IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN: BIOGRAPHY, THEORIES, WORKS AND QUOTES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Immanuel Wallerstein (1930-2019) was an American sociologist, professor, economist and philosopher, who studied humanity in depth and assured that it comes from a past that has shaped people in terms of thoughts, actions and feelings.

In turn, Wallerstein considered that the various realms of reality were related. This implied that society had to be perceived and studied as a whole.

Source: Alexei Kouprianov via wikimedia commons.

Thanks to his theories and numerous approaches, he was recognized as a modern thinker. Since he was young, he was interested in politics, economics and culture, which is why he deeply analyzed the impact that these topics generated in today's communities and the behaviors that derived from it.

In addition, his figure was relevant due to his anti-colonial hypotheses. Wallerstein visited India and Africa, where he noted that the development of these countries depended on the forms of negotiations of the world powers and he opposed these nations being subjugated by the first world states.

In the field of education, they describe him as a creative teacher who did not impose his perception; He liked to present his hypotheses to his students and exchange opinions with his students. He believed that this was a fundamental act for matter to progress. On the other hand, his role in the field of economics was also essential.

Likewise, this professor was in charge of promoting the ideals of Karl Marx and worked on his reform. In several of his texts he accepted capitalism as a feasible economic system for society, however, he explained that said mercantile phenomenon was temporary.

Biography

He was born in New York City on September 28, 1930. He belonged to a family whose members were aware of the problems of the world, information that he detailed in one of his interviews. In his home there were always debates about what was happening both in his country and abroad.

Wallerstein studied Humanities at Columbia University from 1947 to 1951. He then joined the American Veterans Committee as a listener. In this institution he listened to a series of lectures that caught his attention; These prompted him to ask questions and question what he heard. Likewise, he began to analyze the behavior of the people who were around him.

Later, the sociologist served in the American Army from 1951 to 1953, but returned to Columbia to do his master's thesis on McCarthyism. In 1954 he graduated and, five years later, he finished his doctoral thesis at the same institution.

From that moment on, he began his career as an educator, although in 1971 he retired from his alma mater and began teaching sociology at McGill University. In 1972 he was in Africa and was handed over to him as President of the Association for African Studies.

Last years

He founded and directed the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems and Civilizations in 1976. In 1979, he joined Binghamton University for a teaching position in the department of sociology.

In 1999, he decided to retire from the faculty of education and by 2000 he became the principal investigator at Yale University. In his later years, he continued his career as an analyst and writer; he also focused on reflecting on modern society and its problems.

He passed away in his hometown on August 31, 2019, leaving an extraordinary legacy and a variety of theories that demonstrate his commitment to humanity, its regressions and development.

Theories

As a good thinker, Wallerstein captured his ideas through the written word. He had an extensive work that today sociologists use to theorize about the conformation of different regions. His contributions that most predominated are the following:

World-system

One of the most important theories is that of the world-system, where it links the concepts of sociology, politics and economics. Its purpose was to show that the constitution of the company has not varied much over the years. Wallerstein proposed to study these aspects because they coexist in everyday life and determine the existence of being.

The world-system theory is widely used by sociologists. Source: pixabay.com

About the real

Another topic he analyzed was about the meaning of reality and how we perceive it. Questions like: Does the real exist? or is what I see real? were some of the premises of this theory that little by little he developed.

After investigating, he declared that there are two worlds: one that we see and inhabit every day according to what happens; another that we see through our perspective, beliefs and thoughts. But the latter is constructed and deconstructed according to the approach of society.

Similarly, when he was in both India and Africa, he did extensive research that allowed him to understand the dynamics of the continents and the oppositions of Gold Coast (Ghana) and the Ivory Coast.

In this video you can see an interview with Wallerstein:

Plays

In the course of his career, this researcher worked in various branches of the humanities. He wrote countless articles for magazines and newspapers, which have received the nomination of memorable.

His work was relevant because he was not satisfied with knowing the reality of his country, but visited other nations to understand the organizations of their state institutions. Among them were: France, Italy and China. This is why most insiders say their work was complex and detailed.

His concern and inexhaustible ideas about the social were remarkable, adding a philosophical ingredient that made him an important modern intellectual. Some of his most outstanding works will be mentioned below:

- The comparative study of national societies. (1971).

- The modern world system III. The second era of great expansion of the capitalist world-economy, 1730-1850. (1998).

- Utopistics or the Historical Options of the XXI Century. (1998).

- Know the world, know the world. The end of what was learned. (2001).

- The Modern World-System IV: centrist liberalism triumphant, 1789-1914. (2011).

The modern world system: capitalist agriculture and the origins of the European world-economy in the 16th century

Through this book, the author sought to expand knowledge of social and economic models outside of Europe and the United States. The sociologist stated that this text was written during his career in Africa and recounted how a democratic individual tries to live with the disappointments of the left.

This work is essential because it shows how poverty increases every day, especially in African regions and how the so-called developed countries represent the center of the political and economic world.

He also assured that anthropologists and sociologists have displaced peripheral realities. Likewise, it showed that, throughout the 1950s, very few scientists reflected on invisible groups.

World-systems analysis. An introduction

This is his most relevant and well-known work. Currently, researchers often use it to justify their sociological work. In general terms, it explains the beginnings of the world capitalist system and the impact it had in all areas. In addition, it relates its development after feudalism was established as an economic doctrine.

For Wallerstein, capitalism was not only a process that evolved in a specific period of history, it is a continually repeating event. Your world-system is a bigger project than you might think, since it encompasses everything that surrounds humanity and is growing according to government manifestations.

He also stressed that the idea of ​​globalization is as old as man; But today, the concept is used as an excuse for people to accept their inappropriate behaviors. The term was created in the 16th century and designated what was the proper method for making transactions.

Wallerstein also affirmed that everything that has been lived will change in thirty or fifty years and the transformation will cause some obstacles. In his opinion, one of the solutions to avoid national devastation is to abolish the Republican program.

Quotes

"My generation became politically conscious during the cold war."

“The past can be told as it really is, not as it was. Due to this retelling it is a social act of the present, made by the man of the present and affects the social system of the present ”.

"The uncertainty is wonderful and certainly if it were not real it would be moral death."

"And in the present we are all irretrievably the products of our past, our training, our personality and social role, and the design of the weight with which we operate."

“In this sense, the crisis we are experiencing is nothing new. The current crisis, about which everyone discusses as if it were the never seen before, is similar to those that occurred in other historical moments, such as the Great Depression or the period between 1893 and 1896 ”.

"It is a coherent intervention strategy in the social field to establish clear political orientations" (Wallerstein's definition of the concept of ideology).

“In short, I began to historicize social movements not only to understand which were the best, but to understand why men committed such drastic actions. Besides, he was looking for valid political options to renew the present ”.

“In capitalism, the world economy needs the states, it needs the interstate system and it needs the periodic appearance of hegemonic power; but the priority of capitalism can never be its maintenance, less glorification or any of these structures ”.

References

1. Aguiton, C. and Massiah, G. (2019). Immanuel Wallerstein (1930-2019): A great thinker for another possible and better world. Retrieved on January 15, 2020 from Without permission: sinpermiso.info
2. Paramio, L. (1980). Immanuel Wallerstein: "My generation became politically conscious during the cold war." Retrieved on January 15, 2020 from El País: elpais.com
3. N. (Sf). Phrases of Immanuel Wallerstein. Retrieved on January 15, 2020 from Citas In: appointments.in
4. N. (Sf). Immanuel M. Wallerstein (1930-). Retrieved on January 15, 2020 from InfoAmércia: infoamerica.org
5. N. (Sf). Immanuel Wallerstein. Retrieved on January 15, 2020 from Immanuel Wallerstein: iwallerstein.com
6. A. (nd) Immanuel Wallerstein. Retrieved on January 15, 2020 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org