Culture and the world-system theory some reflections from Wallerstein’s perspective

Abstract

How can we understand and interpret culture today? This concept – often referred to the ‘centre of gravity’ of the cognitive strate gies developed by human sciences1 to analyse phenomena such as the dynamics of social interactions, the performances and functioning of the politicaleconomic systems, grand and minor historical transformations, appears to be facing a theoretical identity crisis [Santoro, 2000].