Diane E. Davis - Böcker

Transforming Urban Transport brings into focus the origins and implementation pathways of significant urban transport innovations that have recently been adopted in major, democratically governed world cities that are seeking to advance sustainability aims. It documents how proponents of new transportation initiatives confronted a range of administrative, environmental, fiscal, and political obstacles by using a range of leadership skills, technical resources, and negotiation capacities to move a good idea from the drawing board to implementation. The book's eight case studies focus on cities of great interest across the globe--Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Stockholm, and Vienna--many of which are known for significant mayor leadership and efforts to rescale power from the nation to the city. The cases highlight innovations likely to be of interest to transport policy makers from all corners, such as strengthening public transportation services, vehicle and traffic management measures, repurposing roads and other urban spaces away from their initial function as vehicle travel corridors, and turning sidewalks and city streets into more pedestrian-friendly places for walking, cycling, and leisure. Aside from their transformative impacts in transportation terms, many of the policy innovations examined here have altered planning institutions, public-private sector relations, civil society commitments, and governance mandates in the course of implementation. In bringing these cases to the fore, Transforming Urban Transport advances understanding of the conditions under which policy interventions can expand institutional capacities and governance mandates, particularly linked to urban sustainability. As such, it is an essential contribution to larger debates about what it takes to make cities more environmentally sustainable and the types of strategies and tactics that best advance progress on these fronts in both the short- and the long-term.

Transforming Urban Transport brings into focus the origins and implementation pathways of significant urban transport innovations that have recently been adopted in major, democratically governed world cities that are seeking to advance sustainability aims. It documents how proponents of new transportation initiatives confronted a range of administrative, environmental, fiscal, and political obstacles by using a range of leadership skills, technical resources, and negotiation capacities to move a good idea from the drawing board to implementation. The book's eight case studies focus on cities of great interest across the globe--Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Stockholm, and Vienna--many of which are known for significant mayor leadership and efforts to rescale power from the nation to the city. The cases highlight innovations likely to be of interest to transport policy makers from all corners, such as strengthening public transportation services, vehicle and traffic management measures, repurposing roads and other urban spaces away from their initial function as vehicle travel corridors, and turning sidewalks and city streets into more pedestrian-friendly places for walking, cycling, and leisure. Aside from their transformative impacts in transportation terms, many of the policy innovations examined here have altered planning institutions, public-private sector relations, civil society commitments, and governance mandates in the course of implementation. In bringing these cases to the fore, Transforming Urban Transport advances understanding of the conditions under which policy interventions can expand institutional capacities and governance mandates, particularly linked to urban sustainability. As such, it is an essential contribution to larger debates about what it takes to make cities more environmentally sustainable and the types of strategies and tactics that best advance progress on these fronts in both the short- and the long-term.

Cities have long been associated with diversity and tolerance, but from Jerusalem to Belfast to the Basque Country, many of the most intractable conflicts of the past century have played out in urban spaces. The contributors to this interdisciplinary volume examine the interrelationships of ethnic, racial, religious, or other identity conflicts and larger battles over sovereignty and governance. Under what conditions do identity conflicts undermine the legitimacy and power of nation-states, empires, or urban authorities? Does the urban built environment play a role in remedying or exacerbating such conflicts? Employing comparative analysis, these case studies from the Middle East, Europe, and South and Southeast Asia advance our understanding of the origins and nature of urban conflict.

Perhaps the most commonly held assumption in the field of development is that middle classes are the bounty of economic modernization and growth. As countries gradually transcend their agrarian past and become urbanized and industrialized, so the logic goes, middle classes emerge and gain in number, complexity, cultural influence, social prominence, and political authority. Yet this is only half the story. Middle classes shape industrial and economic development, they are not merely its product; the particular ways in which middle classes shape themselves - and the ways historical conditions shape them - influence development trajectories in multiple ways. This is the story of South Korea's and Taiwan's economic successes and Argentina's and Mexico's relative 'failures' through an examination of their rural middle classes and disciplinary capacities. Can disciplining continue in a context where globalization squeezes middle classes and frees capitalists from the state and social contracts in which they have been embedded?

Existing models of state formation are derived primarily from early Western European experience, and are misleading when applied to nation-states struggling to consolidate their dominion in the present period. In this volume, scholars suggest that the Western European model of armies waging war on behalf of sovereign states does not hold universally. The importance of 'irregular' armed forces - militias, guerrillas, paramilitaries, mercenaries, bandits, vigilantes, police, and so on - has been seriously neglected in the literature on this subject. The case studies in this book suggest, among other things, that the creation of the nation-state as a secure political entity rests as much on 'irregular' as regular armed forces. For most of the 'developing' world, the state's legitimacy has been difficult to achieve, constantly eroding or challenged by irregular armed forces within a country's borders. No account of modern state formation can be considered complete without attending to irregular forces.

Perhaps the most commonly held assumption in the field of development is that middle classes are the bounty of economic modernization and growth. As countries gradually transcend their agrarian past and become urbanized and industrialized, so the logic goes, middle classes emerge and gain in number, complexity, cultural influence, social prominence, and political authority. Yet this is only half the story. Middle classes shape industrial and economic development, they are not merely its product; the particular ways in which middle classes shape themselves - and the ways historical conditions shape them - influence development trajectories in multiple ways. This is the story of South Korea's and Taiwan's economic successes and Argentina's and Mexico's relative 'failures' through an examination of their rural middle classes and disciplinary capacities. Can disciplining continue in a context where globalization squeezes middle classes and frees capitalists from the state and social contracts in which they have been embedded?

Existing models of state formation are derived primarily from early Western European experience, and are misleading when applied to nation-states struggling to consolidate their dominion in the present period. In this volume, scholars suggest that the Western European model of armies waging war on behalf of sovereign states does not hold universally. The importance of 'irregular' armed forces - militias, guerrillas, paramilitaries, mercenaries, bandits, vigilantes, police, and so on - has been seriously neglected in the literature on this subject. The case studies in this book suggest, among other things, that the creation of the nation-state as a secure political entity rests as much on 'irregular' as regular armed forces. For most of the 'developing' world, the state's legitimacy has been difficult to achieve, constantly eroding or challenged by irregular armed forces within a country's borders. No account of modern state formation can be considered complete without attending to irregular forces.

This volume of "Political Power and Social Theory" deliberately grapples with some of the weightiest subjects in the contemporary social sciences: race and class and their impact on political and economic organization. Three historical papers on Cuba, Tanzania, and Mexico open the volume by exploring the complex relations between race, class, ethnicity, and nationalism. Two subsequent papers, which draw on the contemporary case studies of Chile and South Africa, focus on the intersection of class, race, ethnic and generational identities in the contested appropriation of space and territory.The volume concludes with a dynamic debate structured around the question 'Whither Class?' in which the eminent sociologist Alejandro Portes makes a deliberately provocative call to arms. Portes urges a rethinking of class and proposes a new type of class analysis in light of some of the recent social, political, and economic changes of our times. He is rejoined by a distinguished interdisciplinary panel of scholars including Richard Sennett, Edna Bonacich, Richard Ratcliff, Zine Magubane and David Grusky, each of whom examine his position and offers their own view of the continuing relevance of class-based theories. With their contributions, the volume circles back to complex questions of race and other multifaceted forms of identity that increasingly capture the imagination of social scientists in the modern world.

Volume 15 offers a series of critical articles and commentaries by some of the leading historically-oriented social scientists writing in academia today. Collectively, the articles examine issues ranging from the relations between class, power and history, to the role of states and culture in mediating those dynamics. Special attention is paid to race, gender, citizenship and civil society in the formation of such structures and processes. The countries or regions under study include the United States, Brazil, Chile, China, Mexico, Samoa and Southwest Africa.In keeping with the journal's commitment to inter-disciplinary, as well as historical inquiry, our nine contributors come from a variety of disciplines (sociology, political science, anthropology and history), all drawing on debates and themes that cut across the social sciences. The significance of the inter-disciplinary perspective is seen not only in the range of cases, literatures and methodologies brought to bear on the key issues under study; it also forms the substantive core of several contributions that call for a rethinking of conventional disciplinary boundaries and methodological frames.

This volume of "Political Power and Social Theory" addresses some of the most pressing questions of our times, from the origins and meaning of the war in Iraq to the transnational politics of immigration to the impact of race on labor organization to the historical underpinnings of corporate power. With careful attention to historical detail, with a keen eye for the value of inter-disciplinary social science inquiry, and with a view to various countries around the globe, this research annual once again unveils the complex dynamics of key contemporary and historical dilemmas that motivate citizens and scholars alike to struggle for a better future.

Volume 17 of "Political Power and Social Theory" showcases scholarship by historical, political, and economic sociologists grouped around three broad subjects with both contemporary and historical relevance. The first is the relationship between race, class, and urban politics, and specifically, how racial and class identities interact with each other to produce social and political power dynamics in 20th century American cities. The second subject, the interaction of citizens, states, and social movements in both colonial and transnational context, turns away from the sub-national level of the city and examines social and political dynamics at the level of nations and even empires, although racial identities, social movements, and citizenship concerns remain relevant in several of these papers as well. Both U.S. and European cases are examined. The final topic of inquiry is the social origins of corporate irresponsibility, a problem that is explored through the lens of organizational theory, state-society relations, and the history of labor-corporate relations. Overall, the volume aims to open new historical, methodological, and theoretical lines of inquiry for sociologists, organization theorists, political scientists, historians, and others who seek to understand some of the most pressing inequalities and injustices of our times.

Volume 18 of the popular "Political Power and Social Theory" series is broken up into three parts examining political power, state formation, and economic development with examples from Africa, Russia, and Chile. It also looks at the status of opposition politics in America. It is suitable for graduate students and researchers in the field of political science and social theory. Part I examines political power, state formation, and economic development with examples from Africa, Russia, and Chile. Part II looks at the history and current status of opposition politics in America. Part III discusses scholarly controversy within the discipline with some of the field's leading thinkers authoring chapters. With its international scope, this volume is a valuable reference for graduate students and researchers in the field of political science and social theory.

"Political Power and Social Theory" continues its longstanding run as a premier volume of comparative and historical social science. The volume focuses on a variety of questions relating to states, citizenship, and power, common themes examined with divergent analytical entry points and through deep knowledge of country cases as diverse as Russia, the United States, El Salvador, South Africa, and Israel. Whether examined with a focus on revolutions and political parties, or cities and their physical and social transformation, or through development of the concept of the 'familial state', which marries a preoccupation with lineage and micro-cultures to that of national-state institutions, these articles expand our theoretical and methodological imagination of how citizens become included or excluded in local and national structures of power.

It is an exciting time to consider changes in the field of comparative-historical sociology, as the discipline seeks to accommodate both old and new trends as well as the transforming spatial scales in which political power and social theory are increasingly embedded. Volume 20 of "Political Power and Social Theory" starts the ball rolling by showcasing articles that pursue similar themes. The question of what is old and what is new hovers over most of the contributions, particularly the peer-reviewed chapters in parts I and II, which consider such long-standing socio-historical concerns as power structure theory, class-based collective action, and empire - but examine them through new conceptual, methodological, and historical lenses. This year's volume also offers a critical treatment of the spatial or territorial dynamics of state hegemony, class power, ideologies of governance, and citizenship - with the latter theme most well developed in debate over the new geographies of citizenship in the Scholarly Controversy Section as well as in part-II's guest-edited section on Empire and Colonialism.