Utopistics: Or Historical Choices of the Twenty-First Century

By Immanuel Wallerstein

The twentieth century has witnessed both the triumphs and failures of the dreams that have informed the modern world. In Utopistics , Immanuel Wallerstein argues that the global order that nourished those dreams is on the brink of disintegration. Pointing to the globalization of commerce, the changing nature of work and the family, the failures of traditional liberal ideology, and the danger of profound environmental crises, the founder of world-systems analysis argues that the nation-state system no longer works. The next twenty-five to fifty years will see the final breakdown of that system, and a time of great conflicts and disorder. It will also be a period in which individual and collective action will have a greater impact on the future than has been possible for 500 years. Utopistics distills Wallerstein's hugely influential work on the modern world-system in an accessible way. This fascinating and provocative look into our collective political destiny poses urgent questions for anyone concerned with social change in the next millennium.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565844572
• ISBN13: 9781565844575
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 93 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.2"

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... Wallersein states that his task is to explore alternative possible historic systems, not to develop a new utopian vision. He states explicitly that his task is not to work out the details but to look at the decline of the current world-system and consider alternatives systems that could arise out of the chaos that the decline will cause. In this, Wallerstein succeeds not in defining or predicting the future, but exploring how things will change organically and what those who would like to see transformative change can work toward--not that there is any guarantee that what arises will actually be better than what now exists.In predicting the future, however, the reviewer above overlooked a lot. When you consider that Utopistics was written in 1998 and since then we have seen the attack on the WTC, the Cole attack, and the embassy attacks. The number one world threat is a non-state terrorist organization--which Wallerstein suggested would develop in Utopistics.This book is, in its own way, a new manifesto for activists. This book outlines a new vision that is transformative, yet organic; one that could arise out of chaos and the decline of the dominant paradigms in which the oppressed continue to participate in their own oppression.