The Modern World System I

"Even though this book’s writing style remains quite problematic and is anything but elegant, its content has influenced me deeply. The book is a classic because it looks at the larger question as to why modern capitalism that conquered the world arose from this Asian archipelago sticking out into the Atlantic Ocean ­– Europe. Furthermore, Wallerstein looks at the reasons why in this Europe, it was mainly Britain and the Low Countries that became the major bulwarks of this immensely powerful social, economic and political development that was soon to conquer much of the world. In answering this question, Wallerstein posits a framework in which he categorises countries as the core of this development – Britain and the Low Countries – its semiperipheries, and lastly its peripheries. I find this framework immensely useful and adapted it to my analysis of sports, particularly what I have come to call hegemonic sports cultures, in other words those very few sports – team sports all played with some kind of ball-like objects – that move millions, even billions, of people to watch, follow, breathe, eat, live them on a daily basis. Association football with its forthcoming World Cup furnishes a prime example of such a hegemonic sports culture on a global basis. In the world of the big four North American Sports, the United States (with Canada in ice hockey) furnishes their uncontested core. That means if you are a great basketball player in China, Brazil or Germany or anywhere in the world, you go to the NBA. That is because it features the best of the best in basketball on a global level. Ditto for the worlds of baseball, American football and ice hockey. The rest of the world in these sports furnishes semi-peripheries and peripheries. To be sure, none of these categories are immutable and countries can – and have – moved from one circle to another. Thus, for example, Russia’s KHL professional hockey league has grown immensely over the past few years and could easily challenge the NHL’s undisputed position as ice hockey’s core. Still, as long as all Russian greats migrate to the NHL, and no Canadian superstar travels to the KHL, hockey’s core remains firmly anchored in North American, as remains the case for baseball, basketball and – of course – American football. But just think how in the world of cricket the Indian Premier League has not only emerged most recently like the phoenix from the ashes (pardon the pun) but might very well be on its way to become this venerable game’s new global core, in which the very best players from the former core of England, Australia and South Africa might find lucrative employment, thereby establishing a real first in a major global sport in that a developing country surpasses developed ones as the sport’s most important centre. In the world of association football, of course, the core comprises clearly the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, La Liga in Spain and Germany’s Bundesliga. It is this core that dominates the ‘beautiful game’ in every respect: it attracts the world’s best players, it pays the most money, it has the most renowned year-long tournament in the form of the Champions League, and it has the globe’s most coveted teams that have become global icons with millions of fans following their games on a regular basis. It is the core that defines the major ebbs and flows of each game’s essential structure, from when its major tournaments are televised to how the game is governed."