The Modern/Colonial/Capitalist World-System in the Twentieth Century

An important building block for further advancing world-system theory, this book considers the theory from the perspectives of global processes and antisystemic movements, feminist theory, and the aftermath of the colonial system. The volume addresses three myths tied to Eurocentric forms of thinking: objectivist and universalist knowledges, the decolonization of the modern world, and developmentalism. All three myths, the authors argue, conceal the continued hierarchical and unequal relations of domination and exploitation between European and Euro-American centers and non-European peripheral regions. In this volume, world-system scholars address these and related aspects of the modern/colonial capitalist world-system.
Addressing the myth of universalist knowledge, the volume reminds us that our knowledge is situated in the gender, class, racial, and sexual hierarchies of a specific region in the world-system, while the coloniality of power additionally situates our knowledge. The volume further argues that the postcolonial era retains the hierarchy of colonialism, and the possibility of national development without global structural changes is one of the greatest 20th-century myths. Taking these perspectives into consideration, the contributors examine and help to refine classic world-system theory.

RAMÓN GROSFOGUEL is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boston College.
ANA MARGARITA CERVANTES-RODRÍGUEZ is Research Affiliate for the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Department, at SUNY-Albany.

Introduction: Unthinking 20th-Century Eurocentric Mythologies: Universalist Knowledges, Decolonization, and Developmentalism by Ramon Grosfoguel and Margarita Rodríguez The 20th Century: Darkness at Noon? by Immanuel Wallerstein Global Processes, Power Relations, and Antisystemic Movements Globalization and the National Security State Corporate Complex (NSSCC) in the Long 20th Century by Thomas Ehrlich Reifer Bucking the System: The Timespace of Antisystemic Movements by Richard E. Lee Some Initial Empirical Observations on Inequality in the World-Economy (1870-2000) by Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz, et al. Transnationalism, Power, and Hegemony: Review of Alternative Perspectives and Their Implications for World-Systems Analysis by Margarita Rodríguez Mass Migration in the World-System: An AntiSystemic Movement in the Long Run? by Eric Mielants 20th-Century Antisystemic Historical Processes and U.S. Hegemony: Free Trade Imperialism, National Economic Development, and Free Enterprise Imperialism by Satoshi Ikeda Women's Studies, Feminist Theory, and World-System Analysis Commodity Chains and Gendered Exploitation: Rescuing Women from the Periphery of World-System Thought by Wilma A. Dunaway Resolving the Paradox of Gender: Women and Power in the Modern World-System by Nancy Forsythe Intersecting and Contesting Positions: Post-Colonial, Feminist, and World-System Theories by Shelley Feldman Writing on Gender in World-Systems Perspective by Sheila Pelizzon The Aftermath of the Colonial System, Coloniality, and the Geopolitics of Knowledge The Genesis of the Development Framework: The End of Laissez-faire, the Eclipse of Colonial Empires, and the Structure of United States Hegemony by Fouad Makki The Convergence of World-Postcolonialism as a Critical Theory of World Society by Santiago Castro-Gómez and Oscar Guardiola-Rivera Making "Africa" in Brazil: Old Trends and New Opportunities by Livio Sansone The Convergence of World-Historical Social Science: "Border Thinking" as an Alternative to the Classical Comparative Method by Khaldoun Subhi Samman