, they exert

massive control over world trade and economic agreements across national

boundaries. Semiperipheral nations are more developed than peripheral

nations but less developed than core nations. Nations in this category typically

provide labor and raw materials to core nations within the world system.

These nations constitute a midpoint between the core and peripheral nations

that promotes the stability and legitimacy of the three-tiered world economy.

These nations include South Korea and Taiwan in East Asia, Mexico and

Brazil in Latin America, India in South Asia, and Nigeria and South Africa in

Africa. Most low-income countries in Africa, South America, and the

Caribbean are peripheral nations—nations that are dependent on core nations

for capital, have little or no industrialization (other than what may be brought in

by core nations) and have uneven patterns of urbanization. According to

Wallerstein, the wealthy in peripheral nations benefit from the labor of poor

workers and from their own economic relations with core nation capitalists,

whom they uphold in order to maintain their own wealth and position.