All Immanuel Wallerstein Quotes
- The break from the supposedly culturally-narrow religious bases of knowledge in favor of supposedly trans-cultural scientific bases of knowledge served as the self-justification of a… Bases
- Scientific culture created a framework within which individual mobility was possible without threatening hierarchical work-force allocation. On the contrary, meritocracy reinforced hierarchy. Finally, meritocracy as… Allocation
- The first and probably most fundamental aspect of this crisis is that we are now close to the commodification of everything. That is, historical capitalism… Accumulation
- This is a steady, ceaseless process, impossible to contain as long as the economy driven by the endless accumulation of capital. The system may prolong… Accumulation
- It is not surprising that liberals believed in progress. The idea of progress justified the entire transition from feudalism to capitalism. It legitimated the breaking… All
- What is surprising is that their ideological opponents, the Marxists - the anti-liberals, the representatives of the oppressed working classes - believed in progress with… Anti
- It is, let me say, at the very least by no means self-evident that there is more liberty, equality, and fraternity in the world today… Ago
- I rather wish to rest my case on material considerations, not those of the social future but those of the actual historical period of the… Actual
- The second reason why we haven't observed the growing gap is that our historical and social science analyses have concentrated on what has been happening… Analyses
- We must distinguish between the kind of structural transformation that would leave in place (even increase) the realities of the exploitation of labor, and one… Capitalism
- Communism is Utopia, that is nowhere. It is the avatar of all our religious eschatologies: the coming of the Messiah, the second coming of Christ,… All
- To those critics who see capitalism as a system of inegalitarian, oppressive structures, its defenders have vaunted its ability to recognize and encourage what they… Ability
- It seems to me the only pertinent question is: cui bono? It is clear that the size of the privileged strata as a percentage of… Any
- For the other end of the spectrum, the 50 to 85 percent of the world's population who are not the recipients of privilege, the world… Almost Certainly
- It was the French Revolution that served as the catalyst of this renovation. Its impact was to make the concept of popular sovereignty the new… Capitalism
- The mode of reconciling the promise of ever-increasing reward for the cadres and the demands of the working classes for a quid pro quo for… Cadre
- If we return to the two faces of individualism - individualism as the spur of energy, initiative, and imagination; and individualism as the limitless struggle… Agenda
- This argument has been codified in the twentieth century as meritocracy, in which those on top in the process of capitalist accumulation have merited their… Accumulation
- The way in which these two practices contain each other is that it has always been possible to use the one against the other: to… Accumulation
- When systems come to be far from points of equilibrium, they reach bifurcation points, wherein multiple, as opposed to unique, solutions, to instability become possible. Become Possible
- We seem to be in the midst of a process of cascading bifurcations that may last some 50 more years. We can be sure some… Bifurcation
- One by one, these governments came undone, and were forced into IMF tutelage (and national illegitimacy) by the careening oil prices, the debt imbroglio, and… Bifurcation
- Are there still other possibilities? Of course there are. What is important to recognize is that all three historical options are really there, and the… All
- The language of intrinsic human rights represented a significant advance beyond the previous language of world religions in terms of its universal applicability and its… Advance
- People resist exploitation. They resist as actively as they can, as passively as they must. Actively