It develops the framework of the Bourdieu Sian field theory using a world-system theoretical perspective to analyze the global system of social sciences and might be called the world-system of knowledge production. The analysis deals with the main agents of the world-system of social sciences and it also investigates the core like and periphery-like processes of the system. The periphery structure exists in global social sciences with a few hegemonic countries and distinctly peripheral world regions. It also proposes a three-dimensional model by which both geographical and social/institutional center-periphery relations may be analyzed.

On the based  investigation we can say that core regions are located exclusively in the Global North and they determine the leading theories and ideas. They adaptive courses of actions and the accepted forms of academic capital in the world-system of knowledge production. The third type includes those smaller but still developed countries where science means almost exclusively international science. In countries like Switzerland or the Netherlands, academics must produce internationally recognized achievements in order to advance in both their national and international academic communities.

With the exception of a relatively small number of nation specific fields of research, scholars in these countries work on international research projects and publish in international journals. Moreover, despite the fact that the higher education in these countries is generally considered high quality, it is very hard to convert purely national academic capital into international positions. Thus, researchers with plans for international careers typically earn their PhDs in countries of the first type, typically from the United States.