Re: query

On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 Threehegemons@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 1/31/2003 6:22:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
>kohlerg@3web.net writes:
>
> > The query is: Does Wallerstein have a concept like "ideology of (the) (a)
> > world-system" (or of a phase of (the) (a) world-system)? (I mean the
> > ideology used by the dominant powers/classes of the world-system in order to
> > maintain  the world-system and/or their dominance within it.) Not being a
> > Wallerstein expert, but having read various of his pieces, I am not sure
> > whether he has and uses such a concept. Can someone please
> > comment?  Gernot
> > Kohler
>
> He says that 'liberalism' is the dominant ideology of the system.  I've never 
>seen him define the term completely clearly, but I think the idea of guided, 
>steady change in the direction of 'progress' might be a useful way of thinking 
>about it.  He argues that radicals and conservatives have tended to get pulled 
>toward liberalism until 1968 began to undo the hold of this ideology (which 
>has only been around since the French revolution).  He also claims the 
>division between 'two cultures'--science and the humanities, or the seperation 
>of knowledge and the pursuit of the good--is a key aspect of the ideology of 
>the modern world system.

I don't believe that he's ever defined "ideology", but he has
characterized all the things Steve mentions above as a the "geoculture" of
the modern world-system:  "[s]ome describe the geoculture as the
superstructure of this world-economy.  I prefer to think of it as its
underside, the part that is more hidden from view and therefore more
difficult to assess, but the part without which the rest would not be
nourished... it represents the cultural framework within which the
world-system operates" (_Geopolitics and Geoculture_, Cambridge:1991).

As this geoculture came into being with the French Revolution, it is an
entirely open question whether the modern world-system lacked a cultural
framework until that time.  It is also not clear if other world-systems
have geocultures or not.


-- 
Boris Stremlin
bstremli@binghamton.edu