World systems analysis is a macro-sociological perspective developed by Immanuel Wallerstein that views the global economic system as an interconnected and hierarchical structure divided between certain industrialised, wealthy nations that control the majority of the world's wealth and resources (the core) and developing countries (the periphery) that are often controlled and exploited by the core for their labor and raw materials, with a third category of semi-peripheral countries occupying an intermediate position. This theory emphasises the historical development of a global capitalist economy and the ways in which the relationships between core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral countries are characterised by power imbalances and dependencies that perpetuate global inequalities. Wallerstein's approach highlights the interconnectedness of nations within this global system and how the dynamics of capitalism at a world scale shape the economic and social development of individual countries, arguing that the global system, rather than individual national factors alone, is the primary unit of analysis for understanding social change and inequality in the modern world.