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This section deals with the papers needed for the special issue of the journal Critical Sociology concerning the influence of foundation on culture, society and politics. The subject is vast and under-investigated and the book includes a plea for more researchers to devote themselves to the aspect of the society. While exposés of conservative foundations funding conservative individuals are common, very little has been written about the effect of mainstream foundations funding almost all progressive, liberal and even radical movements and publications. Similarly, the corporate influence on universities has been thoroughly studied, but not the foundations that fund and create programs and curricula. There are some possible topics for the special issue. First is the evaluation of the effect of foundation funding of scholarly organizations, university programs and departments and individual research. Second is the implications of foundation support for information sources of many types: reference works, epochal books and liberal journals. Third is the role played by foundations in financing non-governmental organizations, travel and conferences in relation to the globalization of protest movements and human rights networking. Each paper must outline the theoretical framework, primary focus of the study and methods to be used.

This paper presents a public theology affirming the normalization of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Religious convictions about human equality and social justice contribute constructively to matters of public concern. While official principles of disability services do, operating practices often do not, accord with a theological vision of God's desire for human flourishing. The analysis summarizes what is going on (many adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience restricted lives), employs socio-ecological theory to explain why (shortcomings at multiple levels of civil society disadvantage them), uses theology and sociology to specify what should be going on (they should be able to live 'normal' lives like non-disabled people) and proposes action steps (change in numerous social systems can promote normalization). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to nearby countries, Jordan achieved a unique situation in mitigating the covid-19 outbreak. The privileged situation lasted for a few months. After that situation, Jordan became one of the worst countries all over the world. Drawing on a conceptual framework derived from Blau’s theory: exchange and power in social life, this paper reevaluates the dynamics of combating covid-19 in Jordan as an exchange process between government and people. Jordan’s government employed maximum power to control people’s movements and gatherings. However, it failed to meet people’s expectations of keeping their lives safe and fulfilling their basic needs. The government tried to legitimize the situation by providing fake information. It has lost the trust of society which supported the efforts of the government. It could not maintain its control of people’s gatherings and movements, resulting in a rise in the number of cases. Transparency, trust, awareness, and society’s efforts are crucial in fighting pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the poetry of Qu Xuanying, a literatus who remained in the city of Beiping (now Beijing) following its occupation by the Japanese in 1937. Through historical allusions in his poetry, Qu communicated with friends about the ethical dilemmas that he faced under occupation, and reflected upon the choices that literati in earlier eras had made when facing dynastic transitions and foreign conquest. Qu's 'esoteric writing' during the occupation contained a complex set of historical allusions which referenced various points in the Chinese past. Since Qu served in the collaborationist north China regime, he has often been perceived as a 'traitor' or a 'collaborator'. Through this in-depth analysis of his literary works, however, this paper seeks to reveal the special exegetical strategies adopted by literati such as Qu under occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about various conferences and academic activities in the field of sociology that appeared in the 1965 issue of the "International Journal of Comparative Sociology." The International Association of French-Speaking Sociologists had its Fifth Symposium from September 29 to October 4, 1964. The symposium was held near Quebec, Canada, under the chairmanship of professor Georges Gurvitch. The theme of the symposium was "Social Classes in Present-day Sociology." A series of papers were on social classes in tropical Africa. The Sixtieth Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association was held at Chicago, Illinois, from August 30 to September 2, 1965. One came from this conference of American sociologists, with many Canadians present, a little confused, certainly so if he went with the purpose of taking it all in. For this anonymous reporter the impression was one of bigness, of complexity, and of a great bureaucracy emerging. The Sixth World Congress of Sociology will be held in Evian, France, during September 4 to 11, 1966. Communications by prospective participants are of two types official and individual. Specialists interested in an official presentation are required to contact the president of the working group in which they are interested.

What can variously be understood as "comparative sociology" take different contours and raise further issues and questions in different sociological traditions which in turn are shaped by different theoretical paradigms. The paper outlines conceptual and theoretical framework for a discussion about the current status of comparative sociology. Comparative sociology is perceived as an organization of research through constant comparisons at the different levels and stages of research. The paper presents outcomes of the field research that is developed on the basis of distinction between two modalities of comparative sociology: comparative sociology as an inquiry and comparative sociology as a teaching discipline. One basic and two subordinate alternative hypotheses are tested in the course of comparative analysis of the seven cases. Discussion of these cases results in formulation of specific questions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents brief information on various congresses and seminars on sociology. The Institute International De Sociologie held its 20th World Congress in Cordoba, Argentina, from September 5-11, 1963. 50th session of the Indian Science Congress Association was held from October 7-10, 1963 in Delhi, India, under the presidency of professor D.S. Kothan, chairman of the University Grants Commission of India. For the first time in its history, the International Congress of Orientalists was held in an Oriental country. It is particularly happy that the Government of India had taken keen interest in organizing and financing the session. The Colombian Sociological Association will sponsor the Seventh Latin American Congress of Sociology, to be held in Bogota, Colombia, July 14-19, 1964, in coordination with the Latin American Association of Sociology. A two-day Seminar on the definition of culture was organized by the Department of Social Anthropology, Karnatak University, Karnataka, India in January 1964.

The article focuses on the American sociology. For much of the twentieth century, American sociology has been preoccupied with microlevel and mesolevel problems and issues. Following World War I, the study of individuals, institutions, associations and communities has taken precedence over the study of societies both in theory and in research. The last ten or fifteen years, however, have seen a significant revival of interest in macrosociology in the United States. Modest movement in this direction began after the second World War in response to growing American involvement in world affairs.

This paper offers an appraisal of the contribution of Dr Ali Al Wardi – one of the Middle East's pioneers in sociology – to the foundation of Iraqi sociology. It opens with an introduction to sociology in Iraq past and present, followed by an assessment of the sociological approach of Al Wardi, his hypotheses including his theories on the ‘ambivalent personality’ exemplified in Iraq, which was later generalized to the Arab personality more broadly, and his sociological critiques. It was in these areas that Al Wardi became one of the leading liberal thinkers in the Arab world and his books continue to be bestsellers to this day. The paper will also posit the direct reasons for the success of his scientific contribution and the popularity of his premises and arguments. To achieve these objectives, it examines the most lasting aspects of his research, Al Wardi's own published works and those written about his contribution, including books, papers and articles which either glorify or criticize, to help form a better understanding of Al Wardi's contributions to Iraqi sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses a sample of Utahans to estimate the percentage of the state belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS, or Mormon Church). We find that the Mormon share of Utah's population is lower than is commonly believed. This finding has relevance for certain theories in the sociology of religion that make inferences about church growth and vitality based on the religious demography of Utah. We show how the process of secularization, changes in Mormon fertility, and shifts in migration into Utah combine to alter the religious landscape of the state. We close with a discussion of the implications of our findings for the sociology of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of History as an analytic framework to interpret Dostoevsky's representation of a turbulent period of social change in 1860s Russia in his novel The Idiot. The paper shows that Dostoevsky engaged with Hegel's philosophical constructs and understood them well enough to render them powerfully through artistic form of expression. It leads to the insight that Dostoevsky and Hegel were contemporaries in thought: both sought to create a new reader with a new sensibility about individual and social freedom, emerging in the post-Enlightenment period. Whilst Hegel may not have considered Russia to have entered World History, it is argued that this view was short-sighted and that Dostoevsky's efforts highlight the complexity and nuance of this period of rapid social and political change in Russia of the 1860s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that, for both sociological and epistemic reasons, the ethics of war needs the social sciences and, accordingly, sets an alternative to the two prevailing approaches in the literature in the ethics of war field, i.e. the just war tradition model and the ethics of war theory. Given what we learn from the factual description of war and its interpretation in the social sciences, and given what their epistemic premises are, both models - and more particularly the second one - fail to address important normative issues that arise in the course of warfare. Based on the discussion of two case studies - states' policy in the face of hostage-taking and the rule of proportionality - I argue it is important to move beyond the divide between a state-centric approach (the just war tradition) and an individualistic one (the ethics of war theory): it is indispensable to take into consideration other social spheres where norms emerge and find, between those spheres, some 'overlapping normative ground'. I argue, both sociologically and normatively, that norms rely upon interlocking sets of expectations. I also argue that these social expectations need to be thoroughly examined in order to ascertain the plausibility of norms in warfare. As a conclusion, for reasons that are both sociological and normative, I stress the political importance, within a liberal and knowledge-oriented society, of the access to facts that always need to be interpreted when making normative claims. [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]

Rape represents one form of sexual violence and may be defined as "forced sexual violation." The following paper builds upon that definition to differentiate among three distinct types of rapes to create an analytic typology that specifies the conditions under which these are more likely to occur. By drawing upon Black's theoretical approach of "pure sociology" and by examining the cross-cultural literature, the paper presents the different social fields or "social geometries" associated with variations in predatory, moralistic, and ritualistic rape. The paper also explains the social conditions most likely to ensure a relative absence of rape. The paper thus offers an innovative strategy for re-thinking the sociological nature of rape, including implications for new approaches to measure and evaluate the likelihood of rape occurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the long trail of critique that emerged from first- and secondgeneration security sector reform (SSR) programs, this paper introduces a new theoretical framework for the socio-political analysis of the security sector that will enhance the potential for reform and transformation. This introduction to the special issue gathers shared considerations among authors researching the security sector in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and promotes a dialogue for the improvement of the analysis of the sector within its socio-political context. Drawing from Sociology of Power, we aim to provide analytical and theoretical tools in order to develop a new conception of the "security sector," which differs from what mainstream academia, think tanks, and public policies have traditionally dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on various conferences and seminars in the world of sociology that appeared in the 1963 issue of the "International Journal of Comparative Sociology." The Fifth World Congress of Sociology has its session on "The Sociology of Development." In the final plenary session on "The Sociology of Development", with Y.A. Zamoshkin in the chair, gist of four principal papers were presented This was followed by discussion of the papers and the reports by representatives of five Work Groups. The International Sociological Association's Committee on Family Research, under the chairmanship of Reuben Hill, held its Seventh International Seminar on Family Research was held from September 9-15, 1962 at Washington D.C. The Committee on Family Research, it may be noted in passing, has taken over the laudable task of fostering and administering the annual international family research seminars from the UNESCO Institute for Social Sciences at Cologne, whose Director of Research, Dr. Nels Anderson, took care of the Seminars as administrative secretary for several years. The Committee's second major task has been to solicit and organize a symposium issue of the "International Social Science Journal," on "Progress in Family Research" with John Mogey as the editor. The third task has been organization of the programme of the family section of the Fifth World Congress of Sociology.

This paper examines the role of the anthologist in late imperial Chinese print culture. Specifically, it focuses on the sixteenth-century anthologist Tang Shunzhi. Tang's first place finish in the 1529 metropolitan examinations came at a pivotal moment. As commercial anthology printers responded to an expanding reading public by applying readers' aids such as punctuation and commentary to increasingly diverse textual corpora, Tang's distinctive method of annotation was used to 'reveal' the rules of Ming examination prose operating universally across a seemingly endless variety of texts. At the same time, Tang's own belief in universal rules of prose was the product of an educational movement to supplement the narrow and monotonous examination curriculum by providing students with anthologies of ancient literature. These two Tangs—one revealing uniformity within diversity, the other revealing diversity within uniformity—highlight contradictory trends toward both stereotypy and diversification within sixteenth-century print culture more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines recent developments in the construction of insect cyborgs by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, as part of its Hybrid Insect Microelectromechanical Systems (HI-MEMS) project. It takes a sociological approach in order to account for the processes involved in the creation of insect cyborgs, arguing that such creatures should be seen as the outcome of social, as well as technological, conditions. The paper critically reflects on the ethical implications of the HI-MEMS project and discusses the philosophical repercussions of treating insects as if they are machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of secularism is amply raised by Burton Mack in his paper; it is clear that the term secular is problematic. However, in this response I would like to take a cultural turn. Using the social theory developed by Burton Mack in other writings, I will argue that the secular criticism of the Bible can be understood as a new mythol-ogy (as all criticism of the Bible are) that is a part of a growing secular wave within the United States found in a variety of cultural corners and particularly among the younger demographics. As such secular criticism--and secular movements like it--constitute one response to a particular set of social interests at this particular juncture in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a comparative approach to analyze several dimensions of ‘Global Sociology’ from a normative stance based on a critical review of related discourses in sociological communities. The author reveals three major problems in intra-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and extra-academic dimensions, manifested not only in ‘factual’ (objective) characteristics but also in ‘ideological’ visions typical of academic communities and connected with a negative stance towards global neoliberalism and its various agents: first, rigid vertical stratification of the international academic field, primarily, in terms of academic publishing and working conditions; second, negative tendencies in the status positions of sociology compared to other sciences, especially economics; and third, little cooperation with policy-makers and corporate practitioners combined with an orientation to supporting various discriminated groups against dominating powers associated with neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, sociological analysis of professional work has differentiated professionalism as a special means of organizing work and controlling workers and in contrast to the hierarchical, bureaucratic and managerial controls of industrial and commercial organizations. But professional work is changing and being changed as increasingly professionals (such as doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers) now work in employing organizations; lawyers and accountants in large professional service firms (PSFs) and sometimes in international and commercial organizations; pharmacists in national (retailing) companies; and engineers, journalists, performing artists, the armed forces and police find occupational control of their work and discretionary decision-making increasingly difficult to sustain. This paper begins with a section on defining the field and clarifying concepts. This is followed by a second section on the concept of professionalism, its history and current developments. The third section discusses convergences between Anglo-American and Continental European systems of professions and the general, wider applicability of particular explanatory theories and analytical concepts in the field. Section four examines internationalizing processes affecting professions. Markets for professional services are increasingly international and professional regulation is now a matter for international professional federations as well as national and regional states. The final section provides summary and considers consequences for aspects of professionalism as an occupational value in the global world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on equality. Bernard Williams asserted in his paper titled "The Idea of Equality" that distribution based on needs is a key in the theory of equality and claimed that the proper ground of delivering health care is health need. But Robert Nozick argued that if such claim is true then the proper ground of the distribution of barbering care is barbering need.

This paper is stimulated by the need to develop an ecclesiological method that is capable of describing and analysing the diverse self-understandings that characterize global Pentecostalism (or any Christian Church). It begins by observing the limitations of idealist approaches to ecclesiology, and instead proposes a concrete ecclesiological method, Concrete ecclesiology will include the narrative of particular Churches and movements, describe the explicit and implicit self-understanding that accompanies this narrative, and assess ecclesial transitions. Since the Church is a human and divine community, analysis will incorporate theological categories and the human sciences. Consequently, the paper considers how the ecclesiologist might appropriate the multifaceted discipline of sociology. The goal is an ecclesiology that is not reduced only to ideal categories, but that is capable of analysing the complex reality of indigenous Pentecostal Churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the author's comments on Michael Burawoy's article examining the critical turn to a public sociology. There is much that is attractive about Burawoy's examination of the critical turn to a public sociology. I find plausible his account of the academic nature of 1970s radical sociology especially that mobilized notions such as Althusser's theoretical practice. I also was cheered to read the account of the positive developments currently in train in the U.S. and especially with how social movements have got inside American sociology and are changing it from within. And I was with his advocacy of sociology developing new forms of engaging with and responding to multiple publics and modes of participation, to bring the public and sociology into intimate juxtaposition. But from the other side of the pond Burawoy's argument seems at the same time rather strange. The paper is unambiguously written from within American sociology. Sociologists from nowhere else could treat their sociology as nationally bounded and unrelated to global processes that in all other fields are transforming the social world. This means first that the stories of other sociologies are necessarily different from that of the U.S., but second that much about the story of any sociology cannot be understood without situating it within wider globalizing processes that sociology everywhere struggles to engage with.

In the first part of this paper the pioneering achievements of Thomas Kuhn in natural sciences and of Florian Znaniecki in social sciences are examined and compared. Attention is focused on the fundamental impact that the ideological positions adopted by each has exerted upon our understanding of the way their respective disciplines develop and affect the study of natural and cultural phenomena as distinct aspects of reality. The paper traces elements of the commonality of their visions, as well as the way both authors have emphasized tile distinct and unique characteristics of their particular fields of knowledge. In the second part, Znaniecki's humanistic sociology is applied as a theoretical framework to the study of linguistic pluralism in two multi-ethnic societies Australia and Belarus. Rather than making a direct comparison of the two linguistic contexts, the aim of the paper is to use that framework to gain insights into these diverse multilingual configurations from the perspective of those actively involved in them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper situates contemporary evaluations of the 'success' of Spain's Mondragon cooperative complex within a tradition of debate about the politics of economic transformation. It traces the long-standing suspicion of worker cooperatives among political and social analysts on the left, revisiting both the revolutionary and gradualist socialist critiques of cooperativism. Taking the set of problems identified by Beatrice and Sidney Webb as leading to the inevitable failure of producer cooperatives, the paper examines Mondragon for evidence of 'degeneration.' The ethical decisions made by Mondragon cooperators with respect to product, pay, profit, innovation, management, disputes and membership are discussed with a particular focus on the management of surplus production, appropriation and distribution. The paper calls for more sophisticated analyses of the economics of surplus distribution and the centrality of ethical debate to the construction of diverse economies and non-capitalist economic subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing variety of social problems have been declared universal problems that "cross all lines" or "can happen to anyone." This paper argues that, while these claims are well-meaning, they often contradict empirical evidence about the clustering of social problems and, hence, must be explored sociologically for their latent meanings. The paper argues that, along with the manifest goals of raising funds for causes and remedying past discrimination, the new universalism supports a growing "upscale" market in services, while obscuring the importance of social class as a critical variable in many social problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a case study approach to examine and evaluate a tenant social movement as a possible form of class movement This tenants' movement is the result of redevelopment, understood as the movement of capital Into the central city and the commensurate removal of working-class housing The general goal of this paper is to provide a structural (political-economic) grounding for the explanation of tenant social movements [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on political and cultural unity in social science. The purpose is to explore the possibility of and the conditions necessary for, social science maturity. In fact, the identification of these latter conditions is a major justification for the paper. The author Fred Gareau shall point to those social science sects which promote this end and to those which retard it, and to other factors which can affect maturity. The emphasis is upon the affective, the ideological part of social science, not the analytical part. The reader is entitled to accuse the author of contradiction, a charge which should look less formidable below, after one have detailed the conditions one think necessary if social science is to mature. Maturity means here that the social sciences will "cross over" to become like the natural sciences. A hallmark of this maturity would be the enhanced epistemic value of social science truth claims. The latter would much better explain and predict than they do at present.

The article presents information on various activities taking place in the field of sociology during 1960's. According to a report, the first International Family Life conference to be held in New York City, August 23-26, 1960. As the combined Annual Meeting of the National Council on Family Relations and the International Union of Family Organizations, it drew more than 700 delegates from some thirty different countries. Those who attended the conference were without exception persons with professional interests in family life. There were representatives of governmental agencies at national, regional, provincial, state, and local levels, as well as of international agencies such as the United Nations and UNICEF Embassies and consulates sent official representatives schools, colleges and universities were well represented by several hundred participants. According to another report, the sixth session of the Indian Sociological Conference was held at Madhya Pradesh, India, on October 15, 16 and 17 under the auspices of the Department of Social Anthropology of the University of Saugor where doctor Lecla Dube played hosts. The Conference met in four sessions Sociology, Social Anthropology, Social Psychology and Demography and Social Statistics. The papers read at the Conference covered the following topics social change, caste and kinship, leadership and communication.

This paper not only describes a confusing network of terms (including "political society", "commonwealth", and "community"), thus defining a problem of interpretation, but also partially solves the problem. One result is that Locke turns out to differ in at least one important way from those theorists of social contract supposedly belonging to the same tradition, especially Hobbes, Rousseau, and Rawls. The Two Treatises lacks any social contract, that is, a contract constituting society in the inclusive sense usually given "society" in discussions of "social contract". Locke's concept of "political society" deserves a closer look, since it has largely been overlooked until now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the prevalence of phenomenological perspectives in most modern scientific fields addressing religion and spirituality, including psychology of religion, ontological inquiries retain an important position in certain fields, such as modern sociology (e.g., Weber, Giddens' concept of ‘ontological security’). Ontological and phenomenological approaches, alongside certain principles that function as interpretative tools in the social sciences (e.g., reductionism, teleology, supervenience), can be synthesised to construct a pluralistic methodology for understanding anew the dynamics between the ‘psychological’ and the ‘spiritual’. This paper attempts to articulate an ‘evolutional’ approach to the spiritual as an ‘emergent’ property arising from multiple factors beyond the psychological and the metaphysical (such as social and cultural constructs). This holistic understanding of the spiritual will be then applied to Jung's notion of the ‘Self’ to understand further its spiritual and/or ontological potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which children use objects is central to many theories of development, yet we lack systematic descriptions of the various ways in which objects are used across childhood. In this paper, I first describe the different forms of object use (i.e., exploration, construction, play, tool use and tool making) for males and females in childhood, then establish time budgets for each type of object use. Second, I make functional inferences about each form of object use and the social contexts in which each is embedded. I suggest that putative functions of object play, specifically, may be related to children's discovery of novel uses for objects, as well as peer group centrality in abundant niches. These dynamics produce a connected social network in which object play and group structure might interact to spread novel ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract For more than two decades sociological debates over religion and secularization have been characterized by a confrontation between (often American) critics and (mostly European) defenders of secularization theories. At the same time, there was a remarkable rise in public debates about the role of secularism in political regimes and in national as well as civilizational frameworks. Against this backdrop this paper presents the conceptual framework of 'multiple secularities' with a view to refocusing sociological research on religion and secularity. We will demonstrate that it can stimulate new ways of theorizing the relationship of religion and secularity in a variety of modern environments. Arguing for a reformulation of this relationship within the framework of cultural sociology, we conceptualize 'secularity' in terms of the cultural meanings underlying the differentiation between religion and non-religious spheres. Building on Max Weber we distinguish four basic ideal-types of secularity that are related to specific reference problems and associated with specific guiding ideas. Finally, we illustrate the use of the concept with regard to selected case-studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This article reflects upon the implications for sociology of the steady accumulation of evidence in the sciences of animal behavior pointing to the existence of culture among nonhuman animals. With a particular focus on primatology, it explores how these developments challenge the notions of 'culture' that continue to inform the study of human social life. The article argues that this growing challenge to the assumption of human uniqueness that has historically provided the core rationale for sociology cannot be ignored. The paper thus contributes to the overdue work of articulating a constructive response by tracing the issues involved in the encounter between these knowledges. Theoretical currents from science studies and actor-network theory are drawn upon in order to propose a reflexive and symmetrical realignment of this encounter, with significant implications for our understandings of human and animal being and subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While China has recently taken an amazing economic leap, completely transforming and liberalising its economic system, the absolute domination of the Communist party, operating in an extremely organised and centralised system and without free general elections, is the opposite of the models advocated by Western nations and remains a stumbling block for a number of Westerners. This governance from the top seems to exclude forms of expression and practices at the grassroots, but can this first reading explain the practical reality of Chinese politics? This paper looks into the links between the economic regeneration and the political transformations of two cities in Zhejiang. Studying the incredible advances of these two cities over 30 years reveals that their development was based not only on economic factors but also on a broad continuous movement of political and local reorganisation from the bottom up, promoting a new social and political dynamism, first locally then provincewide: a huge and profound change developed in a very specific way. Is this a premonitory model or announcement of the specifically Chinese methods of incorporating economic and political changes coming from the grassroots, which still affect certain sectors of the social and political spheres of Chinese society? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents sociology as a practice in humanity, whose members have a social responsibility to engage in work contributing to social progress and reform. In lieu of viewing sociology as praxis, sociologists frequently adhere to the hegemony of a conventional pedagogy, an "objective" scientific orientation, and an institutional view of scholarship that confines further positive impact on students and communities. The ramifications are myriad, including a divisive milieu within the discipline. Identified and explored is a missing link: a discipline-oriented model synthesizing intellectualism, teaching, and activism. An intervening model external to sociology, accentuating dissent, is presented from case studies of linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky and historian Howard Zinn, reflecting the potential and importance of sociology to contribute meaningfully in our society. Wedding theory and praxis, the case studies reexamine current sociological ideology and punctuate social responsibility among practitioners through institutional transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burgess-Jackson (1998) argues that the duties we have to our companion animals are similar to the duties we have to our children. Specifically, he argues that a person who takes custody of either a nonhuman animal or a child elevates the moral status of the child or animal, endowing each with rights neither had before. These rights obligate that person to provide for the well being of the creature—animal or child—in question. This paper offers two arguments against this position. First, a creature's rights rest solely on the creature's intrinsic properties. Thus, the person taking custody of a creature does not endow the creature with new rights. Rather, the custodian assumes the responsibilities associated with ensuring that the creature's rights are protected and preserved. Second, our children possess intrinsic properties and, hence, rights—most important, the right to life—that our pets lack. This difference undermines the analogy on which Burgess-Jackson's argument depends. Our pets are not like our children, as Burgess-Jackson claims. Instead, they are more akin to our slaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a response to an article by Timothy Fitzgerald regarding the definition of religion in sociology published in an issue of "Method & Theory in the Study of Religion." Misconceptions of sociologists and anthropologists about the definition of religion; Significance of Western influences to the socio-history of religion; Factors that affected the relationship between religion and the secular.

Most Americans are aware that joy was expressed in the Arab world over the suffering inflicted on Americans with the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Less known is that such Schadenfreude was expressed by many Chinese citizens as well. This paper analyzes a sample of texts from postings on the Beijing University bulletin board system. Following a discursive approach to the social psychological study of emotion, we consider discourse as the means whereby power relations are asserted and maintained. These power relations comprise a domain within which actions and emotional displays are occasioned and understood. Based on the texts analyzed here, Schadenfreude can be understood as a discursive display by an observer of an event. This event must be recognized in terms of a "discursive history" within which a bully (here, the United States) has repeatedly violated the "rights" of bullied parties. In accordance with this discursive history, the event is seen as a reversal-in-tradition whereby rights presumed by the bully are violated. Finally, the observer must disidentify with the bully. As a discursive display, Schadenfreude not only comprises the overt performance of the observer's taken-for-granted understanding of the bully-as-bully, but also displaces any potential alternative discourse such as expressions of sympathy other observers may have for any target of such an event. This approach complements the social constructionist perspective within the literature on the sociology of emotions, but departs fundamentally from this literature's essentialist (or psycho-physiological) perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kinds of principles of justice should a cosmopolitan support? In recent years some have argued that a cosmopolitan should endorse a Global Difference Principle. It has also been suggested that a cosmopolitan should support a Principle of Global Equality of Opportunity. In this paper I examine how compelling these two suggestions are. I argue against a Global Difference Principle, but for an alternative Needs-Based Minimum Floor Principle (where these are not co-extensive, as I explain). Though I support a negative version of the Global Equality of Opportunity Principle, I argue that a more positive version of the ideal remains elusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section provides summaries of sociology-related books. Shlomo Shoham's book, Art, Crime and Madness, explores the relationship between biography and artistic achievement in the context of crime and deviance. Shoham shows how the criminal disposition or madness of key artistic figures such as Caravaggio, Gesuldo, Van Gogh and Genet resonate in their work and how their artistic representation of human nature actually depict the nature of criminality. The societal reaction to innovation holds that creative genius is celebrated only up to a certain point, after which the innovator, when stepping too far away from convention, is labeled mad or deviant. Following an examination of what constitutes art itself, Shoham shows the relationship to societal definitions and perceptions of crime and insanity. Drawing predominantly on a criminological perspective, this book interweaves a multidisciplinary approach as well, ranging from philosophy, psychoanalysis, theories of personality development and history. Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds and Markets, by Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, suggests that the current productionist paradigm characterizing the food system is giving way to one of or the possible coexistence of two new paradigms, with health is central to both.

Traditionally cognitive scientists have had little to say about religion (and even less to say about new religious movements (NRMs)) partly because religion is arguably a social phenomenon (Bainbridge et al. 1994) and partly because of the pervasive scientific bias of relegating religion to the heap of the irrational, the illogical, and 'a fading vestige of the prescientific times' (Lewis 2003). While sociologists of religion have been studying NRMs, their analysis has been limited to the macro-level. Recent trends in sociology and economics focused on the so called rational choice theories (Iannaccone 1998) and in cognitive sciences of religion (Barrett 2000; Boyer 2001) offer the hope of moving in the direction of a more complete explanation of emergence of new religious movements by providing both macro and micro level analyses. I believe that a closer interaction between these two developments is possible, indeed necessary, for the development of a scientific theory of NRMs that weds the macro and the micro levels. I illustrate the benefits of this approach by focusing on a hitherto ignored phenomenon, the emergence of charismatic leaders who inspire new religious movements. The primary aim of this paper is to identify the contextual factors (both social and cognitive) that cause self-interested utility maximizing agents to take actions that result in new religious movements (NRM). Our secondary aim is to identify factors that cause other self interested utility maximizing agents to align themselves with NRM founders and become the believers. I illustrate how various tools of cognitive science including computer modeling can help in this regard. [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]

This paper undertakes a critical reading of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in order to demonstrate how the moral impulses of allegory and social fiction insinuate themselves within the narrative strains of an ethnographic research that often imagines itself as simply reporting "the social facts." This place of the allegorical within the social sciences, particularly sociology, is read in symptomatic fashion. However, rather than decrying or denying the appearance of such moral fictions, this paper advocates working with and from the insights - both conscious and not - that the appearances of the allegorical generates, in order to construct a more rigorous and critical form of social scientific knowledge that is attentive to the workings of social power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the April 2004 issue of the periodical "Critical Sociology."

Most national myths of origin begin with some transcendent or sacrificial story of violent revolution, warfare or liberation. This is also true of many origin myths of ethnic, tribal or other forms of social identity. This makes it appear that some act of violence is the cause of their coming into being. This paper argues that this is an artefact of the temporal 'peculiarity' of violence. Violent events, it is argued, are essentially unpredictable even when statistically probable. This means that violence is only 'visible' after the fact, and rarely before and that plausible causal models can rarely be constructed in advance. Violence is always seen in retrospect, then, and where it has caused significant death and destruction, it requires that we begin to make sense of what caused it. Unlike other planned or and emotionally charged social interactions (such as eating, sexuality, ritual) acts of violence interrupt (disrupt, breach, rupture, break, etc.) and terminate parts or all of previous social relations. Since the cause of violence can only be assigned retrospectively, this means that we must (re-)construct the past in a way that allows us to make sense of it. Where some violent event is followed by the eventual emergence of a new identity, the new identity is often explained as having 'originated' in violence. This implies that violence caused the new social identity in some way, and that it functions as a political instrument. But violence can only create a void, and is chaotic. After violence, we require the (re-)telling of the past in a new way. This makes violence appear at the beginning of narratives of origin, but does not imply that violence caused these identities. Since large scale violence leads cultural loss and to large scale social (re)construction, narratives of identity tend to begin at these moments in time. This account of violence seeks, therefore, to undermine the notion that violence is an efficient or final cause of social forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As well as being a prolific contributor to the discipline of sociology, Irving Louis Horowitz has consistently attracted controversy. His earlier associations with C. Wright Mills and the New Left contrast with his present day affinities with neo-conservative thought. This paper attempts to appraise Horowitz's career by focusing on his primary interest, political sociology. In this way it is intended that, despite the apparently significant changes that have marked his work, certain continuous threads might be identified. In order to understand the evolution of Horowitz's thought, reference is made to the changing political and intellectual context of the last four decades. The result is a sympathetic though ultimately critical analysis of Horowitz's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]