Category Archives: Former issues

No. 92 | (Winter 2011)

Topics of the articles of this issue vary considerably but almost all of them are common in dealing with the fundamental contradictions of the capital system and capitalism, which are undermining the framework of human life. From Holocaust to the global crisis, the reader can find thorough analyses on the chances of escaping by social production as well as on cultural resistance. The debate on the world-systems analysis of Wallerstein is also continued. A series of photos, as a new feature of Eszmélet, present the artwork of Éva Keleti. We recommend reading on Auschwitz, the ghetto, defaulting states and the world system, economic collapse, Beatles, global crisis, postcoloniality and on escaping the grip of the state and capital.
Table of contents
  1. Farkas Péter : On the sources of the world system analysis
  2. Wiener György : The approach to history in the world-systems analysis of Wallerstein
  3. Vígh László : Why capitalism is a world-system or why the world-system is capitalist?
  4. Ramón Grosfoguel : Transmodernity, border thinking, and global coloniality – Decolonizing political economy and postcolonial studies
  5. Benedek Szabolcs : Apocryphal Beatles
  6. Jürgen Kocka : History and the social sciences today
  7. Aron Shneer : Holocaust and genocide – What is general and what is specific?
  8. Frey Dóra : The Auschwitz Protocols – A still little known historical document
  9. Csonka Laura : Ghettos in the occupied area of the Soviet Union
  10. Maciej Melon : The way of Poland established an ethnically homogenous nation state – remarks to the “Golden Mine” by Jan T. Gross
  11. Fodor Gábor : The extermination of Armenians in Turkey during World War I
  12. Tütő László : Default Movement
  13. Szarka Klára : Éva Keleti – a flashback

Immanuel Wallerstein: the myth of historical capitalism

The study is a critical evaluation of Wallerstein's theory on "historical capitalism": drawing general theoretical conclusions especially on changing social forms and demanding a stricter class based approach. In the countries of the former "Eastern Block", the world-systems analysis is more useful in sociology and in historical science than the trendy theoretical tools, which replace the backward looking soviet "historical materialism", like the "civilization" based approach, the "clash of civilisations" or even fully desisting theories. It is time for social scholars in East Europe to read the inspiring sources of Wallerstein, namely the works of Latin American and African authors of the dependence school.