world systems analysis is a macro level framework used to analyze the economic social and political transformations of the world and the historical development of global hierarchy and inequality emmanuel wallerstein the scholar most often associated with world systems analysis suggests it is a new perspective on social reality rather than focusing solely on the exploitative relationships between specific states and how some rely on others as dependency theory does nor emphasizing a limited idea of how countries progress in a linear fashion from quote-unquote underdeveloped to developed or worse uncivilized to civilized as modernization theory does world systems analysis emphasizes the relationships between states through their production processes and the flow of products across the globe the focus is on the world economy a global system which is not unified by single political or cultural beliefs but the division of labor which is constituted within it the main thesis of world systems analysis is that capitalism is not defined by the buying and selling of goods on the market nor by the existence of wage labor the argument suggests that both of those things have existed for thousands of years rather capitalism is when the global system gives priority to the endless accumulation of capital wallerstein suggests the modern world system is a capitalist world economy which came into being in the 16th century and we can't properly analyze it by focusing on individual nation-states or politics or economics or culture but we have to consider the global capitalistic system in its totality and how it has come into existence and changed over time world systems analysis classifies countries as core periphery or semi-periphery depending on the products and production processes within each and its relationships with other nations and their products it really emphasizes the core periphery relationship wallerstein says core periphery is a relational concept what we mean by core periphery is the degree of profitability of the production processes since profitability is directly related to the degree of monopolization what we essentially mean by core like production processes is those that are controlled by quasi monopolies peripheral processes are then those that truly are competitive when exchange occurs competitive products are in a weak position and quasi-monopolized products are in a strong position as a result there is a constant flow of surplus value from the producers of peripheral products to the producers of corelight products this has been called unequal exchange the key element distinguishing core like from peripheral processes is the degree to which they are monopolized and therefore profitable so the key in determining whether a nation and its products are core or peripheral is how much the nation maintains a monopoly on the production of those products the monopolized products and their production processes are more highly profitable as far as semi-peripheral nations wallerstein says some states have a near mix of core-like and peripheral products we may call them semi-peripheral states they find themselves in the most difficult situation under pressure from core states and putting pressure on peripheral states their major concern is to keep themselves from slipping into the periphery and to do what they can to advance themselves toward the core so semi-periphery don't have a different relationship to production as core nations and peripheral nations do but they maintain both some peripheral and some core like production and they compete with other semi-peripheral nations to achieve core status a really good example of world systems analysis in practice is the industrial revolution wallerstein suggests the world system developed in the quote-unquote long 16th century roughly 1450 to 1640 ce during which europe was able to gain control over the world economy and eventually centralized production by being the first to industrialize england became the first core country and the surrounding countries which fueled production in england became peripheral and semi-peripheral as just one example think of how the italian peninsula was the center of trade prior to the industrial revolution but was relatively quickly relegated to semi-peripheral status both supplying the coronations and importing from peripheral ones and fighting to gain status as a coordination as another more modern example of world systems analysis and practice consider the mass outsourcing of certain functions from the core nations in the second half of the 20th century as certain things such as assembly line production and customer service roles became more difficult to monopolize and thus became less profitable coordination sent these jobs to other nations which were then elevated to peripheral or semi-peripheral status china is a great example it was undergoing rapid industrialization after world war ii and was perfectly happy to begin the mass production which was previously done by the core nations themselves china relatively quickly became a player in the global world economy and elevated itself to semi-peripheral status in the year 2000 sociologists christopher chase dunn yukio kawano and benjamin brewer performed an extensive analysis of modern nation states production and trade and classified them as core periphery or semi-periphery looking at the map it's easy to apply world systems analysis and think about how the core nations are able to monopolize the most profitable products information and services for example technology data and finance while the peripheral nations are forced to compete with other peripheral nations in the production and trade of less profitable products such as textiles furniture certain food products such as cattle coffee and corn and so much more the semi-peripheral nations maintain a combination of core and peripheral products and compete with other semi-peripheral nations to elevate themselves to core status in conclusion world systems analysis is a comprehensive macro level framework used to analyze the development of global hierarchy based on the idea that the world economy is capitalistic its existence is tied to the existence of core peripheral and semi-peripheral nations according to world systems analysis it's not fruitful to refer to individual nations economies as capitalists or socialists for example because each of them is forced to exist in a global capitalist world economy and maintain capitalist relationships with other nations further this global hierarchy is not maintained just by economic relationships but by a complex network of economic political militaristic and cultural domination and subordination while individual countries may move up or down the hierarchy for example moving from peripheral to semi-peripheral or core to semi-peripheral this doesn't necessarily take place in a linear fashion and the global capitalist world economy relies on all three to perform specific functions emmanuel wallerstein refers to world systems analysis as a knowledge movement which forces us to consider things like trade war the global media social movements and more in a completely different light