Immanuel Wallerstein

The future is not about predicting what will happen, but about making choices about what we want to happen.

The world-system is a complex adaptive system, constantly evolving and responding to internal and external pressures.

The 'long' 19th century saw the consolidation of the capitalist world-economy and the rise of industrial capitalism.

The world-system is characterized by a constant struggle between centripetal and centrifugal forces.

The concept of 'rationality' in modern thought is often a reflection of capitalist values and interests.

The world-system is not a collection of independent societies, but a single social system.

The 'anti-systemic movements' are those that challenge the fundamental structures of the capitalist world-economy.

The current period of transition is a moment of great danger, but also of great opportunity.

The world-system is a historical construct, and therefore it can be historically deconstructed and reconstructed.

The task of social science is not to predict the future, but to illuminate the choices we face.

The modern world-system is a capitalist world-economy that has been expanding since the sixteenth century.

Capitalism is not a mode of production but a historical system.

The world-system has no core states in the sense of political dominance, but economic centers.

We are living through the structural crisis of capitalism.

Utopistics is the study of historical alternatives that are possible within the confines of the capitalist world-system.

The end of the modern world-system is in sight, but what comes next is uncertain.

There are no national solutions to global problems.

The division of labor in the world-economy creates unequal exchange.

History is not a linear progression but a cyclical process within the world-system.

The intellectual task is to analyze the structures that constrain our choices.