To the 36th IIS Congress

The holding of the Congress of the IIS in Beijing is a historic step in the true internationalization of sociology and social science. Knowledge will not be mature until it is socially grounded everywhere in the world, and until there is true dialogue among practitioners from everywhere. China is a very large part of our world, with a very long cultural tradition. But a zone that has been underrepresented in the world production of knowledge or at least in the awareness of the rest of the world of what it has produced. Let the Beijing Congress mark the end of this scholarly separation. I wish the Congress every success.

Immanuel Wallerstein

Dept. of Sociology

Yale University

(China.org.cn July 7, 2004)