Book Review: Uncertain Worlds: World-System Analysis in Changing Times by Immanuel Wallerstein, Charles Lemert and Carlos Antonio Aguirre Rojas

Abstract

Immanuel Wallerstein, Charles Lemert and Carlos Antonio Aguirre Rojas Uncertain Worlds: World-System Analysis in Changing Times, Paradigm Publishers, Boulder & London, 2013; xl + 235 pp: 22.99 [pounds sterling] (pbk) The book under review is an attempt to assess the contributions of Immanuel Wallerstein, one of the most influential social scientists of our times. It also seeks to evaluate the usefulness, achievements and relevance of his writings, especially world-systems analysis. In order to provide an in-depth analysis of the coming world system and the significance of his writings, along with two other editors, he himself has tried to explain the future world system and evaluate his works in a rapidly changing world. Later, two editors, however, did not limit themselves to his writings plus a new chapter by him in this volume, but also conducted two interviews with him, which are also part of the book. The introductory chapter eloquently summarises Wallerstein's contribution under four headings: historical-critical axis; critical analysis; double axis analysis of immediate history; and critical epistemological analysis. While explaining the historical-critical axis, perhaps the most puzzling question before Wallerstein was what should be the unit of analysis. In contrast to mainstream tendencies to consider the state or society as a unit of analysis, he considered the 'world-system' (p. 156) as a unit, and defined the system as a 'real entity' ... 'in which all parts are independent, and some were separated or cut out, this would change the whole entity, the whole system entirely' (p. 46). Wallerstein believes that 'throughout its historical life, capitalism has functioned always by way of a profoundly unequal and asymmetrical hierarchical structure' (p. xv). Therefore, to adequately explain the hierarchies and internal dynamics of the world-system, he borrowed the core-periphery analogy from Raul Prebisch and invented an intermediary stratum called 'semi-periphery' (p. 144). Thus, in the age of capitalism, the world-system has structurally been divided into core, semi-periphery and periphery over a period of time. According to Wallerstein, the dynamism and transformation in the world-system takes place in the form of 'hegemonic cycles' (p. xvii), where every cycle goes through four phases: struggle between two powers; thirty years war; establishment of hegemony; and decline (p. 55). However, it is noteworthy that unlike Robert Keohane, who defines hegemony as the preponderance of material resources, Wallerstein understands hegemony in economic as well as military terms. For him, a powerful state vying for hegemony achieves the status only if it reaches a level of economic efficiency where it can sell its products in the markets of the periphery as well as the core, whilst also managing not to spend too much on military (p. 61). Despite vying for supremacy, a powerful state can manage less expenditure on military. Wallerstein is a fierce critique of compartmentalisation within social sciences and a champion of the epistemological unification of social sciences. Therefore, he opposes terms such as 'interdisciplinary', 'multidisciplinary', 'poly-disciplinary' and 'transdisciplinary', which try to reconnect an artificially divided social science, opining, 'all of the realities that [the various disciplines in social sciences] study are governed by a single logic'; and consequently, 'social sciences should not have more than one unified field of study' (p. …