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Immanuel Wallerstein

1930 – 2019 American sociologist, historian

The sociologist who built world-systems theory, dividing the globe into core, periphery, and semi-periphery.

Affiliations
Fernand Braudel Center; world-systems analysis

Immanuel Wallerstein was an American sociologist who developed world-systems analysis, tracing a single capitalist world-economy from the sixteenth century. He divided it into a wealthy core, an exploited periphery, and a semi-periphery in between. His multi-volume study The Modern World-System shaped debates on global inequality and development.

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