Unthinking social science : the limits of nineteenth-century paradigms
"In this, new edition of a classic work -- now with a new preface -- on the roots of social scientific thinking, Immanuel Wallerstein develops a thorough-going critique of the legacy of nineteenth-century social science for social thought in the new millennium. We have to "unthink"--Radically revise and discard -- many of the presumptions that still remain the foundation of dominant perspectives today. Once considered liberating, these notions are now barriers to a clear understanding of our social world. They include, for example, ideas built into the concept of "development." In place of such a notion, Wallerstein stresses transformations in time and space. Geography and chronology should not be regarded as external influences upon social transformations but crucial to what such transformation actually is. Unthinking Social Science applies the ideas thus elaborated to a variety of theoretical areas and historical problems. Wallerstein also offers a critical discussion of the key figures whose ideas have influenced the position he formulates -- including Karl Marx and Fernand Braudel, among others. In the concluding sections of the book, Wallerstein demonstrates how these new insights lead to a revision of world-systems analysis."--Publisher description
History
xii, 286 pages ; 24 cm
9781566398985, 9781566398992, 1566398983, 1566398991
45610172
Introduction: Why Unthink?
Part I. The Social Sciences: From Genesis to Bifurcation. 1. The French Revolution as a World-Historical Event
- 2. Crises: The World-Economy, the Movements, and the Ideologies
Part II. The Concept of Development. 3. The Industrial Revolution: Cui Bono?
- 4. Economic Theories and Historical Disparities of Development
- 5. Societal Development, or Development of the World-System?
- 6. The Myrdal Legacy: Racism and Underdevelopment as Dilemmas
- 7. Development: Lodestar or Illusion?
Part III. Concepts of Time and Space. 8. A Comment on Epistemology: What is Africa?
- 9. Does India Exist?
- 10. The Inventions of TimeSpace Realities: Towards an Understanding of our Historical Systems
Part IV. Revisiting Marx. 11. Marx and Underdevelopment
- 12. Marxisms as Utopias: Evolving Ideologies
Part V. Revisiting Braudel. 13. Fernand Braudel, Historian, "homme de la conjoncture"
- 14. Capitalism: The Enemy of the Market?
- 15. Braudel on Capitalism, or Everything Upside Down
- 16. Beyond Annales?
Part VI. World-Systems Analysis as Unthinking. 17. Historical Systems as Complex Systems
- 18. Call for a Debate about the Paradigm
- 19. A Theory of Economic History in Place of Economic Theory?
- 20. World-Systems Analysis: The Second Phase
Originally published: Cambridge, MA : Polity Press in association with B. Blackwell, 1991. With new introd
Errata slip inserted