Sociology

Wallerstein understood the process of globalization in terms of the emergence of a global, capitalist world economy, which was in turn an example of a ‘world system’. He introduced the concept of the ‘world system’ to refer to a unit with a complete division of labour that extends across different ethnic and cultural groups. There were two kinds of world systems: world empires and world economies: the latter had multiple political centres but were economically integrated. 629