Geopolitics and Geoculture: Essays on the Changing World-System

by Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein

• ISBN13: 9780521406048
• ISBN10: 0521406048
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-07-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the third volume of Immanuel Wallerstein’s essays to appear in Studies in Modern Capitalism, following the immensely successful collections The Politics of the World Economy and The Capitalist World Economy. Written between 1982 and 1989, these pieces offer Wallerstein’s perspective on the events of this period, and the background to his interpretation of the momentous events of 1989. In his introduction Wallerstein argues that the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the process of perestroika bear out his basic analysis: that the decline of US hegemony in the world-system is the central explanatory variable of change; and that the collapse of the communist empire and the approach of European unity cannot be understood without reference to this decline as a critical stage in the cyclical rhythm of the capitalist world economy. As part of the analysis the book also charts the development of a challenge to the dominant ‘geoculture’: the cultural framework within which the world-system operates. The author argues that since 1968 there has been a rejection of the universalist ideas of liberalism through an intellectual focus on ‘culture’ as opposed to economics and politics; a concern with the inherent existence of racism and sexism in the system; and a new relationship between the sciences and humanities. This collection offers the latest ideas of one of the most original and controversial thinkers of recent years, and is bound to stimulate debate among students and scholars from a variety of disciplines across the social sciences.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: The lessons of the 1980s

Part I. Geopolitics, Post-America: 1. North Atlanticism in decline

2. The Reagan non-revolution, or the limited choices of the US

3. Japan and the future trajectory of the world-system: lessons from history

4. European unity and its implications for the interstate system

5. 1968, revolution in the world-system

6. Marx, Marxism-Leninism, and socialist experiences in the modern world-system

7. The Brandt report

8. Typology of crises in the world-system

9. The capitalist world-economy: middle-run prospects

Part II. Geoculture, The Underside Of Geopolitics: 10. National and world identities

11. Culture as the ideological battleground of the modern world-system

12. The national and the universal: can there be such a thing as world culture

13. What can one mean by southern culture

14. The modern world-system as a civilization

15. The renewed concern with civilization(s)?

Index.