ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to clarify basic concepts for the comparative study of world-systems and to explicate general propositions about the nature and role of core/periphery hierarchies in historical social change. Concept formation involves both deduction and induction. The concepts of core, periphery and semiperiphery have been developed in studies of the modern world-system. The chapter outlines conceptualizations of world-system boundaries, core/periphery hierarchies and a qualitative typology of very different intersocietal systems. It proposes several hypotheses regarding the presence, nature and functioning of core/periphery hierarchies in different types of world-systems. The chapter aims to study both economic and political forms of interaction as features of world-system networks. One problem which affects the conceptualization and bounding of world-systems for comparative study can be called the subunit problem. Considerable controversy still exists about the best way to conceptualize soreness and peripherality in the modern global political economy.
