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The analysis in this paper reveals that on the individual level, the institutional framework continues to exert a profound impact on social organizations' forms and civic engagement in China. The CGSS2012-based analysis leads to the following findings. For a start, political party members and danwei employees demonstrate a higher degree of social organizational involvement and civic engagement. In the meanwhile, the party members' role in promoting civic engagement is achieved to some extent through mediating effect of social organizations. Next, various types of social organizations have significantly increased civic engagement on a practical level. Finally, income plays a large role to increase the individuals' organizational involvement, albeit with no obvious influence on civic engagement in practice. These findings are significant in the following ways. First, from an empirical perspective, the current institutional design for social organizations to participate in social governance has delivered the expected results. Second, it confirmed the existence of activists with distinct features in social life as well as the integration of multiple governing networks in social space at grassroots level. Third, in theory, this paper noted that apart from institutional environment of technical governance by bureaucratic government, institutional framework constitutes an important institutional foundation for the development of social organizations, giving rise to the need of further discussions about the interaction mechanism between political parties and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the discourse and practice of "lying flat" (tang ping) among Chinese youths. It offers a comprehensive analysis of their collective resistance against the overwork and the competitive pressures in their career. From the perspectives of cultural, economic, and social capital, the "lying flat" among contemporary Chinese youths could be divided into three modes. The first mode, referred to as the FIRE mode (Financial Independence, Retire Early movement), predominantly represents the elite youths, who have ample cultural, economic, and social capital, and actively express ideas of "lying flat" online. Meanwhile, they strategize a plan for FIRE. However, their dreams are blocked by competition in the workplace. The second mode is the lifestyle of NEET youth, which is primarily a semi-autonomous choice made by urban youths with family resources. NEET youths find themselves unable to meet the requirements of the fast-paced, high-demand post-industrial career. Thus, they choose to stay at home, which known as "gnaw the old" (ken lao). Although they may not orally express ''lying flat", they actually practice it. The third mode, known as the "Sanhe Gods" (san he da shen) type, corresponds to the daily laborers. These young individuals who are migrating from rural areas to urban, lack resources and hope for the future. Systemically marginalized by the urban areas, they are typically the grassroots class in society and take "lying flat" as a way of resistance. In summary, the discourse and practice of "lying flat" hold multifaceted significance. On one hand, it serves as a counterpoint to the work ethics supported by neoliberalism. Diverse forms of "lying flat" are social-stratified responses to oppose the intense competition in modern work environments. On the other hand, the stratification of "lying flat" practices mirrors the younger generation's struggle against the imbalances of the social structure. It reflects their actions against inequality through refusal and non-cooperation toward current work ethics, fostering the emergence of new work ethics and a new paradigm of social integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bibliometric analysis is applied in this research to evaluate the trends of social organization research between 1994 and 2014 in published Chinese literature of all subject categories from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database. Document types, publication patterns, subject categories, journal articles, top cited papers, and long-term distribution of keyword networks are thoroughly examined. Bibliographic information is used to summarize the overall research trends, themes, and academic trajectorys of this research area. The study indicates that over the past 20 years, the development of China’s social organization research has four stages. In addition, both theoretical and practical explorations of China’s social organization research are growing progressively with a shift of research focus from Westernization to localization, from civil society to public service, and from small independent researchers to a discourse system of significant scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employed the multi-case study method to explore the interactions between nonprofit support organizations (NSOs): NPI and three practical nonprofit organizations (NPOs) (X, Y, Z), which is incubated by NPI. By applying the analytical framework of collaborative governance, this paper indicates that a well-developed interactive relationship exists between these two organizations, on basis of equality and voluntary. Meanwhile, they shared a mutual goal and maintain an effective interaction. Consequently, it stimulates the building of collaborative network among social organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinweizu's wide-ranging and copious intellectual output persistently brings into sharp focus penetrating analysis of Asia's contemporary rise (read in Chinweizuan terms as autonomous modernization and industrialization) in juxtaposition to Africa's de-industrialization and with it her firm rootedness at the periphery of global power. "Africa's Staticity-Asia's Rise" is a binary that bothers Chinweizu to no end. In two key works presented in Accra and Abuja respectively (Chinweizu, 2010a; 2010b) he tries to find answers. The two papers throw up in my view, a few strategic questions : i. how should Africa relate to a rising Asia in contemporary times? ii. What will it take in real terms for Chinweizu's Black Superpower to emerge if the Asian example is a compelling one? iii. Is industrialization an existential necessity for Africa? iv. What kind of political, economic and social structures are required for a Black Superpower to emerge to command the respect of the world like Japan, Korea or China? This article will critically engage with these two works in order to attempt to respond to these strategic questions in the hope that it will aid in sharpening the theoretical underpinnings and practical processes for building the Chinweizuan Black Superpower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sunnis in Iran are among the Muslim minorities with a specific internal, political, and social structure and relations. They play a significant role in Iran's foreign and domestic policy. Many researchers have considered a link between the name of Iran and Shiism as well as the relations established by Shia groups in the Middle East. The paper aimed to examines and identify the internal relations and structure of Sunnis based on the characteristics of reform movements by focusing on Sunnis as a reformist social movement. This study identifying the internal structure and international interactions of the Sunnis in Iran based on two different political perspectives governing this minority. In addition, this paper considered the political orientation of the Sunni minority in Iran as an inclusive social movement and a social sub movement. As the Sunnis in Iran may represent an inclusive socio-religious movement with some radical tendencies, they can also be considered and analysed as a sub-movement related to the larger pro-democracy movement, due to their civic demands on the Shia regime ruling Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigerian urban centers, especially the socially disadvantaged neighborhoods (SDNs), like other disadvantaged communities across Africa, are increasingly becoming breeding grounds for youth violence and Armed Non-State Actors (ANSAs). The increasing waves of violence in socially disadvantaged communities in Nigeria and the inability of security apparatus to curtail them, suggests a 'nation' bewildered and a comatose state. This article attempts to dissect the root causes of youth violence in socially disadvantaged urban areas of Nigeria using relevant sociological theories. The paper subjects the current waves of youth violence across ethnic cleavages in Nigeria to a more nuanced and pragmatic analysis in order to dissect and unravel the socio-structural and political factors responsible. The paper argues that the inherent social structural maladies embedded in socially disadvantaged communities appear to have provided an impetus for youth violence and the emergence of ANSAs in Nigeria. These social structural maladies are captured within the context of social disorganization, relative deprivation, and broken windows theories. The assumptions of these theories provide insights into understanding the predisposing and enabling factors to youth violence and the emergence of ANSAs in socially disadvantaged communities in Nigeria and beyond. They also provide fundamental policy and research options to nip the contours of violence in socially disadvantaged environments in Nigeria and beyond in the bud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the cultural turn, there has been a gradual shift in the theorization of African religions, from the static structural-functionalist oriented models, towards the insertion of agency. This new approach foregrounds the intentional actions of individuals, or collective actors, to create meaning when confronted with external cultural ideas. The African, therefore, is treated as an active agent capable of manipulating and inventing new religious possibilities, rather than being a puppet of a rigid social structure. This paper is cast in this mould. It examines the agentic role played by the Pokot as they navigated the cultural challenges presented to them by western Christianity during the British colonial rule in Kenya. However, because the agentic power to authorize meaning is never uniformly distributed in any society, this article highlights the central role played by Lukas Pkech in mediating the cultural conflict between the indigenous Pokot religion and western Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholarly works aim to identify and explain the continued survival of pre-Islamic social phenomena and institutions deep into the Islamic age. To understand the historical roots of Iranian social issues more profoundly and accurately, it seems necessary to examine the social structure and institutions of the Sasanian era. Such a study enables us to trace their subsequent development and identify the ways in which they transformed. This paper attempts to clarify the purpose and practice of divorce in late Antique Iran, by reconstructing the rationale for and procedure of divorce in Sasanian society based on extant legal cases using a socio-historical approach. It also tries to show the different types of divorce in Sasanian and post-Sasanian sources, emphasizing the controversy and contradictions among Zoroastrian jurisconsults and legal texts to identify different legally-sanctioned perspectives regarding divorce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper attempts to discuss the image of women in the Acts of Thomas against the wider theoretical background of temporality as it was perceived and construed through the text. More specifically, I will focus on how notions of time that emerged in the early centuries of the Christian era proved to be a key factor in shaping women's agency as this is reflected in the apocryphal Acts. The nexus between time and the construction of the feminine in the Acts of Thomas emerges as being particularly interesting because it sheds light on many relevant questions in early Christianity, such as chastity, asceticism, reconfiguration of family ties, social norms, and roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kalmyks have lived in southwest Russia for about four centuries. Whilst cultural assimilation with neighbouring peoples has been an ongoing process since the Kalmyks first settled in the lower Volga from 1630, the twentieth century, which saw the rise and fall of several political regimes in Russia, was the most dramatic period in the group's history in that it had a deep impact not only on their social structure, religion, and way of life but also on their identity. Subjected to various political ideologies, not to mention punitive mass deportation to Siberia and Central Asia from 1943 to 1956, the Kalmyks had to constantly negotiate their identity not only with the Tsarist/Soviet/Russian state but also among themselves. Whilst today's self-narratives of Kalmyk ethnic identity are inextricably linked to the discourse of post-Soviet cultural revival, in order to explain the fluidity and dynamics of Kalmyk identity this paper takes a comprehensive approach to the history of the Kalmyk people since their first settlement on the lower Volga. Ethnic identity and its development are narrated chronologically, taking into account social structure, religion, historiography, and popular concepts to which the Kalmyks have been subjected, and which they have embraced, in the course of their history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, focused on the Persian Gobryas, the head of Patischorian tribe and a member of the mysterious circle bringing Darius I (the Great) to the throne called the "Seven" by Herodotus, aims to argue that the concept of seven families was originally derived from the tribal structure of the Achaemenid society rather than from traditions found in classical writers. Mainly based on the administrative Elamite texts from Persepolis, the paper attempts to add contextual and practical detail to the classical narrative about the status of the "Seven" in the Achaemenid imperial system. This data leads us to the Fahliyān region in southwestern Persia as the house of the Patischorians and shows how Gobryas and his house were involved in the political, economic and administrative structures of the Persian Achaemenid Empire especially during the reign of Darius. The case also provides a valuable context for the study of various aspects of social organization particularly the land tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a one-year service-learning project that excited students about sociology, and created useful analytic tools fir a modest-income African American community. In the course of deepening our understanding of one neighborhood including collecting extant demographic data, conducting surveys and interviews, site visits, and simply "hanging out," - it becomes possible to demonstrate how using formal demography and community ethnography together provide better understandings of the processes of social stratification, segregation, arid gentrification than would be possible using only one of the methodological orientations. The paper begins with an introduction theoretical and didactic challenges, proceeds in describing Lynwood Park demographically using insights derived from qualitative evidence, and then describes our eclectic means of investigating the community. The second half of the paper situates Lynwood Park demographically and ethnographically in terms of the larger Atlanta community, and then in increasingly smaller and more socially meaningful units. once we focus the demographic lens as much as possible, we must again rely on qualitative information to probe the multiple meanings of Lynwood Park. The paper closes with recommendations about how the people of Lynwood Park can use the data, and suggests how these technique can he implemented theoretically and practically in sociology as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to help correct a certain imbalance in the sociological literature on Calvinism and its derivations like Puritanism, neo-Calvinism, etc. This is the literature's centering on Calvinism's various social consequences and decentering on its own origins and conditions in society. As a corrective to this asymmetry in the literature, the paper assumes and explores the societal roots and factors of the emergence and early development and expansion of Calvinism. This is done on the grounds that the analysis of the societal determination, i.e., the point of origin of Calvinism, like other religion and ideology, is equally and even more important than that of its social effects or destination. In formal terms, the paper considers Calvinism to be a dependent variable, function of certain societal determinants and settings as the explanatory factor, thus correcting the prevalent treatment of it as the independent variable in the sociological literature. In so doing it adopts and applies the main premises and findings of the sociology of religion and knowledge to Calvinism. Its aim is to contribute to a more complete sociology of the Calvinist religion that explores both its social conditions and its social consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working children are commonly not considered as active political subjects. Yet, many of them have organised themselves as local groups that cooperate across borders. As a transnational network, they advocate for a right to work and political participation. In ir, these actors were accurately analysed as 'governed' actors proactively engaging in (inter-)national norm dynamics. Yet, their situatedness in local and global power relations (shaped by colonialism) remains understudied. Analysing how working children in Bolivia discursively shape their subjectivity in such hierarchical processes, it is argued that their norm engagement is intertwined with how they are situated in this context. Looking beyond proactive norm engagement, the paper argues for a broader conceptual understanding of the 'agency of the governed' in norm dynamics emerging in narrative practices. Special emphasis is placed on how working children in Bolivia (re)create their subjectivity through everyday practices interacting with institutional, material, and social structures which in turn are embedded within broader narrative frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the overview concerning debates on bourgeois revolutions is impressive, it cannot elucidate the theoretical concept of bourgeois revolutions. Neil Davidson's own suggestion centres on the removal of hindrances to the breakthrough of capitalism, especially the pre-capitalist state. This formalistic definition is based on the assumption that revolutions occurred when the superstructure became a hindrance to the further development of productive forces. It deprives the theoretical concept of bourgeois revolutions of any concrete historical content. This paper suggests restricting the use of the theoretical concept 'bourgeois revolution' to those revolutionary changes of domination and appropriation which occurred in European societies of the ancien régime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at highlighting a methodological flaw in current biblical archaeology, which became apparent as a result of recent research in the Aravah's Iron Age copper production centers. In essence, this flaw, which cuts across all schools of biblical archaeology, is the prevailing, overly simplistic approach applied to the identification and interpretation of nomadic elements in biblical-era societies. These elements have typically been described as representing only one form of social organization, which is simple and almost negligible in historical reconstructions. However, the unique case of the Aravah demonstrates that the role of nomads in shaping the history of the southern Levant has been underestimated and downplayed in the research of the region, and that the total reliance on stone-built archaeological features in the identification of social complexity in the vast majority of recent studies has resulted in skewed historical reconstructions. Recognizing this "architectural bias" and understanding its sources have important implications on core issues in biblical archaeology today, as both "minimalists" and "maximalists" have been using stone-built architectural remains as the key to solving debated issues related to the geneses of Ancient Israel and neighboring polities (e.g., "high" vs. "low" Iron Age chronologies), in which— according to both biblical accounts and external sources—nomadic elements played a major role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The groups known as tsho-ba in Tibetan are both historically and ethnographically significant for their central role in local social organisation across large stretches of the eastern Himalayan Plateau. Available scholarly descriptions, however, remain both terse and discrepant. To remedy this situation, this article presents a diachronic picture of these groups in the Reb-gong region of eastern Qinghai, People's Republic of China. Its analysis highlights an important historical shift in the constitution of these units, which often seem to have arisen as individual hamlets yet shed their territorialised identities over time. These findings, as a comparative discussion illustrates, markedly benefit our cross-regional understanding of tsho-ba , which in turn yields an instructive etymology of the term tsho-ba itself. Lastly, the paper addresses the forwarded historical hypothesis that these groups are the remnants of an older but now defunct clan system—a notion it argues must be rejected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utopian and dystopian writing does not generally belong to the established canon of Modern Arabic prose, which is largely founded upon realism. However, utopian elements appear with relative frequency in the Nahḍawī literary output, as testified by early texts such as Faransīs Marāš' Ġābat al-Ḥaqq , Faraḥ Anṭūn's al-Dīn wa-l-ʿilm wa-l-māl and Muṣṭafà Luṭfī al-Manfalūṭī's Madīnat al-Saʿādah. Utopian concepts in these and other similar works are deployed to introduce ideas and debates of modernity to their Arab readers, in a context where entrenched views on how social life should be organized were under deep scrutiny. Utopian writing is concerned with debating and challenging social organizations. While it is sometimes regarded as typical of a Western Modern "critical" tradition of thought, in which it came to be codified into a specific literary genre, most of its features appear in pre-modern literatures as well. This is particularly unsurprising in Islamicate contexts, whose literature and philosophy have been in continuous mutual exchange with the "West" and share with it both Classical (Hellenic) and Abrahamic foundations. I argue that, in the Nahḍah context, utopian writing could have provided an instrument to convey selected "modern" ideas and writing styles while consciously melding them with the local Arabic traditions. This paper analyzes Manfalūṭī's short story Madīnat al-Saʿādah (The City of Happiness), one of the earliest examples of Nahḍawī utopian writing by a Muslim writer. I show that in displaying, as already known, marked references to the Classical Arabic literary tradition, while incorporating, engaging, and selectively suggesting several ideas central to Western discussions on modernity, this short story exemplifies the richness of Nahḍawī reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the second from the "Salon Series on the Creation of Legislation on the Right of Association and Social Organizations". This was a series of salons jointly hosted by Tsinghua University's NGO Research Center, the Philanthropy and NGO Support Center, and the editorial office of the China Nonprofit Review. The formulation of a basic law on social organizations is an important issue for China's social sector, and particularly for the social organization sector. It is also one of the conditions necessary for a transformation in the way social organizations are managed, from the current form of governance, which is achieved through administrative regulations, to management by 'rule of law' in the truest sense. Recently, in academic circles, many different lines of thought have developed about the formulation of a basic law for social organizations, including the argument for 'governance through administrative law', which adopts a public law perspective; the argument for 'special civil laws', which approaches the question from the perspective of private law; and the argument for a 'combination of legal forms'. This paper explores the content of a basic law, as well as the objectives, nature of and skills involved in formulating such a law. It examines the necessity and feasibility of creating such legislation, and the key ideas that need to be transformed during the legislative process. At the same time, the paper considers the differences between this and the thinking behind other legislation such as the charity law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the processes taking place in the formation of a Kazakh bureaucratic elite and its integration into the Russian imperial system of administration. It developed due to certain changes in the social structure of Kazakh society during the second half of the 19th-early 20th centuries. As a new class of Kazakh officials was created, most of them became faithful executors of Russian imperial policies in the steppe. The state encouraged the activities of all kinds of Kazakh officials with awards commensurate to their rank. However, only a few of these Kazakh officials had high-achieving careers. The analysis here focuses on the biographies of the sultans Ghazi (Ghazy) Bulatovich Valikhanov, and Ish Muhamed Suyuk-ogly Abylaikhanov, which illustrate the predominance of those with illustrious origins being among the prominent Kazakh employees of that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adds a comparative perspective to the study of taste, cosmopolitanism and social organisation. Drawing on material provided by two similar projects in the UK and Finland it explores the relationships between national and cosmopolitan taste cultures. Whilst there have been some recent attempts to study taste in a comparative perspective, the weight of sociological inquiry into taste is focussed on specific national spaces, including the France of Bourdieu's (1984) seminal contribution. This tendency persists even as the production and circulation of culture is increasingly accepted as global. Global culture is assumed to be the driver of cosmopolitan ways of being, but is also interpreted as a threat to distinct national cultures. Studies of taste provide an empirical setting where the lived experience of global culture and the ambiguities of cosmopolitanism can be observed. Based on interviews and focus group discussions from the UK and Finland, the paper broadly concurs with those critics who see cosmopolitanism in the context of the maintenance of privileged political or symbolic positions of classes/status groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The concept of the indigenous person or group in Africa is a contentious one. The current argument is that there exist no indigenous people in Africa because all Africans are indigenous. The obverse considers those Africans who have not been touched by colonialism and lost their pre-nation state social structures commensurate with attachments to the lands or a distinguishable lifestyle to be indigenous. This paper argues in favour of the latter. People who live in the global telos and do not participate in a distinct social structure that has been attached to the land before the advent of nation-states are not indigenous. It is argued that this cultural divergence between global consumerism and indigenous pre-nation state social structures is the major identifying point to settle the indigenous/non indigenous African debate. Finally, the paper looks at inclusive development and provides a new political analysis model for quantifying inclusivity so as to measure the inclusivity of indigenous peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the theoretical rationale and research design of an ongoing study of social structure and personality in transitional urban China. The study is designed to be precisely comparable to recent studies in Poland and Ukraine during the early stages of their transformation from socialism to nascent capitalism, as well as to earlier studies of the United States, Poland when it was socialist, and Japan during more stable times. The paper also presents evidence that the dimensions of personality measured in the previous studies, and the questions used to measure those dimensions, are as appropriate for a study of urban China as they were to studies of the United States, Poland, Japan, and Ukraine, during times both of relative social stability and of radical social change; moreover, these measures of personality are essentially invariant for Chinese cities of differing degrees of wealth and privatization, and for both genders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and the social context of Instruction were often discussed in the scholarship. Its relatively high number of copies that have been found in Qumran, and a series of shared literary, linguistic and ideological similarities to compositions often closely associated with the Qumran movement led scholars to debate the attribution of Instruction to this group of texts. This paper argues that the pericope in 4Q418 frg. 81, which uses extensively priestly language and metaphors, reflects similar social context and structure as the Community Rule, and therefore Instruction should be placed among the writings of the community. I will use two-stage analysis of the pericope, which will offer insight on the identity of the addressee, and try to bring some fresh insights on the literary unity of the composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many social animals have cultural traditions that may shape their societies while the social structure can in turn influence how the culture is acquired. Killer whales possess culturally transmitted dialects. The divergence of dialects was thought to occur simultaneously and consistently with the gradual fission of matrilines. In this paper we compare the social associations across matrilineal units, Bayesian phylogeny of dialects and similarity of particular syllables to test whether dialects affect social structure and whether associations or common origin define similarity of call types. We found that neither phylogeny of dialects nor similarity of syllables was correlated to associations between matrilineal units, but similarity of syllables was correlated to phylogeny of dialects for four of the six syllables analysed. The complexity and fluidity of social ties between matrilineal units and the variation in cultural transmission patterns produce a complex relationship between the social network and the socially learned vocalizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The explanation of 1 Cor 11:14-37, that Corinthian meal practice involved either peer benefaction (wealthy members providing the meal), or eranistic practices (members each contributing differing amounts and qualities of food), and the late arrival of the poorer members, is flawed in several respects. This paper uses data from Graeco-Roman associations to show that association meals were rarely funded by endowments or peer benefaction on a continuing basis, and there is no evidence of eranistic practices. The idea that poorer members typically arrived late at meals is based on anachronistic views of the structure of labor and on ambiguities in translations of πρoλαμβάυειυ in 11:21. The disturbances at the communal meal, like those typical of association meals, likely involved competitive behavior that used differential allotments of food to assert status and privilege. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's participation in the First Intifada allowed for increased gender equality in Palestine. However, the weakness of the Palestinian Authority, established by the Oslo Accords, created space for non-state actors (dominated by the Islamist political organization Hamas) to emerge and gain popularity. Likewise, during the post-Oslo period conservative positions on gender resurged. This paper re-examines the structural factors that facilitated increased gender inequality and argues that the nature of the occupation itself serves as the greatest force for gender inequality in Palestine. To develop and test our theory, we draw on original, large-nsurvey data and in-depth interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines how the value of choice account is supposed to explain the significance of choice in the justification of moral principles and social institutions and policies, responding to some questions and objections raised by Serena Olsaretti. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was in the days when European society was in the throes of expanding industrial capitalism that Abraham Kuyper formulated his basic ideas about the pitfalls of the free enterprise system and the need for a structural make-over of society. Already two decades before his mature address of 1891 on the social question, he urged the church to concern herself seriously with the plight of the working classes. In 1874 he railed against "fictitious trade" and mere "paper assets." In an extensive commentary on his political party's program (1878/79) he repeated his fundamental objection to the "fictitious expansion of capital", calling for legislation to curb such excesses and to create a better balance in incomes between the different classes making up society. He argued for equity and justice rather than charity and philanthropy, and for wages and salaries proportional to effort, skill and education. Yet while the gap between rich and poor cried out to heaven, the first step toward solving the social question, according to the youthful Kuyper, was not to focus on the poor but to provide employment opportunities so that the able and willing workingman could earn a living wage. He proposed raising import duties and protective tariffs, replacing taxes on necessaries with taxes on luxuries, abolishing government-run lotteries, and lifting the ban on organizing trade-unions. To achieve these reforms, it was essential that the lower classes be given greater representation in parliament and that selfish greed make way for neighbourly love and mutual solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how the American planning for the war in Iraq of 2003 lacked the use of major academic and scientific disciplines. Some basic theories and principles in the field of nationalism and ethnicity studies as well as the field of Middle Eastern studies were supposed to guide the planning for the post-war era in a better way. The goals of the war were originally very ambitious and included 'conflict transformation' which implies facilitating changes in the social and political structure of Iraq and the Middle East, but it has now changed to the more modest goal of 'conflict management' which focuses on containing violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is divided into two sections. The first section presents a concise survey of the intellectual itinerary of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in the French intellectual field. Then, after a short presentation of Bourdieu's The Social Structures of the Economy, I proceed to a broader discussion of his economic sociology. After a presentation of Bourdieu's key conceptual contributions, I question some aspects of Bourdieusian sociology with regard to its ambition of historicising the 'economic field'. I identify the limitations of this historicising project in the extension of the metaphor of the market to virtually all fields of human activities and in a concept of capital which fails to grasp a social relation specific to the historical development of capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the nineteenth century descriptive literatures on Zanzibar by authors such as Sir Richard Burton and Charles Guillain, and Salima bint Said-Ruete's autobiography, we can draw a rather detailed picture of the relationship between the different social layers, cultures and genders on Zanzibar. Describing and differentiating the complexity of Zanzibar society in the nineteenth century is the main aim of this paper. The focus is on clothing in order to sketch the social organization of the society and to highlight the cultural relations between the different groups in Zanzibar. The evidence obtained from the description of clothing is used as an eye-opener for the Zanzibar society and this evidence is supported by nineteenth century literature and photography on Zanzibar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationships of social structure and personality during a period of radical social change attendant on the early stages of the transformation of Ukraine from socialism to nascent capitalism. It does so by analyzing data secured from face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of urban Ukrainian men and women in 1992-93, together with a follow-up survey three to three and a half years later of all those respondents who at the time of the initial survey either were employed or were seeking paid employment. We found that the over-time correlations – the stabilities – of two underlying dimensions of personality – self-directedness of orientation and a sense of well-being or distress – were startlingly low, by comparison not only to the United States at a time of much greater social stability, but also to Poland at the same time as the Ukrainian study, albeit at a later stage of transition. The stability of a third fundamental dimension of personality – intellectual flexibility – was higher than those of self-directedness of orientation and distress, but considerably lower than past research had led us to expect. Still, despite massive changes in social and economic conditions and great instability of personality, the relationships of social structure with personality were remarkably consistent over time and, with the partial exception of those with the sense of wellbeing or distress, were quite similar to those of both socialist and advanced capitalist societies during times of apparent social stability. Our analyses suggest that consistency in the relationships between social structure and personality despite great change both in social structure and in personality results from the continued stability of proximate conditions of life that link position in the larger social structure to individual personality, and the continued strength of those linkages. Notable among these proximate conditions, for those people who were employed at the times of both the baseline and follow-up surveys, is the substantive complexity of their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are two competing orientations prevalent among social science disciplines. If one of these advocate universality, the other prefers indigeneity. But a careful analysis of even such concepts as citizenship widely believed to be of universal validity unfold, that (a) its substance varies across different polities; (b) this difference exists not only between the First, Second and Third Worlds but also among the polities within them. It has been demonstrated that the variations can be traced to the historical background, social structure and cultural patterns between polities. This has been attempted in this paper through a general comparative analysis of the three worlds and a systematic comparison of India, a multinational state and the West European countries, the cradle of nation-states. Through this comparative analysis some of the established notions in western political sociology have been interrogated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of several articles published in the volume 6 issue of the "Journal of Developing Societies." "Paradigms and Revolutions: The Societal and Statist Approaches Reconsidered," by Quee-Young Kim; "Deprivation, Mobilization and the State: A Synthetic Model of Rebellion," by Will H. Moore and Keith Jaggers; "The Social Origins of Dictatorship, Democracy and Socialist Revolution in Central America," by Jeffrey M. Paige.

The article presents abstracts of studies in comparative sociology. They include "A Case for Comparing Apples With Oranges. International Differences in Values," "History, Social Structure and Individualism. A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Japan," and "An Approach to the Study of Psychosocial Maturity. The Development of a Cross-National Scale for Adolescents."

This paper explore how history and social structure affect individualism in Japan. It integrates a variety of cross-cultural studies comparing Japan with the West whose ethological approaches vary considerably. Its historically comparisons point to many parallels between Japan and the West and reveal similar links between economic development and individualism. Sociological surveys demonstrate that similar environmental conditions, particularly environmental complexity, have similar effects in the two settings and provide evidence of growth in individualism in Japan resulting from an increase in such complexity. Anthropological and developmental psychological studies demonstrate how material behaviors reproduce cultural norms about appropriate norms about appropriate levels of group interdependence and suggest that material behaviour is becomes more individualistic in Japan, most probably as a result of changing socio-environmental conditions. Reported findings on how the institutionalization of values such as individualism or interdependence lead to such values continued acceptance provide and indication of why the values embodied in cultures and social structures often seem to change more slowly than do values of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes to determine whether social change in the six largest North Atlantic nations has followed common or separate lines of development since 1960. The finding that they exhibit far more shared than unshared trends by the principle of singularity which states that the sharing of trends by two or more national societies does not imply shared outcomes, because of differences in institutional context and other considerations. Both the convergence of trends and the divergence of outcomes are illustrated by numerous examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a paper that attempts a methodologically improved test of the hypothesis that modernization stimulates higher female crime rates, in part through its effect on gender role convergence. Cross-nationally, modernization has been conceptualized as resulting in increased female crime, in part through its supposed effect on gender role convergence. Previous research has offered only weak support for this model. Modernization has frequently been defined as a process of societal change involving increased differentiation and diversification of the social structure, a specialization of roles, a movement of the population from sparsely settled locales into cities, and a growth of per capita income. Wage work for most women is an additional burden which does not change their responsibility for domestic work. Hence any gender role convergence resulting from economic development of societies is quite likely limited to only a small segment of the female population. Thus women in both developed and underdeveloped countries are disproportionately represented in the lowest strata, a large segment of the female population has likely experienced little, then, in the way of gender equalization.

The article presents debate in the literature over the relationship between social class and values relevant to goal striving and material success in western society. The contention that success values are common to all social classes is the apparent view of many sociologists, notably R.K. Merton and T. Parsons. In his paper "Social Structure and Anomie" Merton put forward his now classic hypothesis that there is a cultural emphasis upon everyone to strive for the same high success goals; however, the paths open to individuals from the lower social strata to achieve these lofty goals, are often limited by the class structure to those of deviant behavior. Merton goes on from here to develop his theory of deviance in American society as a result of the unavailability of cultural goals through the only legitimate channels open to many members of the lowest classes. A similar standpoint regarding the consistency of success goals throughout the social strata may be found in T. Parsons. In considering the structure of complex societies he proposes that, to exist as such, societies must have a common value-system.

The article presents a comparative study of structure and change of selected small communities in India and the U.S. Three aspects of the community analyzed and compared in this study are local organizations, leadership and stratification. Selected villages in India and open country neighborhoods in the U.S. were the units in the comparative analysis. A potentially universal concept such as community may be so restricted in definition that it loses its possible generality and is applicable only to a specific time and place. Such is the case with this term when it is defined as a small closely knit locality with its own distinctive culture. This definition of community may have had some relevance for earlier days and primitive societies but it has little if any use for the modern world. The substantive focus of the article is to analyze planned change or development in selected small communities in India and the U.S. The specific problem is to delineate characteristics of social structure which distinguish the more from the less technologically developed communities.

Studies of India over the past decade have shared a sense of crisis and concern over the nation's future, which reflect a widespread doubt that any people can confront the inhibitions of tradition, the trauma of change, and the complexities of modern industrial society at one and the same time with any assurance of success. If it were merely a question of destroying the ancient regime and substituting for it a pre-fabricated and pre-tested modern nation state the task would be simple. The problems of social change are the problems of restructuring a people's activities into new patterns to meet new stresses and to pursue new goals, and the problems are intensified in an underdeveloped country such as India by a general mistrust of change, the parochial nature of its social institutions, and the highly diffuse power structure. At a number of points this paper stresses the need for considering the political system as an autonomous variable in social modernization. A corollary of this assumption, which has often been ignored, is that for the political system to operate in this fashion it must be possible for fundamental changes to take place in the power structure or the purposes of the power elite which, if not unrelated, are at least independent of social and economic revolutions.

This article analyzes briefly, two types of socio-political regimes which develop at second phase of modernization, the phase of so-called "mass modernization". This analysis will be based on the several assumptions about modernization developed in other papers--assumptions which see modernization as a process of continuous socio-demographic and structural differentiation of a growing tendency to a "mass-consensual" society--all of which create continuously new, changing problems and which pose therefore the general problem of sustained growth, of the ability to absorb such continuous changes as the major problem of modernization. It is within this broad conceptual framework that the distinction between the two phases of modernization may best be understood. These phases can be distinguished according to the two major aspects of modernization--the continuous structural differentiation, the impingement of broader groups on the center and the problems arising out of these processes on the one hand, and the ability of the centers to deal with these problems-to develop adequate institutional and symbolic arrangements on the other hand.

The article presents information on castes, outcastes and the sociology of stratification. In this paper an attempt will be made to explore in necessarily preliminary terms the reasons for the occurrence of caste structures and their most extreme manifestations, untouchable groups, in so many different places and in so many different socio-cultural contexts. Obviously, unless one is to believe in multiple cases of unique social causation, societies displaying caste characteristics may be suspected of having structural properties in common which predispose them to develop along such lines once the right combination of historical events takes place. The study of caste groups is but a particular aspect of the study of social stratification and social stratification is to be found is one form or another in almost all human societies. Outcastes are, of course, simply a variety of caste group, despite the misleading implications of the word used to designate them, their presence in a society announces that caste in one of its more rigid manifestations is to be found there. Their presence also announces in the case of Asia, that a mingling has occurred between certain indigenous social institutions of the society and what the author refers to as the 'Hindu Ethic' which have been introduced by the process of historical diffusion.

This article addresses the roles played by Masyumi political leaders in fuelling dakwah activism in Indonesia and energizing the inception and proliferation of Islamic higher education institutions before and after the political turmoil faced by the Masyumi party. Islamic politics and education in Indonesia were intermingled and utilized by Masyumi leaders to promote Islam, foster the dignity of the ummah (Muslim community), and achieve Maysumi's political vision via non-political activism. Using social-structure networks analysis, this article argues that the Masyumi networks and the spirit of Islamic modernism accelerated the spread of Islamic higher education in Indonesia, especially from 1945–1965. The Masyumi networks consisted of Muslim politicians, the intelligentsia, technocrats, noble families, and businesspeople. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the 18th National Congress Report from the Communist Party of China (CCP) on the adoption of the combined major areas of work in the country. It mentions its provision of ideas towards social development which involve structural reform, organizations as well as rights and obligations. An overview of the analysis on social growth and management innovation is also presented.

This article proposes the neo-Triple Helix model of innovation ecosystems by integrating the Triple, Quadruple and Quintuple Helix models, inspired by Lewontin's gene, organism and environment Triple Helix metaphor. The model considers innovation ecosystems evolved through interactions between 1) innovation dynamics (or innovation genes), 2) social structures and 3) the natural environment. The systems include two-layer triple helix interactions (or triads): university, industry and government at the gene level, and innovation genes, social structures and the natural environment at the system level. Innovation dynamics are conceptualised by integrating the neo-institutional and neo-evolutionary perspectives of the Triple Helix model. The dialectical relationships between innovation genes, social structures and the natural environment are primarily explained using aspects of the Quadruple and Quintuple Helix models. The neo-Triple Helix model clarifies debates on different helix innovation models, advances helical approaches through synergy building and can guide empirical research and policy design on innovation ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines three propositions, which are derived from the thesis of relational capital, particularly the relationship between social resources and occupation attained in Spain. Social networks link persons of different statuses in the social structure both directly and indirectly. These links emerge from an individual's prescribed social relations or out of those he constructs. Individuals who have greater social resources will obtain a better job than those with less social resources. Persons with better social background will have better social resources for getting a job than persons with poorer social background. The effect of social resources on the attainment of job status is greater in Spain than in other societies. Although the effect of family background on schooling is transmitted through certain interpersonal influences, those of parents, peers and teachers, the effect of family and education on occupational status attainment may be transmitted through the statuses of intermediaries.