Showing papers by "Bryan S. Turner published in 2010"
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The authors examined globalization from the perspective of both the West and the East, and explored the meaning of a global perspective through various concrete examples: religion, migration, medicine, terrorism, global disasters, citizenship, multiculturalism, media and popular culture.
Abstract: Do we confuse globalization for Americanization? What are the distinctive elements in the interplay of the local and the global?This much needed book is the first full length text to examine globalization from the perspective of both the West and the East. It considers globalization as a general social and economic process, and the challenges it presents for Western social science. The meaning of a global perspective is explored through various concrete examples: religion, migration, medicine, terrorism, global disasters, citizenship, multiculturalism, media and popular culture. Introduced with a forward from Roland Robertson the book is brimming with novel interpretations and fresh insights that will contribute to illuminating the practical realities of globalization.
52 citations
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The second edition of the Routledge International Handbook of Globalization Studies as discussed by the authors offers students clear and informed chapters on the history of globalization and key theories that have considered the causes and consequences of the globalization process.
Abstract: The second edition of the Routledge International Handbook of Globalization Studies offers students clear and informed chapters on the history of globalization and key theories that have considered the causes and consequences of the globalization process There are substantive sections looking at demographic, economic, technological, social and cultural changes in globalization The handbook examines many negative aspects – new wars, slavery, illegal migration, pollution and inequality – but concludes with an examination of responses to these problems through human rights organizations, international labour law and the growth of cosmopolitanism There is a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches with essays covering sociology, demography, economics, politics, anthropology and history
The second edition has been completely revised and features important new thinking on themes such as Islamophobia and the globalization of religious conflict, shifts in global energy production such as fracking, global inequalities, fiscal transformations of the state and problems of taxation, globalization and higher education, and an analysis of the general sense of catastrophe that surrounds contemporary understandings of the consequences of a global world
49 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take a position against recent theories of globalization and mobility by arguing that there are important trends toward increased immobility and that new biological technologies offer enhanced methods of tracking and containing people.
Abstract: The article takes a position against recent theories of globalization and mobility by arguing that there are important trends toward increased immobility. Whereas goods travel relatively freely in a global market, the same cannot be said for people. Various forms of immobility are explored through the key notion of enclaves. While ghettoes and wall building have been traditional aspects of the enclosure of people, the article argues that new biological technologies offer enhanced methods of tracking and containing people. The principal cause behind these developments is a greater emphasis on securitization by the state and hence globalization theories are criticized insofar as they propose that state borders have become more porous.
26 citations
23 citations
19 citations
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The authors pointed out the limitations and failures of the conventional secularization thesis and much has consequently been written about religious revivalism, and pointed out that the traditional secularization theory was too narrow and too specific to Europe and that the United States as exceptional because its religious patterns did not appear to support the association of modernity with secularization.
Abstract: By now there is much academic talk about the limitations and failures of the conventional secularization thesis and much has consequently been written about religious revivalism. In the 1960s sociologists of religion like Bryan Wilson (1966 and 1976) confidently predicted the decline of religion as a result of modernization. There is now the general conclusion that the secularization thesis was too narrow and too specific to Europe. Whereas sociologists of religion treated the United States as exceptional because its religious patterns did not appear to support the association of modernity with secularization, we now look towards northern Europe as the principal example of ‘exceptionalism’.
10 citations
TL;DR: Dahrendorf as discussed by the authors was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp as a teenager, from which he emerged as a politician and became a member of the House of Lords.
Abstract: Lord Dahrendorf died in Cologne on 17 June 2009. Born in Hamburg, he had enjoyed a long and remarkable career. As a teenager he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp, from which he emerged,...
10 citations
TL;DR: The sociologists and social philosophers have identified cosmopolitan ethics as a promising response to the global movement, or more accurately displacement, of people around the world (Appiah 2006; as mentioned in this paper ).
Abstract: The theory of globalization has come to replace all other topics structuralism, post-structu ralism, postmodernism, gender, inequality and so forth as the all-embracing paradigm of modern sociology, and in the process the debate has generated a battery of new concepts around mobilities, glocalization, globalophilia, mondialization and of course 'the second moderniza tion' (Beck 2002). Perhaps in no other area in the social sciences has sociology been so pro minent in the field of research and yet much work has to be done on both conceptual clarifi cation and empirical inquiry. The topic has already produced a number of major publications offering an overview of the internal diversity of the field (Ritzer 2010; Turner 2010). However, the key issue within the globalization literature is quite specific, namely what are the forms of culture or consciousness that offer a normative framework for these global processes? Can a global consciousness that has been orchestrated around human rights, environmentalism and cosmopolitanism counter-balance the otherwise bleak and depressing picture of what George Ritzer (2003) has called 'the globalization of nothing' the world-wide dystopia of empty consumerism that gouges out the significance of human culture. While the intensification of global inequality may well be the inevitable outcome of the current financial crisis (Martell 2010), many sociologists and social philosophers have identified cosmopolitan ethics as a promising response to the global movement, or more accurately displacement, of people around the world (Appiah 2006). What comes after globalization may either be the emergence of a feral society to be characterized by urban decay, water wars, over-population and pandemics, or the construction of new social bonds around a shared cosmopolitan ethic. In short, the sociology of globalization has produced an important discussion of post-national sociology around an emerging 'cosmopolitan imagination' (Delanty 2009).
TL;DR: The assumption that Islam is a new religious identity among Aboriginal Australians is questioned in this paper, where the authors argue that the Aboriginal Muslim needs to be understood both in terms of the historical context of colonial Australia and the Aboriginal experience of social and political marginalisation.
Abstract: The assumption that Islam is a new religious identity among Aboriginal Australians is questioned. The historical evidence demonstrates a well-established connection between Islam and Aboriginal communities through the early migration of Muslims to colonial Australia. This historical framework allows us to criticise the negative construction of the Aboriginal Muslim in the media through the use of statistical information gathered in three Australian censuses (1996, 2001 and 2006). Our conclusion is that the Aboriginal Muslim needs to be understood both in terms of the historical context of colonial Australia and the Aboriginal experience of social and political marginalisation. Their conversion to Islam represents some degree of cultural continuity rather than rupture. Finally the article demonstrates that the sociological and psychological understanding of conversion is underdeveloped and inadequate.
22 Oct 2010
TL;DR: In this article, the relevance of Max Weber's sociology for the understanding of modern times is discussed, particularly with regard to secularization and rationalization of global cultures, the crisis of Marxism, the rise of the New Right and the emergence of post-modernism.
Abstract: First published in 1989, this re-issue concerns itself with the relevance of Max Weber's sociology for the understanding of modern times. The book outlines key tenets of Weber's sociology and points to the valuable legacy of Weber's thought in contemporary intellectual debate, particularly with regard to secularization and rationalization of global cultures, the crisis of Marxism, the rise of the New Right and the emergence of post-modernism. This book offers an authoritative and insightful study which brings to light, not only the contemporary relevance of Weber's social theory, but also offering a broad perspective for the analysis of social questions.
TL;DR: The authors argue that population wars are an important, if often disguised, future of modern foreign relations, and propose a version of Thomas Malthus's political economy to describe red capitalism in Asia as a combination of authoritarian states plus economic success within a tributary Han civilization.
Abstract: Against the background of twentieth-century military conflict in Asia, the article concentrates on China’s contemporary relationships with outlying states, regions and provinces. Employing a version of Thomas Malthus’s political economy, we argue that population wars are an important, if often disguised, future of modern foreign relations. Through an examination of a various examples but specifically Tibet, Vietnam and Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, the article considers the current prospects of sinicization by demographic means. We conclude by describing ‘red capitalism’ in Asia as a combination of authoritarian states plus economicv success within the framework of a tributary Han civilization.
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The reward-punishment model of moral conformity was directed initially at subordinate social groups-slaves, peasants or workers as mentioned in this paper, and was essentially an aspect of social control, and dominant social classes experimented with medical practices (elixirs of life) to gain immortal life.
Abstract: The reward-punishment model of moral conformity was directed initially at subordinate social groups-slaves, peasants or workers. It was essentially an aspect of social control. Alongside this system, dominant social classes experimented with medical practices (elixirs of life) to gain immortal life. In modern societies, recent medical advances in therapeutic stem-cell research have led some radical gerontologists to argue that in principle human beings could live forever. This chapter is concerned with the moral, psychological and theological implications of the proposition that humans could live for indefinitely long periods, that is, enjoy the benefits of prolongevity. The author argue that there is in one sense little change from the past. Life extension will be enjoyed by the rich not the poor, and by the north and not the south. Prolongevity, if it is achieved, will also prolong the social divisions of this world. Keywords: elixirs; prolongevity; reward-punishment model