The aim of this book is to account for the changes in the world in the second half of the 20th century and to identify the likely trajectory of global trends over the coming generation. Professor Wallerstein and his team present evidence not simply that the global system is entering a new era, but that the whole capitalist structure may be approaching a systematic disintegration.
The world system - is there a crisis?, Terence K. Hopkins and Immanuel Wallerstein. Part I The principle institutional vectors, 1945-1990: the nation state system - the creation of the Cold War structure 1945 to 1967-73, changes in the inter-state system from 1967-73, Thomas Reifer and Jamie Sadler; the world-economy and its production system - expansion, integration and polarization, the growing role of transnational corporations, the industrial sector, the service sector, Satoshi Ikeda; the world labour force - pax Americana and the global spread of Taylorism, changing systems of labour control and the expansion of capital, the growing domain of semi-proletarian household labour, Frank Tabak; human welfare - health, education and nourishment - the welfare state at its apogee, the welfare state under attack, Sheila Pelizzon and John Casparis; the social cohesion of societies - the time of universal deliverance, the time of undoing, Georgi M. Derluguian; structures of knowledge - changing intellectual paradigms - the construction of consensus, contradictions and transformations, Richard Lee. Part II Overview of the main trajectories: the global picture 1945-1990, Immanuel Wallerstein; the global possibilities 1990-2025, Immanuel Wallerstein.