Programs and activities
EncounterThe Wallerstein Institute for World Futures
A non-profit center and a global network of thinkers across intellectual and creative disciplines, and from regions across the world. Grounded in the intellectual legacy of Immanuel Wallerstein, the Institute provides spaces of encounter, education, collaborative research, and collective reflection and imagination around democratic world futures.
Global working groups
Research
Media experiments
ExperimentComing up
Conference
Immanuel Wallerstein and ColumbiaThis conference aims to explore the transformations that influenced, and were influenced by, Immanuel Wallerstein during his years at Columbia.
Symposium
World-Systems, World Futures: A SymposiumThe official launch of the Wallerstein Institute: three days of lectures, panels and performance at the Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme, organised around the Institute’s three thematic platforms.
Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein (1930–2019) was an historical sociologist, best known for his development of world-systems analysis. Wallerstein’s work focused on the historical development of global capitalism, arguing that the modern world-system emerged in the 16th century and was characterized by a division between core, periphery, and semi-periphery. His influential multi-volume work, The Modern World-System, redefined how scholars have understood global history, economics, and political power.
Press conference, Columbia University, 1968
Books by Immanuel Wallerstein
Media and archives
Recordings of the Institute's conferences and colloquia, on Canal-U and YouTube.
Utopic Performances: Reimagining the Common
Utopic Performances — Part 1
Morning session of the Utopic Performances conference, recorded 18 November 2024 at the Centre de recherches sur les arts et le langage (CRAL, EHESS), Paris.
Utopic Performances: Reimagining the Common
Utopic Performances — Part 2
Afternoon session of the Utopic Performances conference, recorded 18 November 2024 at the Centre de recherches sur les arts et le langage (CRAL, EHESS), Paris.
Capitalism, Anticapitalism and Social Sciences Engaged on a Global Scale
Table ronde 1 — Synthèse de l’œuvre d’Immanuel Wallerstein
Moderated by Thierry Paquot. With Yves David Hugot, Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Maurice Aymard, Carlos Aguirre Rojas, Gregory P. Williams and Elaine Mokhtefi.
Capitalism, Anticapitalism and Social Sciences Engaged on a Global Scale
Table ronde 2 — Gauches mondiales et mouvements anti-systémiques
Moderated by Gustave Massiah. With Havin Guneser, Françoise Vergès, Manuela Bojadzijev, Gilbert Achcar and David Palumbo-Liu.
How to support the work of the Wallerstein Institute
The Wallerstein Institute holds open a space for sustained, collaborative, cross-disciplinary work measured in the generation of ideas crucial to a just and open society. Such spaces have become harder to fund and are increasingly rare. Your support makes ours possible.
Immanuel Wallerstein with Walter Rodney, Addis Ababa, 1973