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Care is a social necessity for life. Ensuring access to appropriate care at crucial points in the life course became a political necessity soon after the mid-20th century, as the right to suitable care became recognized as a fundamental entitlement of citizenship in most advanced capitalist economies. Over recent decades there has been a shift away from more traditional welfare state forms of public services towards increasingly marketized systems of provision. Changes in the provision of care in the public domain are associated with an increasing reliance on private capital and competition between a variety of providers, with public agencies competing alongside private for-profit and not-for-profit agencies. Drawing on care theory, historical sociology and political economic analysis, this article examines the conflicting tensions that shape aged care under marketization. Using Australia as a case study, it is argued that as private capital and resources take the place of scarce public resources and enable expenditure cuts to be presented as innovation, better services and more ‘consumer choice’, it is not the market but the finance, regulation and management work of the state that is the essential determinant of the assistance previously provided through non-market processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal scholars and political theorists dominate academic writing on the issue of indigenous peoples' rights. This article, however, adopts a sociological approach, analysing indigenous rights in Australia as a socially constructed phenomenon, the product of ideals, entrenched colonial structures and the balance of power between political interests. It shows how, during rights institutionalization processes, ably aided by a receptive government and media, commercial lobby groups constructed propaganda campaigns to further their interests to the detriment of indigenous interests. The resultant legislation was an exercise in rights limitation behind a veneer of agrarian reform. The article concludes by highlighting the tension between national rights regimes of this nature and international human rights norms and suggests an approach that could overcome this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In late 2000, as planning for the 15th World Congress of Sociology, to be held in Brisbane, Australia, was well underway, the author reflected on the many excellent suggestions they had received on possible topics for a special World Congress issue of Current Sociology. The theme for the 2002 World Congress, the first of this new millennium, is "The Social World in the 21st Century: Ambivalent Legacies and Rising Challenges." This is a wide sociological umbrella which holds much promise for the success of the World Congress. The role of technologies has been described by many sociologists, in reflecting on the beginning of this 21st century, as among the most fundamental of social trends and transformations, with technologies changing society, and society changing technologies. Understanding the role of technologies in society and in the economy has become central to sociological theorizing. The aim of this special World Congress issue is to offer wide sociological reflections on the intricate ways in which technological change interrelates with social change, both theoretically and empirically.