Thomas D. Hall, WSA Intro

Uncle Tom’s Intro to World-Systems Analysis
last updated: Wednesday July 11, 2007

I have compiled this page to answer questions about where to start examining world-systems analysis [WSA] or world-systems theory. This guide is somewhat idiosyncratic, and reflects my own interests, but I have tried to point to broad surveys. I welcome additions, emendations, comments etc.

For web sources see: http://acad.depauw.edu/~thall/research.htm
For pdfs of my own articles, email me at thall@depauw.edu
tom

Chose according to your interests and the depth of coverage you seek.

Best sources are:
Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Salvatore J. Babones. 2006. Global Social Change: A Reader. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Many chapters update recent advances in WSA.

Chirot, Daniel. 2001. “World Systems Theory.” Pp. 16609-16613 in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, Vol. 24. New York: Elsevier.
One of the most critical summaries, but very useful.

Chase-Dunn, Christopher. 2001. “World-Systems Theorizing.” Pp. 589-612 in Handbook of Sociological Theory, edited by Jonathan H. Turner. New York: Kluwer/Plenum.
Again, a bit dated, but a great overview.

Denemark, Robert A., Jonathan Friedman, Barry K. Gills, and George Modelski, eds. 2000. World System History: The Social Science of Long Term Change. London: Routledge.
This older book is an updated proceeding of a conference held in Lund, Sweden, in 1995. Essays by Denemark and by Thompson provide excellent overviews or precapitalist world-systems analysis. It remains one of the best summaries of the many different attempts to apply world-systems analysis to premodern or pre 1500 CE settings.

Hall, Thomas D. 2002. "World-Systems Analysis and Globalization: Directions for the Twenty-First Century." Pp. 81-122 in Theoretical Directions in Political Sociology for the 21st Century, Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 11, edited by Betty A. Dobratz, Timothy Buzzell, Lisa K. Waldner. Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd.
Now a bit dated, but a review of much WS literature, with an extensive bibliography.

Hall, Thomas D. ed. 2000. A World-Systems Reader: New Perspectives on Gender, Urbanism, Cultures, Indigenous Peoples, and Ecology. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Press.
This, of course, is my collection of mostly specially commissioned chapters. They were intentionally gathered to probe the limits of world-system thinking, with overview chapters on archaeology, geography, political science, and gender. The first two chapters [Hall, Grimes] are broad summaries with extensive bibliographies.
For a table of contents see: http://acad.depauw.edu/~thall/books.htm
Reviewed by Thomas R. Shannon in Journal of World-Systems Research 7:1 [http://jwsr.ucr.edu/archive/vol7/number1/bookreviews/index.shtml#hall]

Hornborg, Alf and Carole E. Crumley. 2007. The World System and the Earth System: Global Socioenvironmental Change and Sustainability Since the Neolithic. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Books.
Hornborg, Alf, J. R. McNeill and Joan Martinez-Alier, eds. 2007. Rethinking Environmental History: World-System History and Global Environmental Change. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
These two books summarize an conference held in 2003 in Lund, Sweden, with considerable updating of conference papers. Wide-ranging across anthropology, anthropology, political science, geography, and many from world historians. Some do not address WSA directly, but still of interest.

Jorgenson, Andrew and Edward Kick, eds. 2006. Globalization and the Environment. Leiden: Brill.
A collection of updated world-system articles addressing the title topics.

Podobnik, Bruce and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer, eds. 2005. Transforming Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities in the Post 9/11 Era. Leiden: Brill.
A comprehensive collection of articles about social movements and reactions to 9/11.

Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2004. World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
This is a great contribution by IW, it also has a useful appendix listing other sources.

Best on Premodern times: Archaeology & Ancient Societies:
Batten, Bruce L. 2003. To the Ends of Japan: Premodern Frontiers, Boundaries, and Interactions. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
While about Japan, chapter 4 is an excellent, brief overview of WSA, especially for how it might be used in premodern [before 1500 CE] contexts. This would be a great intro for undergrads. The discussions of frontiers, boundaries, ethnicity, race, and culture are also quite good.

Christopher Chase-Dunn and Anderson, E. N., eds. 2005. The Historical Evolution of World-Systems. New York and London: Palgrave.
Many articles drawn from the 2003 PEWS conference, and excellent collection illustrating applications of WSA to premodern settings.

Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Thomas D. Hall. 1997. Rise and Demise: Comparing World-Systems. Boulder: Westview Press.
This is our most detailed statement of our views on world-system evolution. Our theory of world-system evolution is updated in Denemark et al. volume, and in the Chew and Knottnerus volume listed below under archaeology.

Gills, Barry K. and William R. Thompson, eds. 2006. Globalization and Global History. London: Routledge.
a great deal on recent work on ancient world-systems

Kardulias, P. Nick, ed. 1999. Leadership, Production, and Exchange: World-Systems Theory in Practice. CO: Rowman and Littlefield.
This is the result of a 1996 American Anthropology Association conference, considerably updated, and is a good source on the ways in which world-systems analysis has been used and misused in anthropology and archaeology.

Other Relevant Books:
Chase-Dunn, Christopher. 1998. Global Formation: Structures of the World-Economy, 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield (Originally 1989, London: Blackwell).
Now a classic, a basic work on most aspects of WSA.

Chirot, Daniel. 1977. Social Change in the Twentieth Century. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich.
Chirot, Daniel. 1986. Social Change in the Modern Era. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich.
The latter is a reworking of the former, with many changes now a bit old, but good for a different view of WSA.

Shannon, Thomas R. 1996. An Introduction to the World-System Perspective, 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
This is an excellent introduction, though now getting a bit old.

So, Alvin Y. 1990. Social Change and Development: Modernization, Dependency, and World-system Theory. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
An older text, but still very useful.

Archaeology & Ancient Societies:
Christopher Chase Dunn and Thomas D. Hall. 2002. Paradigms Bridged: Institutional Materialism and World Systemic Evolution, 2002. Pp. 197-216 in Structure, Culture, and History: Recent Issues in Social Theory, edited by Sing C. Chew and J. David Knottnerus. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Another update of your theory of world-systems evolution.

Hall, Thomas D. and Christopher Chase-Dunn. 1993. "The World-Systems Perspective and Archaeology: Forward into the Past." Journal of Archaeological Research 1:2:121-143.
_____. 1994. "Forward into the Past: World-Systems Before 1500." Sociological Forum 9:2:295-306.
These two are older, but summarize the literature to that time.

Sanderson, Stephen K., ed. 1995. Civilizations and World-Systems: Two Approaches to the Study of World-Historical Change. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
Another collection on these two approaches.

Other Contributions by Immanuel Wallerstein:
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1974a. "The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis." Comparative Studies in Society and History 16:4(Sept.):387-415, also in Wallerstein (1979:Ch.1).
This is THE CLASSIC statement of world-system theory in article form.

_____. 1979. The Capitalist World-Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
First collection of many of Wallerstein’s Writings.

Wallerstein, Immanuel Maurice. 2000. The Essential Wallerstein. New York: The New Press.
A more recent collection of his most important essays.

Encyclopedia Entries:
Hall, Thomas D. 2004. World-Systems Analysis. Pp. 1076-1077 in The Social Science Encyclopedia, 3rd ed., edited by Adam and Jessica Kuper, eds. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
a one page summary

Hall, Thomas D. 1999. Incorporation into the World-System. Pp. 1265-1267 in Encyclopedia of Political Economy, edited by Phil O'Hara. London: Routledge.
Hall, Thomas D. 1999. Precapitalist World-Systems. Pp. 897-900 in Encyclopedia of Political Economy, edited by Phil O'Hara. London: Routledge.
These two summarize these topics. This work also has an article on world-systems analysis by Immanuel Wallerstein.

Hall, Thomas D. 1997. World-System Theory, Frontiers, Sociology, and Dependency Theory, 1997. The Blackwell Dictionary of Anthropology, edited by Thomas Barfield. London: Basil Blackwell.
Very brief accounts.

Review Essays:
Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Peter Grimes (1995). "World-Systems Analysis." Annual Review of Sociology 21:387-417.
Now getting old, but still useful.

Chirot, Daniel and Thomas D. Hall. 1982. "World-System Theory." Annual Review of Sociology 8:81-106.
This has mainly historical value, much has been done since it was written.

Grimes, Peter. 2000. “Recent Research on World-Systems.” Pp. 29-55 in A World-Systems Reader: New Perspectives on Gender, Urbanism, Cultures, Indigenous Peoples, and Ecology, edited by Thomas D. Hall. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Hall, Thomas D. 2000. "World-Systems Analysis: A Small Sample from a Large Universe." Pp. 3-27 in A World-Systems Reader: New Perspectives on Gender, Urbanism, Cultures, Indigenous Peoples, and Ecology edited by Thomas D. Hall. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
These two are opening essays of the book and give broad overviews.

Martin, William G. 1994. "The World-Systems Perspective in Perspective: Assessing the Attempt to Move Beyond Nineteenth Century Eurocentric Conceptions." Review 17:2(Spring):145-185.
_____. 1996. "Toward A "Global" Curriculum and Classroom: Contrasting Comparative- and World-Historical Strategies." Teaching Sociology 24:2(April):135-147).
These two are also a bit old, but give cogent overviews.

Send comments or suggestions to thall@depauw.edu