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The proliferation of prefixes like 'neo' and 'post' that adorn conventional 'isms' has cast a long shadow on the contemporary relevance of traditional political belief systems like liberalism, conservatism, and Marxism. This paper explores how the thickening of global consciousness finds its expression in the growing capability of today's political ideologies to translate the rising global imaginary into concrete political programs and agendas. But these subjective dynamics of denationalization at the heart of globalization have not yet dispensed with the declining national imaginary. The twenty-first century promises to be a ideational interregnum in which both the global and national stimulate people's deep-seated understandings of community. The paper ends with an introduction of a new classification scheme that divides contemporary political ideologies into 'market globalism', 'justice globalism', and 'jihadist globalism'. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do extra-legal economies transform over time, and what is the role of armed conflict and 'post-conflict' intervention in this process? Far from being a collateral or temporary aspect, informal and criminal economies are deeply ingrained in the dynamics of globalisation. This paper draws on a number of cases of hybrid economic governance and of contemporary statebuilding/peacebuilding in the wider context of state deformation and formation. It adopts a political economy approach to exploring the persistence and pervasiveness of informal and criminal economic activities vis-à-vis intrusive international attempts at building a functioning market economy, and it reflects upon the implications for development and statebuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theme of "exploring the past and anticipating the future," and related questions of continuity and change in international relations draw attention to numerous pressing empirical and practical problems facing the discipline. However, in approaching these issues in the context of contemporary processes of globalization, and diverse reactions to these, such themes also require careful reflections on, and perhaps reconsiderations of, the epistemological foundations of contemporary development thought specifically, and the modern social sciences in general. Focusing on discourses of international development, at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics, this paper explores patterns of both epistemic privilege and oppression within post-World War II development theory and practice. By tracing the evolution of both dominant and oppositional approaches to development over the post-war period and drawing on crucial insights produced by past debates, as well as their limitations, valuable new insights will be gained into prospects and avenues for making dominant approaches to development and North-South relations more epistemologically democratic and reflexive. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do institutions of industry governance emerge? Predominant answers stress the generative role of market dynamics, arguing that market failures and disruptions lead firms to engage in collective action to build institutional solutions. An alternative political-institutional approach suggests that new institutions are constituted through political struggles involving multiple types of actors in an organizational field. To assess these arguments' utility for understanding how globalization generates new institutions, I examine the recent rise of systems for certifying companies to social or environmental standards. The market-based approach sheds some light on certification systems, but it cannot explain a key paradox about their emergence-namely, why non-governmental organizations and governments played such important roles in building these market institutions. By highlighting ways in which political conflicts and existing orders channel institutional entrepreneurship, the political-institutional approach explains how governance institutions can emerge even when capitalist collective action is spotty and market benefits are tenuous. While market models of institutional emergence are increasingly common in the social sciences, this paper shows that their derivative treatment of politics limits their ability to explain even a strongly market-oriented type of governance institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution we investigate the prominent role of numbers and quantitative comparisons in establishing and sustaining global governance. More particularly, taking our lead from recent studies of global governance and from Foucauldian studies of governmentality, we focus on public performance measurements. We start by very briefly reviewing the initial indications for the prominent role of performance measurement in global governance. The second section deals with the unique qualities of numbers in contrast to other media of communication like, for example, words and pictures. In analogy to claims of an "iconic difference" in picture studies we will speak of a "numerical difference". In the third section we explore how global governance is reproduced locally by performers attending to the production and circulation of performance measurements, supplementing the macrosociological view of the first two parts with a couple of micro-sociological qualifications. We conclude with several hypotheses concerning the effectiveness of governing by numbers in different social settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this exploratory paper is to assess the concept and practice of the short-term programs abroad in the US business schools. The paper addresses the following questions: What do US companies need to operate successfully in a global economy? How is academia addressing these business needs? What is the role of study-abroad programs? The paper uses a case study of short programs abroad offered between 2004 and 2006 at Argosy University/Sarasota. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to assess how networks have been conceptualized and studied within a select cross-section of the social science literature on transnational networks (TNs). The study of TNs has only recently become a field in its own right. What sparked the scholarly interest in TNs? Researchers (Kriesberg 1997; Smith 1997: 2; Rucht 1999) mark the rise of the field from the mid 1970?s, when there began a series of UN-sponsored conferences on the environment, women?s rights and human rights that was matched by a noticeable surge in the number of NGOs world-wide, particularly those operating within international arenas. The 1990?s brought even more attention to TNs, sparked by the 1992 Earth Summit Conference in Rio, the 1995 World Women Conference in Beijing and the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. More generally, a number of major trends provide the context for both the emergence of TNs and their study: 1) increasing global integration; 2) an increase in "transnational" problems; 3) converging and diffusing values (such as human rights and consumerism); 4) proliferating transnational institutions; and 5) the rise of information communication technology (Kriesberg 1997; Rucht 1999). The result is a large and rather amorphous body of social science literature that explores various aspects of TNs from a diverse range of analytical perspectives. The conceptual and methodological ?diversity? of TN research simultaneously enriches, complicates and divides the field. Efforts to take stock of what has been said and learned up to now about social networks are warranted and can provide insight into future research on TNs. As such, this paper realizes an interdisciplinary exploration of current thinking on TNs. First, we identify a specific sub-set of recent sociological and political science scholarship from transnationalism studies, migration studies, global civil society (GCS) and transnational social movements (TSM) studies. Then, rather than simply pointing out lines of agreement and debate, we highlight the range of conceptual, theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of TNs. To that end, a version of the ?grounded theory? approach was employed to identify how the idea of networks is invoked in the selected literature. We combed through each article to locate the author?s main conceptual frame for researching and analyzing TNs; the conceptual frames were then grouped into analytical categories. In sum, we found that networks are referred to in the following ways: 1) something that has effects on or connects to a node, 2) a set of linkages and disconnections, 3) a pattern or quantity of flows, 4) a structure, 5) a type of space, and 6) a challenge to existing concepts and methodological approaches. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of how to define globalization has received surprisingly insufficient explicit attention in globalization theory. In popular (academic and political) usage, a simple definition of globalization can often be summed up as little more than that globalization is about ?the world becoming global?. In the globalization literature, many globalization scholars start with this simple definition and then add, mostly implicitly, some further elements to the definition. By and large, therefore, there is neither any agreement on a more meaningful and complex definition, nor any real explicit debate about how to precisely define globalization. This paper argues that part of the problem can be found in the way many social scientists define a definition. Looking at the philosophy of definitions, this paper thus tries, firstly, to arrive at a meaningful theory of social definitions, which then in turn, secondly, informs a discussion of how to define globalization by delineating three different meanings of ?global?. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on Pierre Bourdieu?s epistemological reflections, this paper argues that social scientific knowledge, especially theory, has an inherently metaphorical nature. Social science is a metaphor of reality. In the same way that a metaphor depicts something as if it were something else, any social theory necessarily portrays social life as if it had a logic it actually does not have in practice. In Bourdieu?s words, ?the logic of practice can only be grasped through constructs which destroy it as such.? This is the consequence of ?epistemocentrism,? the tendency of the scientist to construe the world as a spectacle rather than as a series of lived practices. Critically assessing the emerging notion of a ?globalization of threats? in contemporary security studies, this paper posits that in the business of developing knowledge about the social world, ?everything takes place as if.? The epistemological status of concepts such as ?global terrorism? is nothing more than a scholarly metaphor more or less aligned with the intersubjective realities experienced by social and political agents. Such epistemological vigilance against scientific reification rests on three methodological axioms that this paper will discuss. First, the currently emerging stream of metaphorical analysis should enlarge its scope beyond ontological issues of the linguistic construction of reality: metaphorical analysis must become an epistemological posture in the full sense of the term. Second, our methodologies should aim to combine objectivist and subjectivist hermeneutics so as to reconstruct, as much as possible, the socially constituted practical sense of agents. Third and related, postfoundationalism and its emphasis on induction should inform any analysis that takes the metaphorical nature of social science seriously. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global policy processes have emerged via the increasingly dense interactions of international commissions, multilateral initiatives, international organization and trans-nationalized public sector agencies. In such arenas, professional associations, think tanks, social science oriented foundations, university institutes and their knowledge-based networks can become players in the formulation, legitimation and evaluation of policy. In the weak institutional context of global and regional level governance, they are arguably more influential in shaping the parameters of policy making than within the confines of the nation-state in that they are constitutive in the construction of such new policy spaces.The Evian Group is a transnational research network, think tank, policy advocate and dialogue group. It is a private associate that conducts trade-related research and convenes high-level dialogues on the future role of the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, by comparison to similar trans-national groups like the World Economic Forum in Davos, Third World Network or the Trans Atlantic Business Dialogue, the Evian Group is not well known. Notwithstanding its public activities such as meetings and conferences, capacity building and training, its web-site and guide to trade experts, the Group is relatively exclusive and club like. Additionally, Evian is informally connected to powerful social forces within the WTO, the EU and leading corporations. Yet, proximity and affinity to power do not, by necessity, translate into policy influence. Although sometimes a powerful force, (social) science is not inherently or automatically persuasive in policy debates. The neo-liberal orthodoxy on free markets and trade integration ? such as that propounded by most members of the Evian Group ? is founded upon neo-classical economic theories that are dominant in the economics discipline and within international financial and trade institutions. However, this world view is contested by NGOs, social movements and other intellectual communities. The Evian Group secretariat finds it an on-going necessity to challenge the discourses of ?protectionist forces?. The contribution of private research groups to global and regional governance poses theoretical questions about power and how, when and if at all it is exercised through advocacy, education and policy research. Operating as a network itself, and via strategic interaction in other kinds of academic and policy networks, allows Evian to act as an ?informal diplomat? and ?reputational intermediary? in policy debate. Such trans-national networks present new pressures for accountability, representation and deliberation. Newspapers and the electronic media do not regard bodies like the Evian Group as newsworthy. Combined with its technocratic character, publics are excluded and political responsibility is undermined. As a consequence of the lack of transparency and mechanisms for public representation, and lack of knowledge about them, these networks act with relative autonomy and in some anonymity. They are more able to thwart challenges to their activities or calls for transparency by emphasizing their non-state, private status.The paper is part of a larger project on the role of Non Governmental Public Action. This project builds theory through a critique of pluralist and neo-corporatist writing on global networks. Alternative perspectives - transnational discourse coalitions and neo-Gramscian ideas - illuminate the technocratic and exclusive domains of global governance. NGPA via transnational networks cannot be assumed to be progressive public action; networks are also mechanism for privatizing policy spaces and restricting public access. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate the process of carrying out ethnographic studies of organised resistance to neoliberal globalisation. We do so by drawing upon the critical and public social science of Bourdieu and Santos, two highly influential opponents of neoliberalism, and by utilising Burawoy's 'extended case method' (ECM) for the investigation of two instances of resistance. The first is of a trade union, Sintraemcali that has been engaged in a longstanding struggle over the introduction of neoliberal policies in the city of Cali in South West Colombia. The second is of 'The European Marches against Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Social Exclusion' (EM Network). We then reflect upon our approach to researching this resistance and conclude by identifying two key elements of engaged ethnography: solidarity and praxis that in combination assist in the production of new insights into the strategies and practices of social movement resistance to neoliberal globalisation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization, globality and globalism are some of the most commonly used nomenclatures within the various sub-fields of the social sciences and the humanities to address material as well as ideational aspects of global issues. This paper aims at looking at some literatures, particularly those within International Relations, International Political Economy and Sociology, in order to identify and mutually relate some of the key concepts and categories they adopt to address such matters. In so doing, the goal is to build a logical conceptual mapping of what is here termed as global relations; a multi-domain, multidimensional social manifestation. The argument is that a more formal, content specific conceptualization of global relations can help us properly address the various and complex global components of human action and intensions and their interactions. Finally, the case of religion as a global manifestation will be addressed as an example of how the concept of global relations can help us better understand different ways key global topics (and domains) are understood and dealt with within the various branches of social sciences. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of increased world connectedness and economic globalization, cities of the Arab Gulf emerged as new economic hubs that could adopt and follow global economic and cultural forces. One city which remains under-studied in the social sciences is Dub ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization impacts in many ways any aspect of the living in a society. Higher education may be one of the most affected by global trends, and Economics and Business contents seem particularly influenced by them. Otherwise, these fields, as social sciences, are framed by the culture of each region. This work will consist in conducting a study among professors of Economics and Business curriculums in Argentina, to assess the impact of globalization in the contents of their respective courses, the way they teach and their professional skills development. It will be interested to determine if technology played a significant role in global knowledge acquisition. Finally, findings will be analyzed through Hofsteede?s cultural differences dimensions for Argentina. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]