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This paper advocates internationalising the sociology curriculum for both practical and theoretical reasons. Macro-sociology must drop the parochialism of implicitly confining itself to intra-state phenomena, based on Western historical experience, and develop a conceptual framework adequate to deal with the emergent transnational scene and transnational global structures and processes of change. Correspondingly, the sociology curriculum must be geared to increasing the international competency of students, both undergraduates and graduates. Doing so will attract better undergraduates seeking careers in the international field, and will for graduates provide training and research that will promote the number of sociologists actually engaged in international studies. Specific recommendations to internationalise the sociology curriculum include (1) an introductory course dealing with large-scale phenomena and their global interdependence and manifestations, including major attention to colonial situations, (2) a topical course on major international issues and problems, (3) a methodological training course in comparative analysis, and (4) a senior seminar regarding the international sphere and its impact or relation to the local national setting. To complement the course work, the curriculum should also provide field research and an internship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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.)

'America has a negro problem', the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal stated in the introduction to his modern classic An American Dilemma first published in 1944 Half a century later the so called immigrant problem is moving to the top of the political agenda of EU Europe. To speak about a European dilemma in this context means to relate established European values of social solidarity and social responsibility to an increasingly ethnicised and racialised social inequality in European cities How can the dilemma be made transparent? How can we transcend the disjunctures between 'creed' and reality? Along these lines the paper debates potentialities for transethnic alignment in the US and EU Europe exposed to a common condition of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation is usually interpreted as a process of homogenisation, but considering that there are multiple globalisation processes at work this is hardly adequate. Globalisation is also often tied up with modernity, which in effect equates globalisation with Westernisation, which is historically shallow and analytically narrow, This paper argues instead for viewing globalisation as hybridisation: structural hybridisation, or the emergence of new, mixed forms of cooperation, and cultural hybridisation, or the development of translocal mélange cultures. Theorising hybridity and reflecting on the politics of hybridity shows the varieties of hybridity, from mimicry to counter-hegemony. The other side of hybridity is transcultural convergence. Two distinct concepts of culture are in use: territorial and translocal, inward and outward-looking - which produce divergent views on cultural relations and globalisation. Hybridisation refers to the closed concept of culture and to its opening up, in the process ushering in post-hybridity. This is an argument for post-inter/national sociology of hybrid times, spaces and formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of communism, nationalism has regained prominence as a source of global tension and instability. These problems, and nationalism itself, are often dismissed as transitional difficulties rather than studied as basic to the modern world. This paper argues, to the contrary, that nationalism is produced by central features of the modem world, including the ongoing process of globalisation. Its centrality derives first of all from the need to identify the 'self implied by the notion of political self-determination. This ties nationalism to democracy. But nationalism is also shaped in problematic ways by modern individualism. Metaphorically, the nation is often treated as an individual. Nations are also commonly conceived of as categories of like individuals rather than as webs of social relationships. This places an emphasis on sameness which often makes nationalism an enemy of diversity. It also provides the basis for arguments that national identity should take precedence over other competing identities -- regional, familial, gender, interest-group, occupational, and so on. Nationalism is particularly potent and problematic where diverse institutions of civil society are lacking or fail to provide for a diversity of public discourses and collective identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author addresses the expansion of the journal "International Sociology." She considers the relocation of the editorship of the journal. She comments on how globalization has affected the international construction of knowledge. She emphasizes the need to establish effective communication between sociologists.

Two of the largest democracies in the global south – India and Brazil – have witnessed a dramatic turn to right-wing populism. Careful historical comparison reveals that the form of reaction is markedly different from other recent cases of democratic backsliding. In both cases, reaction has been driven by elites in response to a previous expansion of democratic rights and social inclusion. This form of retrenchment populism is rooted in very similar class realignments that are configured both by economic and socio-cultural interests. Globalization has played a role, but not through the conventionally identified pathways of neoliberalism or modernization. Instead, reaction has been driven by an expanded middle class's efforts to hoard opportunity and public resources and preserve traditional status privileges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the late 20th century, income inequality rose in most countries around the world, and by a substantial amount in some cases. By contrast, income disparities have stabilized during the post-2000 era, and have even begun to decline in a small majority of states. What accounts for this recent change? Unfortunately, existing work is not well-positioned to address this question. Researchers commonly restrict their attention to affluent nations or use empirical models that have not kept pace with either the changing landscape or the availability of newer measures, all of which suggests a path forward in this area of research. This article focuses on the post-2000 era, drawing from a large global sample (1284 observations across 129 states), while utilizing novel measures that better reflect the contemporary period. The study reports results from Prais–Winsten regression with panel-corrected standard errors and two-way fixed effects. The models show that income inequality is shaped by the major employment sectors (agriculture, industry, and services), the relative supply of unskilled/skilled labor (as indicated by population growth and tertiary school enrollment, respectively), globalization (international trade and migration), state characteristics (the size of government and regulation of labor), gender dynamics (female participation in paid work and government), and the unemployment rate. In sum, the results reveal a set of equalizing and disequalizing factors that shape each country's income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how visual approaches to globalization as expressed and enacted in everyday life may enrich and complement the more abstract and mainly quantitatively supported discourses around this convoluted phenomenon. Visual methods, with their focus on empirically observable aspects of culture, indeed have the capacity to uncover forms of global interconnectivity in urban settings, by looking carefully at the material environment and artifacts as cultural expressions and at visual practices and performances of people within those spaces. Observing globalization in urban public space involves a wide variety of resources, methods, techniques and technologies, each with their specific affordances and limitations. Therefore this contribution is less a detailed study about globalization than it is about how to study aspects of globalization through its visual dimensions and by using visual means and methods to capture data and to communicate insight in novel ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world society/polity perspective developed by John Meyer, his collaborators, and his students has grown tremendously over the past three decades. It is, however, theoretically and conceptually imprecise in one crucial respect: the very terms by which the perspective is called -- 'world polity' and 'world society' -- are used interchangeably and indiscriminately. This article proposes the utility of developing an implicit conceptual distinction between these terms. The world polity and world society describe, respectively, the state-centric and civil society dimensions of the global institutional order. After explicating key differences between the world polity and world society, the author offers suggestions for operationalizing these concepts in empirical research and considers possible avenues of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing body of evidence indicates that globalization can trigger a variety of reactions from societies. The possible outcomes include blending, hybridization, fault line formation or even an increased salience of local traditionalist value systems. An important task for the research field is developing systematic, comparative theories predicting which outcome is expected to emerge depending on the interplay between the global and the local. Drawing on the rich empirical literature on globalization variants, the article takes a further step in theory building by proposing a typology with the four possible outcomes mentioned above. To make the model premises more transparent, the authors transcribe their arguments into symbolic logic sentences and derive the typology outcomes as theorems. This allows testing if the proposed model does indeed imply the purported conclusions, and to see what consequences would, or would not, follow from a slightly modified premise set, that is, from a slightly modified globalization theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Drawing on the case of Rwanda, this article investigates why certain global norms are more likely to be ‘translated’ to national educational policies and the differential influence of inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in transmitting global norms. Qualitative analysis of national education policy documents and interviews with international development organizations reveal that global norms linked to development, Education for All (EFA), and gender equality are more amenable to ‘translation’ to the local level, while human rights norms are contested and ‘edited’ for a post-conflict context. The restricted political space for civil society constrains the ability of INGOs to openly advocate for contentious issues; thus, IGOs have more financial and normative influence on national education policies. Findings elucidate mechanisms for the adoption of global models in post-conflict settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of social class for individual participation in social movements, more specifically in street demonstrations. The authors use protest survey data in order to avoid the limitations of previous research by contextualizing the effect of social class on participation in protest. The analysis focuses on demonstrations addressing redistributive and cultural issues, reflecting a well-known distinction between old and new social movements. The authors show that participants in these two types of demonstrations, as well as in a third, mixed category, present a similar class structure, which casts some doubts on this distinction, although slight differences remain. Furthermore, a comparison of three countries that differ in terms of the strength of the class cleavage (Belgium, Sweden, and Switzerland) suggests that this cleavage acts as a moderator of the relationship between social class and participation in street demonstrations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyzes temporary migration schemes in Canada and Australia. Unlike the bulk of affluent states, both countries eschewed guestworker programs for most of the twentieth century, embracing migrants as permanent settlers and future citizens. Acting within neoliberal templates of government, political officials have recently promoted temporary migration as a mechanism of labor market regulation. While valorized workers are extended opportunities to transition to permanent status, for less-skilled workers state-imposed legal categories and regulations are being employed to attenuate attachment to the receiving society and heighten their flexibility and tractability. This research argues such trends embody and extend transformations concerning the restructuring and globalization of labor markets, the regulatory profile of states, and nature and significance of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents an update on the "International Sociology" journal as of December 1998. The scholarly criteria of the journal are very high, as befits an official organ of the most significant international association of sociologists. "International Sociology" has, furthermore, become the membership journal for all subscribed members of the International Sociological Association. With this return to its roots, "International Sociology" has become perhaps the widely diffused sociological journal. It is now read in nearly 100 countries. The journal has now reached a level of maturity that is chosen by some of the most significant sociologists as a forum for discussion. The proposal that each issue should have a cover article has gained an interest which is attested to, by the high level of the cover articles submitted for publication. The portraits of sociologists have also elicited a positive response. The journal has approached a wide range of sociological topics, that is, clinical sociology, sociology of religion, globalization, the sociology of consumers and the emotions. Articles covering sociology from Eastern Europe, Russia, Greece, the Middle East, East Asia, among others have also been published. There has been a welcome increase in the number of subscribers to the journal in the last two years as well as a steady increase in the number of papers submitted for publication to the journal.

This article tries to answer two questions: Why has Japanese sociology been so little known in the world? How do we internationalize Japanese sociology? The first point which this article raises is that Japan and Japanese sociology tend to presuppose two dichotomies: premodern–modern and particularism–universalism. Therefore Japan and Japanese sociology tend to understand Japan as unique and deviating from the West. The second point this article deals with is that Japanese sociologists are doing ‘homolingual address’ rather than ‘heterolingual address’. The article shows that reflexive endless translation is necessary for all of us, not only for Japanese sociologists but also sociologists all over the world. In this context, the article stresses the importance of Gerard Delanty’s analysis of the relationship between cultural translation and modernity. His analysis can explain how modernity becomes a form of culture and the West will lose its monopoly of universality. The last part of this article shows that sociology in Japan is intensifying the internationalization of its products, especially since the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Foreign language proficiency in general and proficiency in the world’s most widely spoken language, English, are central resources to participate in the globalisation process. Drawing on a survey conducted in 27 European countries the article attempts to explain the huge differences in English proficiency that exist between and within countries. The author presents a general explanatory model for foreign language proficiency, creates hypotheses from this model and tests them empirically by using multilevel techniques. The findings show that the prevalence of a respondent’s native language, the linguistic difference between one’s mother tongue and English, and age affect language acquisition negatively, whereas a country’s level of education has a positive influence. Using Bourdieu’s theory of social class, the author shows that besides other factors a respondent’s social class position and the level of education are important micro-level factors that help to increase a person’s transnational linguistic capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrespective of long-ongoing processes of secularization in all fields of public and private life, the principle of secularity continues to be highly contested in the Arab Middle East. The reasons are both cultural and political. In the age of colonialism followed by authoritarianism and accelerated globalization, Islamists were able to project themselves as defenders of popular rights against foreign domination and despotic rule, and to mobilize broad sections of the populace in the name of religion (i.e. Islam). In the Arab Middle East as in other parts of the Muslim world, it is not so much the relation between ‘state’ and ‘church’ that shapes the configuration of secularity, but rather the relation between the ordre public and Sharia, or ‘Islamic references’ more generally. By putting the debate into a broader historical framework this article also contributes to the debates on multiple modernities and multiple secularities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographic research of Japanese expatriate families in Los Angeles, this article explores how Japanese expatriate mothers, in dealing with globalization and transnational migration, develop transnational habitus and education strategies. These mothers attempt to assure their children’s successful reintegration into the competitive Japanese education system that is increasingly concerned with raising globally oriented, cosmopolitan Japanese children. Drawing on a transnational perspective, this case study illustrates how the global economy increasingly offers chances to live abroad, which in turn offer opportunities for families to cultivate their children’s academic proficiency, transnational competencies, and various cultural skills. Yet, this article also reveals a cost of such activities, namely the emotional burdens of the mothers, which derive from their increasing engagement in intensive mothering and identity management in a transnational social field. The findings suggest the importance of studying the intersections between globalization and women’s construction of race, ethnicity, gender, and emotion by focusing on their embeddedness in multiple sociocultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines globalized knowledge flows through a case study of the treatment of the Chinese concept of guanxi in social and management science journals. Three forms of concept–theory relations are postulated which effectively correspond with different patterns of knowledge flow. The treatment of this concept in 214 refereed journal articles published from 1999 to 2009 indicates that the concept guanxi, which possesses capacity for theoretical development, is predominantly treated merely as an object of study rather than the basis of theoretical elaboration. A continuing dominant pattern of knowledge flows from the metropole to the periphery is thus indicated. The mechanisms of continuing asymmetrical knowledge flow are discussed, including language used, site of publication, channel of transmission and method as factors generating this outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article bridges two important approaches in the study of global trade – social network analysis and the gravity model – and examines how countries’ structural locations in the global trade network influence bilateral trade from 1948 through 2000. The authors identify a cohesion effect of structural equivalence (the degree to which two nodes have similar ties with other nodes in the network) in global trade: two structurally equivalent countries develop more bilateral trade even after controlling for conventional dyadic factors. This is because common trading ties with other countries promote similar sociocultural values, information flows, and converging institutions, thereby boosting bilateral trade. The authors further demonstrate that the cohesion-generating role of structural equivalence has become more salient over time in the increasingly complex global trade network. Overall, this study shows that bilateral trade is embedded within the structural context of the overall global trade network, and this structural effect is historically contingent on the evolving nature of global economic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A recent movement has extended previous emphases on the rights of national citizens by asserting the global human rights of all persons. This article describes the extent to which this change is reflected in the language of national constitutions around the world. Human rights language – formerly absent from almost all constitutions – now appears in most of them. Rather than characterizing developed or democratic states, human rights language is, first, especially common in countries most susceptible to global influences. Second, human rights language is driven by the extent of the international human rights regime at the time of a constitution’s writing. Third, human rights language tends to appear in newer constitutions and in the constitutions of emergent and reorganized states. National constitutions are imprinted with global social conditions, which now stress the discourse of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines to what extent there is a trend towards increasing labour market flexibility among Dutch school-leavers between 1992 and 2007, particularly among less educated ones. In addition, the article aims to explain this trend and increasing educational differences by economic globalization, controlled for business cycle effects. Multinomial logistic regression models are estimated using 16 cross-sections of the Dutch Labour Force Survey (1992–2007), including 16,447 labour market entrants. The results show that there is an increase in the likelihood of flexible employment between 1992 and 2007, which implies less standard employment, particularly among less educated individuals, and less unemployment, particularly among higher educated individuals. The less educated are hence doubly disadvantaged by the process of labour market flexibilization. It appears that economic globalization provides an explanation for these findings, except for the increasing educational differences in flexible employment compared to unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on an analysis of negotiations between the Colombian government and international donors over Colombia’s Poverty and Inequality Reduction Strategy, this article describes the normative, institutional and technical patterns that configure a political governance structure within the international cooperation and development system. The article argues that this structure works as an interface that integrates global governance processes aimed at the regulation of global risks (e.g. poverty and inequality) into national political systems in aid-receiving countries. This case study suggests that the shape of this governance structure leads to a form of ‘agreed violation’ of sovereignty that can be defined and analysed as an instance of the ‘emergent formations of multi-scalar globalization’, to which the sociology of globalization refers. However, this interpretation necessitates a fine-tuning of the sociology of globalization’s understanding of governance, which is discussed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on cosmopolitanism as an object of sociological analysis, through an empirical study of Canadian development workers who were posted in Pakistan for extended periods of time and have subsequently resumed their lives in Canada. These global migrants developed various attachments to Pakistani culture and people through their transnational experiences. Employing a continuum of cosmopolitanism, the article describes these attachments, which, it argues, form the basis of a tentative and ambivalent culture of cosmopolitanism as it is lived by these development workers on their return to Canada. The study’s aim is to clarify the concept of cosmopolitanism by documenting the emergence of a new sociality characterized by global connectivities that engender justice-oriented alliances and solidarities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Growing similarity of development assistance policy and reference to emerging global consensus on development issues has been a striking trend in the foreign aid community in recent years. This article uses event history techniques to undertake an exploratory analysis and test world polity effects on the spread of gender and development policies and institutional structures among 22 aid donors of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee from 1968 through 2003. Findings point to the influence of other donors, international civil society, international treaties and conferences as strong determinants of the homogenization of development assistance policy and the adoption of gender policies by donor organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Are globalized social interactions accompanied by homogeneous or heterogeneous institutions? Which social factors are at work in each case? As an investigation of this cultural-institutional aspect of globalization, this article reflects on relationships between traditional-alternative medicine (TAM) and western-allopathic medicine (WAM) through a quantitative cross-national analysis. First, it is found that the global scene of medical institutional developments is characterized by institutional heterogeneity in which locally diverse TAMs develop simultaneously with WAM. This co-development relationship supports the heterogeneity thesis over the homogeneity thesis regarding the global character of national institutional developments. Second, this heterogeneous institutional arrangement is found to be stronger with a rising mortality burden. Third, this medical institutional heterogeneity is yet open to an antithetical development toward homogenization, depending on the extent to which the world polity pressure for WAM develops. However, the authors suggest a qualification of any notion of the unconditional significance of the world polity’s homogenizing force. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The goal of this article is to highlight the major trends in the establishment of public libraries in developing countries under conditions of globalization. Based on a review of research from library history and the sociology of culture, the author develops hypotheses about the conditions under which public libraries are likely to be established in relatively large numbers in developing countries. Analysis of historical trends in library establishments and crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis of UNESCO data on public libraries in six developing nations reveal that globalization is associated with decreasing or flat numbers of public libraries on a per capita basis. The only observed exceptions are Malaysia and Chile, where public libraries have been established in large numbers partly for purposes of national integration as a counter to sectarian and ethnic heterogeneity. Implications of these findings for research in the information society paradigm, and for development theory, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article deals with the position of the Southern sociologies within the discipline. The role and presence of local, national and regional scholarly communities has been widely reflected on in the context of the discussion around internationalization or globalization of the discipline. Thus, a variety of critiques of ‘Eurocentrism’, or more precisely, ‘North Atlantic domination’, have arisen in recent years that can be strengthened by empirical evidence of strong inequalities and distorted communication mechanisms within sociology at an international level. What has been largely missing so far is the demonstration of viable alternatives to North Atlantic domination, as well as enquiries into the conditions of their emergence. This article offers a different perspective by highlighting counterhegemonic currents emerging out of the South despite the peripheral position, i.e. by drawing attention towards challenging scholarly communities and their output that have not received much, if any, attention in the discussions so far. [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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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 explores the relationship between the ethnic identifies of migrants from India in Hong Kong and their attempts to attain economic and social goals. It argues that Indians did not just adopt the characteristics of the British and Chinese majorities who controlled important access to resources. Rather, Indians sought to negotiate their positions in networks with majorities through constructing ethnic identities as cultural capital combining characteristics rooted in several regions. This allowed them to advertise knowledge, skills and connections that other members of Hong Kong society did not necessarily share. Constructions of transregional identities are examined with the examples of Parsis, Jam diamond merchants and Sikh policemen. Distinguishing between essential and relational conceptualizations of ethnic identifies yields four different scenarios of how ethnic identities were constructed in the context of globalization, taking into account power relations between majorities and minorities. They are: high essential-high relational; high essential-medium relational; high essential-low relational; and medium essential-medium relational formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World culture, while a core issue for comparative sociology and an influential institution worldwide, is an illusive notion: it is difficult to imagine what norms, values and symbols unite us the world over. Still, some international organizational sites offer a glimpse into world culture; one such site is that of the United Nations' dedication work. Since 1949, the United Nations has expressed commitment to some 125 issues by making formal dedications of decades, years, weeks and days as celebrations, commemorations and focal points for work on the promotion of certain issues; through this work the UN declares these issues to be important for us to promote, protect and cherish. This article (1) traces the bureaucratic history of this UN work and (2) lists the issues that are marked as worthy of international appreciation. In so doing, the article (1) traces the institutionalization of this international cultural site and (2) draws a picture of world culture since 1949. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research evaluates the empirical evidence of an emerging transnational corporate community over the past 25 years. In a study of the Fortune Global 500 between 1983 and 1998, we find a significant increase in the total number of interlocking directorates and even greater growth in transnational interlocks. This growth is predominantly among firms within the European Community and between finns in Europe and the US. There has also been a dramatic growth in domestic interlocks in certain European states. These findings suggest that there is, indeed, an emerging transnational business community. [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.)

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.)

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.)