Broadening and Deepening: Systemic Expansion, Incorporation and the Zone of Ignorance

Abstract

I intend to address a critical element of world-systems theory, and in doing so illuminate some larger concerns with international relations theory in general. Speci?cally, I will be examining the concept of the “external arena” and its relation to the international system as an expanding whole. The goal is to re-think the incorporation of new regions (‘states’ and peoples) into the world-system in order to understand world-system processes more completely. This should be taken as a positive critique of both Wallerstein’s analysis of incorporation (European, state-centric, ‘inside-out’) and Hall’s analysis of incorporation (external, indigenous peoples, ‘outside in’).