Immanuel Wallerstein as Africanist

From modernisation to Marxism in the 1960s

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11904065
AutoresSam Chian (0009-0002-9227-908X, autor de correspondencia)
Año2025
Volumen52
Número183
Fecha de publicación2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaReview of African Political Economy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0305-6244 • E-ISSN: 1740-1720
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.62191/roape-2025-0001
OpenAlexW4407986770
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas36

Immanuel Wallerstein’s intellectual journey toward developing world-systems analysis began with his significant involvement in African studies during the 1960s. This article explores how Wallerstein’s decade as an Africanist, marked by his deep engagement with the decolonisation movements across the continent, laid the foundation for his later Marxist-oriented critique of the capitalist world-economy. Through his work in Africa, Wallerstein progressively distanced himself from modernisation theory and embraced a Marxist perspective, largely informed by his interactions with figures like Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah and Amílcar Cabral. Initially focused on the nation state and independence movements in Africa, Wallerstein’s scholarship increasingly recognised the limitations of methodological nationalism and the need to situate African political and economic conditions within the framework of historical capitalism. This transformation set the stage for Wallerstein’s later influential works on the world-system. The article contributes to a better understanding of how Africa shaped one of the twentieth century’s most significant social theorists

Economic system · Economics · Modernization theory · Political science · Sociology · Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism · Law · Political Economy and Marxism · World Systems and Global Transformations