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Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This comment is stimulated by Max Haller's contribution The Challenge for Comparative Sociology in the Transformation of Europe which appeared in the 1990 issue of International Sociology, and takes it as a starting point and as a challenge for some basic reflections on how to approach the emerging European society. This article gives a short abstract of Haller's argument and appreciates its merits and examines some of his propositions. This will allow the author to formulate a significantly different position. The last paragraph draws some conclusions. Although he does not make this point extremely explicit, the intention behind Haller's paper is, in the author's perception, to demonstrate that Europe is an optimal constellation for making international and intercultural comparisons. Thus, the problems he has to solve are what to compare with what, why, and how. But it is clear that in his view Europe forms an entity, with nations as sub-units. The paper's argument starts with crisis phenomena in Europe and continues to describe Europe's striking internal differentiation. The unity and diversity of Europe are seen as optimal preconditions for comparative research, where unity means external delimitation and internal interlinkage, and diversity means internal differentiation.

How can one explain the striking discrepancy between the globalisation -- during the eighties on a planetary scale -- of practices formerly identified with new social movements in the West and the `pessimism' of the theories which usually do not even include in their field these new movements? This discrepancy is due to the application to the movements of the eighties of a conceptual framework worked out for the movements of the seventies. Hence the necessity of a new conceptual framework, which is developed here through the analysis of the contemporary peace movement and applied to the various other movements which have emerged recently around international issues. The paper proposes, first, to analyse the peace movement as a problem-centred, three-dimensional movement which is aimed at the conflictualisation of the security issue and engenders a double process of citizen empowerment and alternative problem-solving. Through this analysis it brings to light, secondly, the new pattern of social movement and the new mechanisms of social change, in order to develop, finally, a new definition of contemporary society as self-creative society, characterised by its auto-creativity: by its new capacity to invent and realise, and therefore to choose, its own futures in an autonomous manner. The central argument concerns this new paradigm and the question `what is at stake' in self-creative society. Through this new definition, the paper seeks to offer a genuinely new manner in which to address the problem concerning the centrality of new social conflicts and the unity of social movements in our self-creative global society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the new role of time in social theory, beyond the dissatisfaction with theories of change. This is done by identifying four developments: the clarification of historically independent processes, the new critique of positivism. the re-evaluation of 'micro sociology' and the emphasis on self-reference. These are specified on the basis of the work of Giddens and Luhmann, and related to the concept of time used by these authors. I argue that their predominantly naturalistic sui generis concept of time cannot do justice to the theoretical programmes they are implementing, and propose to focus instead on temporality and its conceptualisation. Temporality is defined on the basis of an invariant core that can be abstracted from the variety of operational culture-specific concepts of time. The paper closes with a discussion of some of the consequences of this shift from (naturalistic) time to social temporality [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China now has the world's most rapidly growing economy. Since 1949, China's historic developments make it unique among East Asia's flourishing economies. The regimentation of knowledge through a focus on classical studies and narrow specialization has been a traditional means of social control in China. In 1978, China began a series of economic reforms which included an openness to the world outside. These reforms have made a free market an integral part of the Chinese economy, transforming higher education in China. This paper describes the various ways in which the free market has altered higher education and provides current evidence to support the analysis. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these changes for higher education and future developments in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a basic causal model describing the effects of factors such as socialisation, rural-urban background, current occupation, perceived job stressors and locus of control as determinants of psychological distress in a sample of Nigerian factory workers. The analysis builds upon major results and theories of causation of psychological distress in African populations experiencing high rates of social change. Findings regarding perceived job stressors are similar to results found in Western samples, but the findings concerning the effects of cognitive attribution tendencies contrast with what is usually found in Western samples. The ensuing discussion of the reasons for such differences emphasises basic themes in the sociogenesis of psychological distress in an African context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This concise paper presents a critical glance over the theories of social change and over the new challenges facing those who wish to understand change in the contemporary world. The first part deals with the discussion of the idea of progress which underlies all the classical sociological explications of global social change -- should it be 'social change', 'change in society' or change of society'? -- and provides a much needed overview of the themes to which sociologists, such as Durkheim, Weber, Parsons, Aron and others gave priority. The second part is a reflection on the extent to which sociology is equipped to enunciate `laws of transformation' or to determine the causes of change. For this, the author refers to Raymond Boudon's La place du désordre (1984) whose critical contribution represents an openness to accept a less `scientistic' view of sociology and highlights the importance of the `spirit of adventure' in sociological analysis. Closing remarks are made on the present challenges for sociology in the contemporary world where it may be possible to envisage an `Oriestern' civilisation, combining characteristics from the East and the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reply to Bernd Hamm's critique of the transformation of Europe as a challenge to comparative sociology. The main thrust of Bernd Hamm's critique is that the article on the transformation of Europe is pursuing a comparative approach resulting only in the empirical description of similarities and differences between nations. Such an approach, accepting nations as the most important and meaningful entities for comparison, tends to confine research to a static and correlational logic. He asserts that it is characterized by a retrospective and conservative bias, not allowing for a true consideration of patterns of interlinkages between the units of observation nor the dynamics of change. While such an approach, according to Hamm, might have some merits, a truly fruitful comparative research within the context of Europe necessitates a significant different position, an evolutionary approach focusing on the changes going on in Europe. Here, the processes of building European institutions are particularly at issue; only by focusing on them can we contribute to the understanding of Europe as it becomes one society, and to learn lessons from such understanding. There are some specific arguments in Hamm's critique on which the author would like to comment briefly. The first concerns arguments about crisis phenomena in Europe in the first part of the paper. A second, quite important, issue raised by Hamm concerns the question whether nation-states are still the most meaningful units of observation in comparative research.

This paper provides a critical review of existing studies about bow migration alters women's position in the course of social change. Two major goals are accomplished. First, the conceptual and methodological issues that bear on the assessment of changing gender relations are distilled from the existing literature. Second, for heuristic purposes we delineate three alternative outcomes for migrant women using the distribution-redistribution analytical framework, although we acknowledge the difficulty of distinguishing among them empirically. Finally, we provide a selective review of case studies illustrating alternative outcomes for migrant women in Africa and Latin America. The concluding discussion summarises the major findings in an attempt to distinguish issues that cross-cut social settings from those which are country-specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the limits of the present technological policy of state socialism. Problems of guided social and technological change in a highly centralised society are critically discussed. The lines of argument developed in this paper touch on highly sociological substantive areas: on state policy on new technologies, on welfare provisions, on education and occupations, on industrial relations and on the environment. It also identifies several dilemmas of statist technological policy which, in a socialist society, must follow social imperatives. It arrives at the conclusion that the crucial condition for keeping the social promises given by the state and party authorities is at present participatory democracy on a micro as well as macro-level of society that is shaped by the technological revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High expectations of prompt establishment of stable parliamentary democracy in central eastern Europe (CEE) have been dashed by outbursts of populism Such expectations were unrealistic This paper argues that the key aspect of change in CFE involved first the mobilisation of mass protest movements and subsequently the 'normalisation' of these movements into new regimes These processes are unlikely to lead directly to stable parliamentary democracies Rather as Max Weber s analyses suggest the normalisation of mass movements leads in the direction of 'plebiscitary democracy The development of stable parliamentary democracy in post communist CEE is hindered by the residues of the very mass mobilisations which initiated the process of democratic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1988 the world has witnessed unexpectedly massive changes and reforms, including the destructuring of the bipolar world of the Cold War era, the adoption of market economies to replace centrally planned economies, and the democratisation of authoritarian regimes. Essentially, this paper argues that the turbulent transition period of this decade is one that may be characterised as a 'new world of new worlds', presenting a vast ensemble of challenges for the sociological analysis of modernity. A historical perspective with previous periods of transition from one social order to the next is proposed, as well as a discussion of salient general socio-psychological features of the contemporary situation, such as changes in collective identity. Finally, attention is given to a methodological approach suitable to make sense of our world situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper critically reviews the major class interpretations of contemporary mass movements, including the fascist movements, Polish Solidarity and Western Green (eco-pax) movements, and argues that these accounts are deficient. A paradigmatic shift from the class interpretation of movements to `post-Marxist' and `post-modernist' accounts has been occurring in movement literature. This shift follows the processes of social change and broadening of research horizons. Contemporary conflicts, and the mass movements that articulate them. seem to be more diverse, more detached from structural- economic divisions, and less linked to class identities than the nineteenth- century conflicts analysed by Marx. This limits the heuristic value and theoretical utility of class theories in analyses of mass social movements and brings to the fore alternative accounts in terms of generation, status politics and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author attempts to highlight the socio-historical logic of the dialectic between (paid) labour and free time among industrial societies with a market economy. The main stages of a cultural mutation are shown and related to changes in the globa1 social structure On the eve of post industrial society a new orientation toward life (ethos), which developed within the framework of free time, privacy and leisure activities, has come to dominate all sectors of human life. The possibility that this new orientation could help to overcome the antinomy between work (as paid labour) and free-time activities is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including impact of social change in Europe, increasing recognition of same-sex rights in Europe, and secularization in Poland and Spain.

This article discusses the uneasy relationship between forward-oriented sociological research and public debate. It explores how implicit assumptions and explicit conceptualizations influence sociology’s ability to address the future. It argues that the stakes are not merely theoretical but also practical because methodological pre-decisions shape sociology’s relation to public debate and its abilities to tackle the emergent challenges of our time. Sociology was geared since its inception toward the collective reflection of not only present or past conditions of social existence but also of possibilities for change. While deterministic and expertocratic closures limited its potential, shifting epistemological, institutional, and social constellations allow the expansion, evasion, and re-emergence of open and contestable future orientations. Case studies related to climate change, globalization, social movements, values, and media are used to explore actual and potential contributions to public discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan has moved in a different direction from the West since the 1970s in terms of family and gender role changes. The purpose of this article is to place Japan’s path in a global context and to clarify the factors that made it diverge from the Western path, and to consider if it is becoming closer to the path taken by other Asian countries. A characteristic shared by Japan and other Asian countries is that, even though dramatic demographic changes have occurred, the institution of marriage remains intact. Nevertheless, in contrast to the other Asian countries, which had experienced a compressed modernity and developed liberal familialism in response to the pressures of globalization, Japan had leeway in its semi-compressed modernity to carry out familialist reforms in the 1980s that solidified the family system of the first modernity. It is too simple to say that Japan has rejoined Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review essay argues that József Böröcz reverses explanations that have served as the basis not only for Eurocentric accounts of global social change and the ‘rise’ of Europe but also for the latter’s critics coming from Marxist, postcolonial and world-systems perspectives. Most notably, the review considers why on the basis of Böröcz’s work we have to reject the classic question of how and why Europe and the West have become rich and/or ‘progressive’. The essay considers the wide implications of Böröcz’s novel analysis which focuses on weights of different political entities that he sees as crucial in understanding geopolitical manoeuvring of wide-ranging historical and present-day actors such as the European Union, western colonial powers, as well as state socialist countries and blocs, thus offering a fresh and provocative perspective on global social change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents an interview with Piotr Sztompka, president of the International Sociological Association, concerning his views on writing sociology and his career as a sociologist. He admits that his greatest achievement is to write a book that will be accepted by other scholars. He also explains his focus on social movements and social change in his writings.

This article examines the change in psychological well-being among urban residents in Beijing, China, over a 10-year period of rapid social change. The findings suggest that urban reforms generate economic gains at the expense of urban residents' psychological well-being. Results from two community surveys conducted in 1991 and 2000 reveal that urban Beijing residents have experienced greater life stress and a rise in depressive symptoms during the 10-year period. The decline in psychological well-being between 1991 and 2000 can be partly explained by greater exposure of Beijing residents to life stressors in the course of rapid social changes associated with the urban reforms. The survey results also lend support to the social adjustment and stress explanation, but not the social relations and support explanation. Changes in social relations only marginally affect the change in depressive symptomatology, and the protective function of social relations, particularly relations with family and co-workers, has gained importance over the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the last three decades, a spate of research brought to light the dynamics of contentious politics in early modem Europe. These studies suggest that surges of commerce and centralized state power led to a transition of contentious politics from reactive to proactive claims, and from violent to non-violent repertoires. This literature assumes the uniqueness of the western experience, and pays little attention to the non-western world. This article is an attempt to examine the patterns of contentious politics in mid-Qing China, a period when China witnessed profound commercial growth and political centralization. Based on a catalogue of contentious events derived from archival sources, the article finds that contentious politics over mid-Qing China changed from predominantly proactive and peaceful actions to more reactive and violent forms. The direction of transition was opposite to that in Europe, and could be explained by the specific trajectories of state formation and commercialization in early modem China. The article also argues that the modem revolutionary movement in 20th-century China was a continuation of the reactive, violent contentions of the early 19th century. This study shows that `modernization' of contentious politics in non-western civilizations is rarely a simple repetition of the western way, but is rather a complex interaction between western influences and indigenous tracks of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical sociological theory is viewed as an account of the changing world in the 19th century. It theorizes the great transformation from the agrarian, feudal to the industrial, capitalist mode of production, from traditional to rational social action. All but one of these theories are structural, and consider social change without direct reference to conscious human intention and motivation. Only one exception is sociologist Max Weber, who formulated his theory with reference to the purpose and meaning of the social action. Weber linked the aspects of modern politics closely together. In large states modern democracy is becoming a bureaucratized democracy. Democracy has been replacing the noble, aristocratic or other honorary officials with a body of paid officials. Weber backed this sociological argument by a moral one that the men who were putting their lives on the line during the war deserved to have a say in political matters when they returned at the end of it. In the 1960s and early 1970s, other modernization theorists too were happy to share the materialism of the Marxists and the Soviet Union.

Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines the extent to which transnational social movement organizations (TSMO) have been able to articulate strategic frames that motivate global level organizing and collective action. It investigates how inequities between the global North and South affect TSMO solidarity. The article deliberates that an important task of transnational organizations is to articulate frames that both justify transnational level action and identify a strategic approach seen as likely to produce the changes activists desire. It has been found that TSMOs have helped expand routine communications among geographically dispersed memberships. There is also evidence that they have developed new skills for managing the differences that characterize such memberships. Just like their national and local counterparts, TSMOs must advance strategic frames and foster group identities that motivate members to engage in collective action. Transnational groups have been better at cultivating shared understandings of the problems they address than at building consensus around a shared response to these problems.

The process of social transformation and opening to the outside world in modern China accompanied a process of rising importance and popularity of overseas studies. As a result, foreign education (mainly western education) gradually replaced traditional Chinese education as the dominating cultural capital and the most important means of social mobility in modern China. However, foreign education was by no means assumed valuable in the initial stage of its introduction, but experienced a long process of transformation from negative social meanings to positive cultural capital. The careers and life experience of the first group of returned students from the USA in the 1880s represent very well the process of such transformation. Three factors were crucial in the explanation of such a process: social contexts, occupational contexts and group formation. The unique social contexts of the mid-19th and early 20th centuries in China provided the first returned students' opportunities to demonstrate their outstanding performance and professional accomplishments. At the same time, the process of adopting western practices and lifestyles created increasing demand for western knowledge and western skills in China, and subsequently caused an occupational transformation which helped the rise of the new occupational sector in which the returned students made careers. Finally, the first returned students as a group actively promoted western education in China and constructed the identity of western-returned students as a positive social symbol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier work formulated an evolutionary theory of the formation, alteration and transformation of social rule systems such as normative orders and institutional arrangements. The theory specifies processes of the generation of variety in social rules, retention and transmission of rules, and the selection of rules. It stresses the role of human agents in generating variety and change, in structuring and manipulating selective processes and in the diffusion and transmission of new systems. This article applies the theory to problems of conceptualizing and analysing revolution, that is, major transformations of social orders. The authors focus on cases of agential driven processes of transformation. Three general types of agent-generated change are identified and illustrated. (1) A dominant elite changes its paradigm of social order and uses its power to bring about transformation of the existing order. (2) Through a power shift, an established elite is replaced by an elite or coalition of elites with a different paradigm of social order which frames and guides the establishment of new institutional arrangements. These two types of transformation typically entail decisive events and actions, carried out by identifiable agents engaged in relatively well-defined 'founding moments'. They are 'legislative' in character. (3) 'Organic' transformation entails the accumulative and aggregate effect of 'small' actions and developments that add up to a major macro-transformation. The three types of transformation entail directed problem-solving and adaptation - such as the development of new theories or paradigms, new technologies and institutional reforms. Variety is generated in a way very different from undirected forms envisioned in biological evolutionary theory. Also different are key concepts such as. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society and the public sphere are based on historically specific moral discourse. Social movements such as the women's movement emerge out of the internal contradictions of the dominant moral discourse at any historical juncture. This article explores how the women's movement emerged in post-revolutionary Iranian society, as represented in one major women's publication, Zanan. In post-revolutionary Iranian society, Muslim women activists broaden the boundaries of civil society by translating their highly praised status as mothers to active and morally recognized citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convergence argument in the debate on globalization regards globalization as a structural change. Globalization, however, is as much a structural change as a social construction - an imagined order of the future that involves value judgment and an ideological stand. Through an analysis of the ideological conflicts in the politics of Japan's national response to the challenge of globalization, the article shows that the convergence argument is being challenged on four specific issues in Japan: the universal model of market economy conflicts with the search for national identity; the big bang strategy that asserts a radical turnover of the national economic system is discredited by the holistic view of the economy that emphasizes the social embeddedness of the economic system; the new interpretation of the Japanese economic system as a product of wartime control contradicts the widely held image of postwar Japan as a democratic country; and the efficiency principle for future economic governance is challenged by the established norms concerning equality. This study indicates that the convergence argument in the debate on globalization faces strong resistance from the deeply institutionalized beliefs in the national economic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic rise of a number of East Asian countries, notably the 'four little tigers' - Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan - has been addressed by various approaches. They have attributed the successful development to a variety of factors, e.g. economic, political-institutional and cultural ones. The article seeks to synthesize these various approaches and to demonstrate how they complement one another. The development of the tiger countries must be seen against the backdrop of a historically specific world-economic and geopolitical situation. Domestic structures and cultural factors served as catalysts, which enabled the tiger countries to seize upon the opportunities of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization tendencies have fundamentally transformed the nature and organization of business communities in Southeast Asia. Chinese business communities in East and Southeast Asia have been playing a leading role in the regional economy through the extensive interpenetration of capital flows and business networks. Through their cross-border investments and global trade networks, these Chinese business communities have also facilitated the rearticulation of mainland China into the global economy. The recent Asian economic crisis, however, has seriously undermined the social and institutional foundations of Chinese business communities in Southeast Asia. At the discursive level, Chinese business communities are beginning to come to terms with a much more realistic conception of globalization as a set of contested processes creating both threats and opportunities. In material terms, Chinese business communities increasingly recognize the limits to their 'home' country-based accumulation strategies and turn to globalization as an alternative growth strategy. The emergence of Chinese business communities in Southeast Asia cannot therefore be conceived as an indigenous evolutionary process of social and institutional change. Rather, it should always be seen as contingent upon such critical external processes as globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the survival and maintenance of the environmental movement in a risk-laden post-totalitarian society. Russia's rapidly changing society has an anti-ecological bias, since the economic transition has been carried out in such a way as to cause both the overexploitation and waste of human and natural resources. In the course of this transition the anti-ecological context has been reproduced and reinforced on three levels: historical-cultural, macro-social and local. The author describes the social context of the environmental movement, and the root causes of the hostility within this context to the movement. The article proposes an explanation for the negative attitude towards the movement on the part of both the Russian state and its citizens. The response by the movement to the hostility has had three main consequences: the movement is losing its ability to function as a producer and distributor of environmental values; it has become less rooted within Russia; and it has become more westernized and globalized, integrating itself into the global environmental community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]