This important contribution to the study of the problem of order, which figures prominently in today's globalization debate, focuses on the role of sovereignty. It advances arguments based on psychocultural perspectives and looks at postcommunist transformations and changes in political, economic and cultural orders at all levels of social life.

A transnational approach to understanding and analyzing knowledge circulation. The contributors to this collection focus on what happens to knowledge and know-how at national borders. Rather than treating it as flowing like currents across them, or diffusing out from center to periphery, they stress the human intervention that shapes how knowledge is processed, mobilized, and repurposed in transnational transactions to serve diverse interests, constraints, and environments. The chapters consider both what knowledge travels and how it travels across borders of varying permeability that impede or facilitate its movement. They look closely at a variety of platforms and objects of knowledge, from tangible commodities—like hybrid wheat seeds, penicillin, Robusta coffee, naval weaponry, seed banks, satellites and high-performance computers—to the more conceptual apparatuses of plant phenotype data and statistics. Moreover, this volume decenters the Global North, tracking how knowledge moves along multiple paths across the borders of Mexico, India, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, the Soviet Union, China, Angola, Palestine and the West Bank, as well as the United States and the United Kingdom. An important new work of transnational history, this collection recasts the way we understand and analyze knowledge circulation.

"The renewed threat of biological weapons highlights the importance of crafting policy responses informed by the rule of law. This book explores patterns in recent governance initiatives and advocates building a "global biosecurity concert" as a way to address the threats presented by biological weapons and infectious diseases in the early 21st century."--BOOK JACKET.

This updated Fifth Edition of Scott Sernau's acclaimed text provides a sociological framework for analyzing inequality within the United States in the context of global stratification and a rapidly changing world economy. With insightful analysis, the text provides an accessible introduction to stratification systems and the structural and personal realities of growing class divides. Using examples drawn straight from today's headlines, Sernau explores each dimension of inequality as he analyzes the relationship between changing global power and growing inequalities within countries. Throughout, a focus on social action and community engagement encourages students to become involved, active learners in the classroom and engaged citizens in their communities.

Europe's social model – its system of welfare and social protection – is regarded by many as the jewel in the crown. It is what helps to give the European societies their distinctive qualities of social cohesion and care for the vulnerable. Over recent years, however, the social model has come under great strain in many states within the European Union – unemployment, for example, remains stubbornly high. The resulting tensions have fuelled dissatisfaction with the European project as a whole, culminating in the rejection of Europe's proposed new constitution. Reform of the social model is therefore a matter of urgency. It has to go hand in hand with the quest to regenerate economic growth. The weaker performers in Europe over the past few years can learn a good deal from states that have coped more effectively. But more radical changes need to be contemplated in the face of the impact of globalization, rapidly increasing cultural diversity and changing demography. The author argues that the traditional welfare state needs to be rethought. We have to bring lifestyle change into the heart of what welfare means. Moreover, environmental issues must be directly connected to other citizenship obligations. These innovations have to be made at the same time as Europes competitive position is upgraded. This original and path-breaking book will rank alongside Beyond Left and Right, The Third Way and other works by Anthony Giddens that have helped reshape social and political thinking over recent decades.

Zygmunt Bauman is one of the most original and influential social thinkers of our time. This new book focuses on social inequality.

Within the pages of this manual, students become personally involved in research as they learn important analytical, critical thinking, and communication skills, and develop the ability to interpret the contemporary global situation and its impact on their lives. Linking fundamental concepts of sociology with everyday activities, the exercises in each chapter lead students through an array of qualitative and quantitative methods as they test and apply theories. Students experience research as a process of asking questions, defining terms clearly, seeking patterns, and reaching conclusions based on their findings, while avoiding bias. Short essays describing current perspectives on globalization accompany the exercises, addressing political, cultural, social, economic, technological, and religious dimensions. Key Features 25 research exercises may be completed by students in class or independently, providing flexibility for the instructor. Exercises are ready to be assigned as they appear in the text, with convenient tear-out pages. Students investigate intriguing topics such as "Global Ethics," "Violating Folkways," "Bowling Alone," and "McDonald′s Versus Jihad." A variety of research methods are featured: interviews, experiments, functional analysis, content analysis, and more. Extensive follow-up "Discussion" sections help students maximize their understanding. Surveys and qualitative exercises adapted from larger studies allow students to compare their results with national and global patterns of results, which they may explore further through the Web links provided. Intended Audience: This interactive manual follows the format of standard introductory sociology texts, making it an engaging and easy fit for Introductory Sociology or Principles of Sociology courses.

Many authors who discuss the idea of globalization see it as continuing pre-established paths of development of modern societies. Post-modernist writers, by contrast, have lost sight of the importance of historical narrative altogether. Martin Albrow argues that neither group is able to recognize the new era which stares us in the face. A history of the present needs an explicit epochal theory to understand the transition to the Global Age. When globality displaces modernity there is a general decentering of state, government, economy, culture, and community. Albrow calls for a recasting of the theory of such institutions and the relations between them. He finds an open potential for society to recover its abiding significance in the face of the declining nation state. At the same time a new kind of citizenship is emerging. This important book will provoke both radicals and conservatives. Its scholarship ranges widely across the social sciences and humanities. It is bound to promote wide cross-disciplinary debate.

This brilliant new book by one of Europe's leading social thinkers throws light on the global power games being played out between global business, nation states and movements rooted in civil society. Beck offers an illuminating account of the changing nature of power in the global age and assesses the influence of the ever-expanding counter-powers. The author puts forward the provocative thesis that in an age of global crises and risks, a politics of "golden handcuffs" - the creation of a dense network of transnational interdependencies - is exactly what is needed in order to regain national autonomy, not least in relation to a highly mobile world economy. It is imperative that the maxim of nation-based realpolitik - that national interests have necessarily to be pursued by national means - be replaced by the maxim of cosmopolitan realpolitik. The more cosmopolitan our political structures and activities, Beck suggests, the more successful they will be in promoting national interests, and the greater our individual power in this global age will be.

Discussions on globalization now routinely focus on the economic impact of developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and Latin America. Only twenty-five years ago, many developing countries were largely closed societies. Today, the growing power of “emerging markets” is reordering the geopolitical landscape. On a purchasing power parity basis, emerging economies now constitute half of the world’s economic activity. Financial markets too are seeing growing integration: Asia now accounts for 1/3 of world stock markets, more than double that of just 15 years ago. Given current trajectories, most economists predict that China and India alone will account for half of global output by 2050 (almost a complete return to their positions prior to the Industrial Revolution). How is higher education shaping and being shaped by these massive tectonic shifts? As education rises as a geopolitical priority, it has converged with discussions on economic policy and a global labor market. As part of the Routledge Studies in Emerging Societies series, this edited collection focuses on the globalization of higher education, particularly the increasing symbiosis between advanced and developing countries. Bringing together senior scholars, journalists, and practitioners from around the world, this collection explores the relatively new and changing higher education landscape.