Immanuel Wallerstein

The founder of world-systems analysis explores what we can expect ion the twenty-first century. The twentieth century has witnessed both the triumphs and failures of the dreams that have informed the modern world. In Utopistics, Immanuel Wallerstein argues that the global order that nourished those dreams is on the brink of disintegration. Pointing to the globalization of commerce, the changing nature of work and the family, the failures of traditional liberal ideology, and the danger of profound environmental crises, the founder of world-systems analysis argues that the nation-state system no longer works. The next twenty-five to fifty years will see the final breakdown of that system, and a time of great conflicts and disorder. It will also be a period in which individual and collective action will have a greater impact on the future than has been possible for 500 years. Utopistics distills Wallerstein's hugely influential work on the modern world-system in an accessible way. This fascinating and provocative look into our collective political destiny poses urgent questions for anyone concerned with social change in the next millennium.

Read this book5 stars

Reviewed on 2003-02-08

... Wallersein states that his task is to explore alternative possible historic systems, not to develop a new utopian vision. He states explicitly that his task is not to work out the details but to look at the decline of the current world-system and consider alternatives systems that could arise out of the chaos that the decline will cause. In this, Wallerstein succeeds not in defining or predicting the future, but exploring how things will change organically and what those who would like to see transformative change can work toward--not that there is any guarantee that what arises will actually be better than what now exists.

In predicting the future, however, the reviewer above overlooked a lot. When you consider that Utopistics was written in 1998 and since then we have seen the attack on the WTC, the Cole attack, and the embassy attacks. The number one world threat is a non-state terrorist organization--which Wallerstein suggested would develop in Utopistics.

This book is, in its own way, a new manifesto for activists. This book outlines a new vision that is transformative, yet organic; one that could arise out of chaos and the decline of the dominant paradigms in which the oppressed continue to participate in their own oppression.

No-vision illustrated by Nutty ideas1 stars

Reviewed on 2001-06-15

Wallerstein was fine writing historical analysis. But when he turns to proposals for the future, he fails miserably.

He starts out by saying that he wants to provide a vision of the future that's not Market-is-everything and not communism, but something more realistic, which he calls "Utopostics". OK, that sound nice. So what is it?

He has no idea. He just says "we should try to make things more democratic and more equal and nice, and then probably we'll get to somewhere better, although I don't know what it is." Oh.

And he proposes some efforts of equality, which is plain stupid. He says that for hiring people for any position, the existing various exams and qualification tests are there to maintain the status quo and prolong discrimination, so we should abandon it. And we should replace it with... get this, draws. "When you want to hire 30 people out of a 100, it's not right to evaluate and rank qualifications, because the guys with the 30th score and 31st score doesn't have significant differences, so it's not rational to hire one and forego the other," he says. "So let's take 3 from the top, discard the bottom 3, and ther rest should draw straws. This would make the world more equal." ... He's joking, right? Wrong. He's dead serious. He thinks this is better. Well, maybe it's more equal, but would it make a better selection? Do I want to trust people who just drew straws? Not really.

His other proposals are equaly nuts and totally unrealistic. And in the end, he tries to justify his inability to provide the vision for the future by citing chaos theory, saying that it's actually impossible to predict anything. Ah, if you are going to weasle your way out like that, don't even try to write this sort of book. And for all you potential readers out there, save your time and money. You'll learn nothing here.

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