Immanuel Wallerstein walks on…

[Jai Sen]

[Apologies for any duplication. This post seemed to bounce at my end, the first time…]

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Another warrior walks on…

[More sad news… another great warrior walks on.  I again happened to have had the enormous privilege of getting to know Immanuel – through, like so many other wonderful people I’ve got to know since the early 2000s, the World Social Forum – and to publishing some of his work.  I then also got to know him – and his wife Beatrice, and separately his daughter Katharine - somewhat more socially, in the course of demos and also of afternoons and evenings together.  He rocked !  And what a gift to have to go to know him.  Thank you, the late Peter (Waterman) and the WSF, for introducing us…

[I’m forwarding here a deeply respectful in memoriam.  Thanks, Patrick.  More to come, I'm sure !  Rock on, Immanuel !

Immanuel Wallerstein walks on…

            In memory and solidarity, and in celebration of a great life lived –

            JS

fwd

Begin forwarded message:

From: Patrick Bond <pb...@mail.ngo.za>

Subject: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Immanuel remembered in Economic Sociology community

Date: September 1, 2019 at 9:49:14 AM EDT

To: DEBATE <debat...@fahamu.org>, "progeco...@googlegroups.com" <progeco...@googlegroups.com>

RIP Immanuel Wallerstein — “This is the end; this is the beginning”

Posted on September 1, 2019 by Oleg Komlik

A towering intellectual, pathbreaking and inspiring thinker, and preeminent sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein passed away.
Wallerstein lived a deep commitment to justice, scholarship and change. He has written dozens of remarkable and award-winning books, hundreds of influential papers, thousands of shrewd commentaries. His superb, eye-opening and insightful World‑Systems Analysis (culminated in four-volume masterpiece: 1974, 1980, 1989 and 2011) has transformed the way we understand history, capitalism, colonialism, social sciences, and the present turbulent times. Wallerstein was one of those rare academics whose research has been essentially revealing and paradigm shifting. 
But there was more to it than that:

“World-systems analysis“, he once stated, “is not a theory but a protest against neglected issues and deceptive epistemologies… It is an intellectual task that is and has to be a political task as well, because — I insist –the search for the true and the search for the good is  but a single quest. If we are to move forward to a world that is substantively rational, in Max Weber’s usage of this term, we can neglect neither the intellectual nor the political challenges. And neither can we separate these from each other. We can only struggle uneasily with both challenges simultaneously, and push forward as best we can.” (2000: xxii)

Immanuel Wallerstein’s life and work symbolize an imprinting journey of a genuine and committed Global Public Intellectual.
On July 1st Professor Wallerstein deliberately wrote his ultimate commentary “This is the end; this is the beginning“, concluding it and leaving us with his final reflection: 

“The world might go down further by-paths. Or it may not. I have indicated in the past that I thought the crucial struggle was a class struggle, using class in a very broadly defined sense. What those who will be alive in the future can do is to struggle with themselves so this change may be a real one. I still think that and therefore I think there is a 50-50 chance that we’ll make it to transformatory change, but only 50-50.”

Recommended reading:
— Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2004. World-systems Analysis: An Introduction. Duke Univer.
— Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1979. The Capitalist World-Economy. Cambridge University

— Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2000. The Essential Wallerstein. New York: The New Press

______________________________

Jai Sen

Independent researcher, editor

jai...@cacim.net

Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

CURRENT / RECENT publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press

Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN, MOM1Flipkart, and MOM1AUpFront

Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press

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