The interpretation of the globalization concept through the prism of world-system analysis
The article compares approaches to the study of the contemporary development stage of the worldcivilization that were elaborated in the concepts of globalization and world-systems analysis (WSA). Theglobalization concept has been used in the social sciences since the 1980’s. At least for the last two decades it hasspread considerably, both in academic and public discourse. It may be noted that the globalization conceptcolonized the area of the social knowledge.
The number of scholars claim globalizationis the idea that shouldoccupy the central place in modern scientific picture of the social world. The aim of forging the globalizationconcept is to overcome the state-centrist approach, which exhausts its epistemological, theoretical andmethodologicalpotential. Social science needs a new paradigm that can give an adequate explanation andunderstanding of the modern global system as a whole. But the concept of globalization is not yet able to be aconceptual base for a new paradigm because of its essentially contested nature and lack of sustainable meaning.
The pioneer in overcoming of the state-centrism and creating of the theoretical tools to study the global whole in thelast quarter of the 20th century is I.Wallerstein’s world-systems analysis. It isemphasized that the study ofglobalization and world-systems analysis is competing analytical perspectives. While the globalization studiesconsider contemporary period of social development as a qualitatively new stage in global history, world-systemsanalysis argues that the essence of a new historical stage is the current global crisis of the capitalist system and itstransformation into the new historical system. The comparison of the globalization studies and world-systemsanalysis demonstrates that the latter provides more consistent picture of social reality.
Reinterpretation of theconcept of globalization in terms of the world-system analysis as a process that is identical to the historicaldevelopment of the capitalist world-economy and as dialectical process of realization of the potential global natureof capitalism is proposed.
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