International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology – serie

This study, done within the comprehensive Weberian framework, focuses on religion and social change in Bangladesh through an imaginative use of qualitative as well as quantitative methods of modern social research.It first provides a sociological interpretation of the origin and development of Islam in Bengal using historical and literary works on Bengal. The main contribution is based on two sample surveys conducted by Mrs. Banu in 20 villages of Bangladesh and in three areas in the metropolitan Dhaka city. Using these survey data, she gives a sociological analysis of Islamic religious beliefs and practices in contemporary Bangladesh, and more importantly, she studies the impact of the Islamic religious beliefs on the socio- economic development and political culture in present-day Bangladesh. She also shows how Islam compares with modern education in social 'transforming capacity'.This careful and rigorous work is a notable contribution to sociology of religion and helps to deepen our understanding of the interactions between religious and social changes common to many parts of the Third World.

This volume addresses the problem of military and economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, particularly the impact of the end of the Cold War, on the evolution of its four regional subsystems (Australasia, Southern Asia, Southeast Asia, and Northeast Asia), the level of institutionalization in its economic and military dimensions, and the tendency towards regional amity or regional enmity. It investigates the regional institutions of military and economic security organizing the interstate relations of the Asia-Pacific; assesses the military and economic ambitions of China, Japan, and the United States; and suggests that the 'clash of civilizations' thesis is of limited use in understanding the dynamics of interstate relations in this centrally important area of the world.Contributors are Shigekio N. Fukai, Haruhiro Fukui, Norman A. Graham, Steven A. Hoffmann, Jim Rolfe, Sheldon Simon, James Sperling, and Robert M. Uriu.

Values and Attitudes across Nations and Time contributes to an ever-growing body of work focussing on the elucidation of variations in values and attitudes throughout the world - not only what they actually are, but also strategies for their detection, description and classification. Researchers in the field seek to identify both similarities and differences. In this work, quantitative and qualitative views and methods are explored by nine well-known authors: Masamichi Sasaki, current President of the International Institute of Sociology; Theodore Caplow of the University of Virginia; Mattei Dogan of the National Center of Scientific Research, Paris; S.N. Eisenstadt of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Chikio Hayashi of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Tokyo; Geert Hofstede of the University of Limburg at Maastricht in The Netherlands; Alex Inkeles of Stanford University; P. Herbert Leiderman of the Stanford University Medical School; Robert M. Marsh of Brown University; and Carmi Schooler of the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, USA.

The societies of the present world are experiencing many turbulent changes. New forces of change and modernization are driving people, business and cultures across borders. The world has become a home to a new generation of homo sapiens who are curious about others but, at the same time, cherish to preserve their own cultures. What is the nature of this evolving world society? Is the world driving toward a new global civilization—an "end of history"— or an inevitable civilizational clash?The present volume has brought together leading scholars in the field to examine the concept of globalization, deliberate on the character of its multifaceted nature and expressions, and delineate its impact on the emerging world economy, politics, culture, and science. A number of substantive issues such as the emergence of new global economic inequality, culture and the role of the trans-nationals, nature of the emerging global environmental regimes, rise of the NICs, and the conflicting role of the nation-states in the face of the advancing forces of globalization are addressed. It is contended that globalization should be perceived neither as an unbounded economic progress nor as an expansion of western domination. Globalization is, rather, defined as a new development strategy--a process of change that can be planned, guided, and controlled. For national political and business leaders of the world, the volume provides a blueprint of the emerging areas of policy concerns and guidance. For the world of social science, it presents a road-map of the emerging intellectual issues and challenges.Contributors are Alessandro Bonanno, Stephen W.K. Chiu, Douglas Constance, Richard J. Estes, R. Scott Frey, Archibald O. Haller, George A. Miller, Proshanta K. Nandi, Winifred R. Poster, J. Timmons Roberts, Shahid M. Shahidullah, Bam Dev Sharda, and Alvin Y. So.

The collection of papers in Ascetic Culture: Renunciation and Worldly Engagement was entirely conceived and developed by K. Ishwaran, who died in June 1998. The original concept was to focus on "Tradition and Innovation in Monastic Life in South Asia", a topic which combined two of Ishwaran’s major interests: comparative studies of the monastic systems of south Asia, and criticism of Western anthropological and sociological assumptions of tradition and modernity being antithetical, especially with regard to traditional religions.Ishwaran saw this collection of papers as reinforcing the "demise of universalistic projects, all encompassing grand master narratives and similar globally integrative, theoretical or empirical enterprises in social discourse" flowing from the post-structural and post-modernist revolutions in the social sciences. Later he conceived of broadening this topic to be more liberally comparative, to include major religious traditions around the world. The new title was to be "Tradition and Modernity in Monastic orders in Contemporary Societies". Finally, he broadened the theme to the present title of his collection. Taken together, the articles appearing in this book strongly support Ishwaran’s theses. First, is the obvious point that eremitism and asceticism are far more complex than commonly understood in the scholarly world. If ever a general understanding of these interrelated phenomena is developed, careful examination not only how they are found in these cultures and traditions but also study of their particular manifestations in individual movements, places, cultures, social groups etc. must take place. The second thesis is clearly established by the range of these papers: ascetic traditions are not only inimical to modernity, they may be found at the heart of certain contemporary social and cultural developments.K. Ishwaran has rendered the study of religion in particular and the social sciences in general an important service with this anthology.Contributers are John E. Cort, Alan Davies, Balkrishna G. Gokhale, Daniel Gold, Shaman Hatley, Sohail Inayatullah, Klaus K. Klostermaier, David Miller, S.A. Nigosian, Jordan Paper, and Earle H. Waugh.

In today's European arts and sciences most of the time we see not only other, but also our own cultural traditions and the different forms of modernity like a dim image in a mirror. And the future of our own and other cultures seems to be shrouded in mystery, because our gift of knowledge and inspired messages are only partial. The question this book addresses is whether it is possible to get an almost face-to-face intimacy with various forms of cultural tradition and modernity by using our experiences and our powers of imagination, i.e. our expectations, in a more fruitful way.The contributors to this book try to give answers to this weighty question by taking as a guideline Erasmus's famous motto ad fontes, i.e. always go to the sources. Without, however, nursing the illusion that our partial knowledge will ever be complete. Is there, they ask, a real chasm between the 'modern' West and the 'traditional' East, as so many authors have argued? And if so, how deep is the chasm and how is it to be bridged? How much do people in the West know about their own cultural tradition and the modern times they live in? How much do they know of the traditions and the modernities of the East and how much do they need to know in order to cope with what the future will probably bring? Are our images of cultural tradition and modernity in East and West, in Past and Present so blurred that we look at them as through a glass, darkly? What the contributors to this book argue for is the necessity of looking at developments both in East and West, both in Past and Present from a wider perspective, of taking a global point of departure. They argue for greater understanding and communication between cultures, for cultural pluralism (as distinct from cultural relativism). They argue for the open, tolerant, non-dogmatic and critical thought that was the most important characteristic of Erasmus's philosophy.The chapters in this book can be useful to a broad audience and a range of social scientists and historians who are interested in the understanding of the relation between Past and Present, Tradition and Modernity, East and West.

Most people, and indeed governments, hold the conviction that reforms, rather than revolutions, are likely to produce more appropriate and acceptable results. This is especially true for developing countries. That is because reforms are gradual in their implementation and respectful to past policy fabrics of a society. On the other hand, the simultaneous spread of communication technology, global liberalization of the market, and peripheral homogenization of cultures, have caused extreme tensions in just these developing countries. In this book, scholars from different countries around the world highlight the reforms and the tensions, in the light of the questions: what has been achieved, what has failed, and what is still needed? Experiences from such diverse locations as Nigeria, Ghana, Guatemala, South Korea, Taiwan, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania are combined with more general observations from other countries.Contributors are Don Adams, N’dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Thomas Clayton, Mark Ginsburg, Julius O. Ihonvbere, Kent Klitgaard, Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Martha Mantilla, Arild Schou, Judy Sylvester, and Yidan Wang

Ever since the end of China's civil war in 1949, Taiwan has embarked on its own distinct, divergent path of development. In light of its remarkable achievements and inherent difficulties, therefore, Taiwan should not be considered a renegade province of China, but a society with a democratically-elected government that has taken a route different from the rest of China in developing its own cultural norms and values. This book examines the issues of democratic transition, political imprisonment and the political economy in Taiwan.

This book gives a critique of the contemporary global capitalist system and the adverse consequences suffered by the developing countries as a result of their 'integration' into this system. The current neoliberal paradigm of capitalist development as the only or the best alternative for the economic, social and political development of the developing countries is rejected. The authors search for more human and ecologically sustainable alternatives, focusing on Latin America, Asia and women.Contributors are David Barkijn, Robert N. Gwynne, Richard L. Harris, Cristóbal Kay, Jorge Nef, Mustapha Kamal Pasha, Cathy A. Rakowski, Wilder Robles, Melinda J. Seid, and John Weeks.

The democratic experiment in Africa has had a checkered history over the past ten years. Analysts of this process tend to focus on the political and legal space instead of including broader issues such as norms, generational change and class. Authors in this volume argue that African civil society is less likely to support democracy, they measure African democracy by the women's rights movements, unravel the mythical hope of technology and point to ideological capitulation necessary for a limited transition. Past experience from Botswana, South-Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Madagascar will give the readers an understanding of democracy in Africa.Contributors are Judith van Allen, Lisa Aubrey, Nigel Gibson, Richard R. Marcus, Kenneth Mease, Stephen N. Ndegwa, Stephen Orvis, Dan Ottemoeller, and Wisdom J. Tettey.

According to Durkheim comparative sociology is sociology itself. Comparative criminology goes back to the days of Durkheim, but today it is possible to conduct group comparisons in many settings and with an incredible array of data. This book represents a variety of approaches making comparisons. The emphasis is on creative methods, challenging theory and unusual subject matter. Topics range from Micro-Macro Criminology to Police Strength and from Women Police to Crime Prevention Policies in the UK and the US.Contributors are Cyndi Banks, Adam C. Bouloukos, Ken Clark, Ronald V. Clarke, Brett Dakin, Graham Farrell, Joshua D. Freilich, Gregory J. Howard, Erin Lake, Gloria Laycock , Edward R. Maguire, Mangai Natarajan, Graeme Newman, Jeremy A. Pienik, Rebecca Schulte-Murray, Mark Seis, Shlomo Giora Shoham, and Andromachi Tseloni.

Governance is not a topic that easily lends itself to neat and precise definitions. Although concepts and practices of governance are profoundly under-specified, they are frequently associated with three dimensions: how and why governments are structured, what processes they employ in governing, and what results they are able to accomplish in serving their societies. As scholars continue to marvel over what theories and models are utilized in the design and implementation of activities and policies of governance, popular views boldly affirm that better governance is the Third World’s best hope to remedy their political and economic woes. The articles in this book represent a wide range of scholarly interests that extend from the abstract and conceptual to the specific and applied. The articles by Baaklini, Elsenhans, and Hyden mainly are in the category of conceptual analysis. The rest of the contributions by Mavimba and Chackerian (Zimbabwe), Jabbra and Jabbra (Lebanon), Jain (India), and Nelsen (China) deal with important national experiences.

This text is about the indigenous Nyoongar people of the south-west of Western Australia and their perspectives on racism, which has had a devastating effect on their lives and culture since colonisation; and the multicultural policies that are effective in Australia.The author, and those Nyoongars interviewed, give valuable insight into Aboriginal lives. Their comments reveal how Nyoongar people survived the colonialism, cultural genocide, the horrendous state government policies under which they were forced to exist, the Stolen Generations of children and the loss of their land, identity, culture, and purpose in their lives. Presently, they are fighting for equality and for recognition as being part of the oldest living culture in the world, that of the Australian Aborigines.

The essays in this collection reveal that the social and political development of post-apartheid South Africa depends to an important degree on the evolving cultural, social and political identities of its diverse population and on the role of the media of mass communications in the country's new multicultural democracy. The popular struggle against the country's former apartheid regime and the on-going democratisation of South African politics have generated enormous creativity and inspiration as well as many contradictions and unfulfilled expectations. In the present period of social transformation, the legacy of the country's past is both a source of continuing conflict and tension as well as a cause for celebration and hope. Post-apartheid South Africa provides an important case study of social transformation and how the cultural, social and political identities of a diverse population and the structure and practices of the media of mass communications affect the prospects for developing a multicultural democracy. The promise and the challenge of building a multicultural democratic society in a country with a racist and violent authoritarian legacy involves people with different identities and interests learning how to respect their differences and to live together in peace. It involves developing an inclusive or overarching common identity and a commitment to working together for a common destiny based on social equity and justice. South Africa's media of mass communications have an important role to play in the process of unprecedented social transformation - both in developing the respect for differences and the overarching identity as well as providing the public forum and the channels of communication needed for the successful development of the country's multicultural democracy. In South Africa, the democratization of the media must go hand in hand with the democratization of the political system in order to ensure that the majority of the citizenry participate effectively in the country's multicultural democracy. Topics covered include The "Struggle for African Identity: Thabo Mbeki's African Renaissance", "Between the Local and the Global: South African Languages and the Internet", "Shooting the East/Veils and Masks: Uncovering Orientalism in South African Media" and "Black and White in Ink: Discourses of Resistance in South African Cartooning".Contributors are Pal Ahluwalia, Gabeba Baderoon, Richard L. Harris, Sean Jacobs, Elizabeth Le Roux, Andy Mason, Thembisa Mjwacu, Herman Wasserman, and Abebe Zegeye.

This book, prepared under the auspices of the IPSA Research Committee on Political Elites, focuses on the interpenetration between various types of elites: politicians, owners of capital, corporate managers, higher state administrators, directors of public enterprises, controllers of media, military officers and the civic-cultural establishment. The contributions to this book reveal contrasting patterns of recruitment and selection in terms of career paths, visibility, influence, and power of different elite circles. This diversity of national elite configurations challenges the C. Wright Mills' theory of an integrated "power elite", which appears from a comparative perspective to be peculiar to the United States during the early post-war period. Key concepts are discussed and empirically tested: ruling class, political class, elite circulation versus elite reproduction, elite interpenetration, elite interlocks, elite cohesion, elite osmosis, functional elite roles, formal and informal networks, elite cousinhood, separation versus overlapping between wealth and power, and between power and social capital.The book covers a great variety of countries: post-industrial democracies (France, Britain, Germany, Canada), new democracies (East-Central Europe, Mexico) and modernizing regimes (Southeast Asia, Tropical Africa), presented by an international selection of distinguished contributors: Andras Bozoki, Roderic Camp, William Case, Jean-Pascal Daloz, Mattei Dogan, Dennis Kavanagh, Michael Ornstein, David Richards, Erwin Scheuch and John Scott.

This book presents findings based on a unique source of insight into the role of human values--the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, covering 78 societies containing over 80 per cent of the world's population. The findings reveal large and coherent cross-national differences in what people want out of life.Four waves of surveys, from 1981 to 1999-2001, reveal the impact of changing values on societal phenomena. Evidence from eleven Islamic societies demonstrates that a distinctive Islamic culture exists-but the democratic ideal is endorsed overwhelmingly. Other analyses examine Gender Equality and Democracy; Corruption and Democracy; Social Capital in Vietnam; the Clash of Civilization; political satisfaction in global perspective; Trust in International Governance; and Israeli and South African values.

Culture explains much of the behavioral and institutional differences around the globe. In social science there are many ways of framing cultural diversities. This book brings together authors with a classic status in the field of comparative cultural studies on one overarching theme: what are the relevant differences and similarities of contemporary cultural dimensions with which countries, organizations, and people can be compared? This book is the first publication available in which the cultural divisions of the world are compared and confronted. In the first part of the book classic authors reflect on each others key work and assess the main overlap and distinction. The book next provides insight in frontline academic work from a wide range of countries and social science disciplines dealing with the classic status cultural dimensions aimed at addressing contemporary key issues.

Amidst the euphoria about the new frontiers of technology sometimes perceived as a panacea for expansion of higher education in developing countries, there is a need to analyze persistent and new grounds of unequal opportunity for access, learning, and the production of knowledge. This volume addresses fundamental questions about the educational process such as:· The use of technology in higher education for a holistic educational system for social development· The actual technological capacity in Africa and possibilities for virtual higher education· Cultural relevance of the curriculum and pedagogy· Pedagogy and gender in cyberspace education· Perils of externally-driven distance education programs in Africa and the quest for ownership towards development· Challenges and opportunities in the making of knowledge society in an Asian context· Strategies to promote constructive virtual higher education in Africa and Asia.

This book deals with the ethnic formation among the 1990s immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel, in light of both domestic changes, and developments in the Israel- Arab conflict. Based on a broad variety of quantitative and qualitative methods, the book presents a detailed analysis of identity patterns among these immigrants, their orientation in matters of religion, society, culture and politics, and their relationships with all the constituent groups in Israeli society – including the Palestinian minority. The book provides a new critical perspective on questions of immigration, ethnicity and society in Israel. The analysis is placed in a global theoretical context that challenges the dominant approach in the sociology of immigration in Israel, which is based on the Zionist paradigm.

This book addresses, and at the same time reflects, the impact of Max Weber on both the social sciences and on critical theory’s critique of the social sciences. Weber’s conception of ‘vocation’ is a guiding thread unifying concerns about the nature, scope and limits of theoretical thinking among social scientists, whether supportive or critical of Weber. Not surprisingly, the source of many of these concerns, whether intended or unintended, biographical or situational, is the ambiguous legacy of Weber himself. Wilson’s interrogation of Weber’s thought in articles and essays over the past 30 years, supplemented by Kemple’s insights, makes a strong case for the claim that we do indeed live in ‘the age of Weber’.

Why is it that in France, a country renowned for its gastronomy, chefs tend to develop a nostalgia syndrome? Having been taught how to work in the most prestigious restaurants, they soon discover another reality in everyday restaurants or cafeterias: chefs have to cope with family constraints and are often forced to accept positions in standardized organizations that leave little room for daily inspiration. Feeling the burden of their professional commitments, these chefs are considered as having made an egotistic professional choice, both by society and the French educational system. With this in mind, their identity is distorted, regardless of possible improvements in working conditions. This book analyses vocational identities in French foodservices in their different stages and diversity, using international and inter-industry comparisons in the sociological field of professional groups.

This anthology brings together studies of post-colonial, post-Cold War Central Eurasia. This part of the world is in transition from Soviet institutions to independent statehood, nation building, resistance against state expansion, cultural change and the release of market forces. The theoretical framework of the study is called ‘critical geo-politics.’ The objective of the work is to better comprehend the nature of the post-colonial ‘Great Game'. Part I studies US power projection activity in the region. America is extending its World War II trans-oceanic 'defense perimeter into the fossile fuel rich area between integrating Europe, recovering Russia and industrializing China. Part II details various aspects of state-nation building and soci-cultural and economic change in the region. Part III studies interactions between outsiders, neighbors and Central Asian Republics. Conflict and cooperation in the Caspian region is studied in part IV, with Aral Sea and Azerbijan as cases.This is the revised edition of the book that was published under the same title in 2004.

This book, prepared under the auspices of the ISA research committee on Comparative Sociology, focuses on a worldwide phenomenon: political mistrust, observable in almost all countries, in both established democracies and in authoritarian regimes.But ubiquity does not signify uniformity. The diversity of political regimes generates a multiplicity of forms and intensities of mistrust. Political mistrust seems inherent even in advanced democracies and in semi-democracies, where citizens are better prepared and more prone to criticize the dysfunctions of institutions and condemn the misconduct of politicians. Political mistrust is greatly nourished in many countries by a wide practice of public corruption. Of particular sociological interest is the vulnerability of political elites and of their frequent condemnation to “civil death”.

This book is the analysis of the civilizational and historical context of the development of the Great Modern Revolutions; their relations to modernity, to the civilization of modernity, and to the development of multiple modernities; and the fate of revolutionary symbolism and dynamics in modern regimes, in the continually changing civilization of modernity, its dynamics and tribulations.

According to mainstream economic thinking, inspired by the ideas of Smith, Ricardo and others, globalisation of the world economy is profitable. But unlike these classic writers, neoliberal economists pay little attention to the moral and social consequences of economic policies. Despite the fact that present social circumstances differ a great deal from those in the time of Smith and Ricardo they keep maintaining that “an invisible hand” will further social ends. In doing so they ignore growing poverty worldwide and the exclusion of countries from the international legal order and of people from the right to social participation and freedom.This book pays attention to economic aspects of globalisation and also to philosophical, legal, social, cultural, ethical and ecological aspects. Its aim is to contribute to possible solutions for worldwide problems that accompany the globalisation process.

Using a Canadian case study, this book demonstrates that Dutch immigrant farmers have a global competitive advantage. It also deals with the implications, both beneficial and harmful, of positive stereotyping, in this case the reputation of the Dutch as successful farmers. Farming in a Global Economy consists of three parts. The first provides an overview of farming and migration in the Netherlands and Ontario. Part two deals with Dutch farmers in Ontario from a historical and a sociological perspective, telling the story of postwar farm immigrants, much of it in their own words. The last part covers the Dutch presence in, and impact on, Ontario agriculture.

In the closing years of the 19th century, the Japanese decided they should modernize economically without culturally westernizing, and they succeeded. Following de-colonization, Africans also pursued the goal of achieving economic modernization without cultural westernization. To some extent, however, Africa became westernized culturally, but failed to attain economic modernization. How can we explain Africa’s failure and Japan’s success? The book addresses these issues from a variety of perspectives also in relation to economic interactions between Africa and Japan and Africa’s place in Japan’s diplomacy and academic discourse.

Throughout most of Russian history, two views of who the Russians are have dominated the minds of Russian intellectuals. Westerners assumed that Russia was part of the West, whilst Slavophiles saw Russia as part of a Slavic civilization. At present, it is Eurasianism that has emerged as the paradigm that has made attempts to place Russia in a broad civilizational context and it has recently become the only viable doctrine that is able to provide the very ideological justification for Russia’s existence as a multiethnic state. Eurasians assert that Russia is a civilization in its own right, a unique blend of Slavic and non-Slavic, mostly Turkic, people.While it is one of the important ideological trends in present-day Russia, Eurasianism, with its origins among Russian emigrants in the 1920s, has a long history. Placing Eurasianism in a broad context, this book covers the origins of Eurasianism, dwells on Eurasianism’s major philosophical paradigms, and places Eurasianism in the context of the development of Polish and Turkish thought. The final part deals with the modern modification of Eurasianism. The book is of great relevance to those who are interested in Russian/European and Asian history area studies.