World-Systems Theory

A multidisciplinary approach to world culture and history which stresses that the primary unit of social analysis should be the world-system as opposed to the state. A world-system refers to a socioeconomic system comprising part or all of the globe; this is in opposition to modernization theory which stresses the systems present in individual nation states. Multiple world-systems can coexist as long as there is little contact between them: if two world-systems begin to interact, they will merge into one larger world-system. In contemporary social theory, there exists only one world-system comprising the entire world due to the effects of globalization, but at previous times in history there have been multiple world-systems in coexistence.