A succinct introduction to the history of capitalism by the renowned political theorist.

One reason for the problematic status of the social sciences is that their claim to legitimacy has been undermined by two opposite models of inquiry: the nomothetic idea of science, with its emphasis on universal laws, and the idiographic conception of history as a record of particular events. It can be argued that both of them excluded the temporal dimension of socio-historical reality; more precisely, they were ill-equipped to analyze the unstable structures which emerge and undergo transformations over varying periods (...) of time. This previously excluded middle has been rediscovered by pioneering scientists on both sides of the divide; the paper compares Prigogine's critique of Newtonian natural science with Braudel's reorientation of history. The former line of argument privileges time, the latter duration, but they lead to similar conclusions. (shrink)

The Crises of the Economy-World and the Overcoming of Capitalism : From the 1970s to the New Century. The current crisis of neoliberalism can only be understood if we resituate it within the context of the historical dynamic of the capitalist mode of production. The precedent most often cited is that of the 1929 crash. There is however another comparison which is equally apposite, the comparison with the structural crisis of the 1970s. How are we to compare the economic factors (...) which are involved here, the conditions which led to the crisis and their political consequences ? Can we argue that the current crisis is ushering in a new phase of capitalism, or that it is opening up a number of alternative paths ? These are some of the crucial issues addressed here by Gérard Duménil in the questions put to Immanuel Wallerstein. (shrink)

El siglo XX ha sido período de ensayos y errores en lo que se refiere a la búsqueda de una solución al atraso económico de los países de sur. Fue así como surgió una de las corrientes intelectuales más fuertes de la economía posterior de la segunda posguerra y la descolonización: el desarrollismo. Se trataba, en otras palabras, de alcanzar el desarrollo a partir de las propias economías de estos países y no como una imposición proveniente de las metrópolis del (...) mundo “pan-europeo”. Sin embargo, a partir de los años setenta, y en conjunción con el shock petrolero, se produce un desgaste de este modelo y una arremetida simultánea de los teóricos del libre mercado y de la apertura capitalista. El paradigma se desarrollo cambió entonces, una vez más, en 180º. Sólo a fines de los 90, y producto de la crisis de los mercados asiáticos, quedaron a la vista las fisuras de la nueva Globalización, dando espacio para que un nuevo movimiento social, representando en el espíritu del Foro Social Mundial, tomara el relevo de la representación de los intereses de los países del sur. Las estrategias y alcances de esta nueva corriente están en pleno desarrollo y debieran, al menos, aprender de la experiencia histórica y los esfuerzos anteriores. (shrink)

What social scientists study is the evolution of historical systems. Evolution refers to the trajectory of processes inherent in the structure of the system. The structure of a system cannot explain either its genesis nor what happens to it following its inevitable structural crisis. The mechanisms of the evolution of the modern worldsystem, a system structured around the primum mobile of the endless accumulation of capital, is described.

The social sciences and the social movement were parallel inventions of the nineteenth century, sharing epistemological and historiographical premises consonant with the existing world order. Their central organizing concept was "development." Changes in the world system in recent years and prospectively in the years to come are leading to a sea change in which social science is called upon the rethink its epistemology, its historiography, and its links with the social movement.