Showing papers on "Modernization theory published in 1999"

The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics

Abstract: Theorists of -secularization- have for two centuries been saying that religion must inevitably decline in the modern world. But today, much of the world is as religious as ever. This volume challenges the belief that the modern world is increasingly secular, showing instead that modernization more often strengthens religion. Seven leading cultural observers examine several regions and several religions and explain the resurgence of religion in world politics. Peter L. Berger opens with a global overview. The other six writers deal with particular aspects of the religious scene: George Weigel, with Roman Catholicism;David Martin, with the evangelical Protestant upsurge not only in the Western world but also in Latin America, Africa, the Pacific rim, China, and Eastern Europe; Jonathan Sacks, with Jews and politics in the modern world; Abdullahi A. An-Na'im, with political Islam in national politics and international relations; Grace Davie, with Europe as perhaps the exception to the desecularization thesis; and Tu Weiming, with religion in the People's Republic of China.

Quality-of-life in individidualistic society: A comparison in 43 nations in the early 1990's

Abstract: In the process of modernization, western societies became more individualistic. Ever since there have been claims that this development will create an unlivable society. Humans would need a Gemeinschaft and would wither in Gesellschaft. This classic idea lives in present day 'communitarism' and inspires pleas for the strengthening of moral bonds and preserving the welfare state. This paper reports an empirical test of the claim that quality-of-life is poor in individualized society. It compares 43 nations in the early 1990's. Individualization is measured by three aspects: 1) moral appreciation of individualism, 2) opportunity to choose, and 3) capability to choose. Next overall individualization is measured by means of an expert-estimate. Quality-of-life in nations is measured by the citizen's subjective appreciation of life as assessed in representative surveys. The data show a clear positive relationship, the more individualized the nation, the more citizens enjoy their life. This suggests that the benefits of individualization are greater than its costs. Inspection of the scattergrams shows a linear relationship. There is no pattern of diminishing returns. This indicates that individualization has not yet passed its optimum. The relationship appears to be contingent to level of education and economic prosperity. Positive correlations appear only among the most knowledgeable and prosperous nations. This suggests that the misgivings about individualization apply more to the past than to the future.

Developing Difference: Social Organization and the Rise of the Auto Industries of South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, and Argentina

Abstract: Theories of economic development as diverse as modernization, dependency, world-system, and market reform take a "critical factor" view. Proponents of each theory argue that countries fail to develop because of an obstacle to economic growth. We argue instead that neither a critical factor nor a single path leads to economic development; viable paths vary. Economic growth depends on linking a country's historically developed patterns of social organization to the opportunities of global markets. We formulate a sociological theory of cross-national comparative advantage including not only economic factor endowments but also institutionalized patterns of authority and organization. Such patterns legitimize certain actors and certain relationships among those actors, which facilitate development success in some activities but not in others. We illustrate this approach to understanding development outcomes with a comparative analysis of the difficult rise of the automobile assembly and components industries in South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, and Argentina.

Multiple Modernities in an Age of Globalization

Abstract: Recent events and developments — especially the continual processes of globalization and the downfall of the Soviet regime — have indeed sharpened the problem of the nature of the modern, contemporary world. Indeed, as we are approaching the end of the twentieth century, new visions or understandings of modernity, of modern civilization are emerging throughout the world, be it in the West — Europe, the United States — where the first cultural program of modernity developed, or among Asian, Latin American and African societies. All these developments call out to a far-reaching reappraisal of the classical visions of modernity and modernization.

Discovering Chinese nationalism in China : modernization, identity, and international relations

Abstract: 1. Discovering Chinese nationalism in China 2. Nationalism and Statism: decentralization vs centralization 3. Identity crisis, the New Left and anti-West sentiment 4. The clash of civilizations? Confucian vs Christian civilizations 5. 'Comprehensive national power': China's perception of National interest 6. The politics of official discourse against 'anti-China' theories 7. Identity transition and Chinese power: whither China's new nationalism?

Americanization and its limits : reworking US technology and management in post-war Europe and Japan

Abstract: Chapter 1: Introduction: Americanization and Its Limits: Reworking US Technology and Management in Post-War Europe and Japan PART I: EXPORTING THE AMERICAN MODEL? Chapter 2: Americanization: Ideology or Process? The Case of the US Technical Assistance and Productivity Program Chapter 3: Transplanting the American Model? US Automobile Companies and the Transfer of Technology and Management to Europe after the Second World War PART II: REWORKING US TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT: NATIONAL, SECTORAL, AND FIRM-LEVEL VARIATIONS A: BRITAIN AND SWEDEN Chapter 4: Americanizing British Engineering? Strategic Debate, Selective Adaptation, and Hybrid Innovation in Post-War Reconstruction Chapter 5: Failure to Communicate: British Telecommunications and the American Lesson Chapter 6: Creative Cross-Fertilization and Uneven Americanization of Swedish Industry: Sources of Innovation in Post-War Motor Vehicles and Electrical Manufacturing B: FRANCE AND ITALY Chapter 7: A Slow and Difficult Process: The Americanization of the French Steel Producing and Using Industries after World War II Chapter 8: Remodelling the Italian Steel Industry: Americanization, Modernization, and Mass Production Chapter 9: Mass Production or 'Organized Craftsmanship'? The Post-War Italian Automobile Industry C: GERMANY AND JAPAN Chapter 10: The Long Shadow of Americanization: The German Rubber Industry and the Radial Tire Revolution Chapter 11: The Evolution of the 'Japanese Production System': Indigenous Influences and American Impact Chapter 12: American Occupation, Market Order, and Democracy: Reconfiguring the Japanese and German Steel Industries after World War II

The State, the Financial System and Economic Modernization

Abstract: Through an examination of a wide variety of financial systems in Europe, and North and South America over approximately 150 years of change, this book demonstrates the key role that finance has played in economic change, and in the development of diverse financial systems. Insights into the primacy of the state's role in the financial development of the pre-industrial era have not been carried over into the historiography of the industrial era itself, so the discoveries detailed in this book have never been brought together in a systematic manner. This book therefore aims to demonstrate through comparative historical analysis, the richness of the history of modern financial systems, and to restore the state to its primary role in the shaping of those systems. This book makes an interesting contribution to financial historiography, thus will be of interest to economists and financial, economic and world historians.

Civility, Social Capital, and Civil Society: Three Powerful Concepts for Explaining Asia

Abstract: Civility, Social Capital, and Civil Society: Three Powerful Concepts for Explaining Asia Many knowledgeable people believe that developments in East and Southeast Asia will vindicate the theory that successful economic growth can set the stage for political democracy. Two decades of rapid economic growth there hold out the promise that the arrival of democracy may not be far behind. First Japan and then South Korea and Taiwan broke from their one-party, authoritarian traditions to become plausible democracies. Their achievements have given hope that China and the economically developing Southeast Asian countries will follow the same path. Such, after all, was the implicit expectation in much of modernization theory, including the assumption that foreign economic aid would, by facilitating economic development, prepare the way for transitions to democracy. Current practices from Singapore to Beijing, however, are a cause for concern. Not only have there been no smooth transitions from economic to political change in these countries, but numerous Asian leaders are now insisting that such a sequence is neither inevitable nor desirable. In contrast to the dominant thinking in Asia during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century that these societies had to take on new values in order to make both

Financial Strain, Social Relations, and Psychological Distress Among Older People: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

Abstract: Objectives. This article examines how financial strain and social relations may independently and jointly influence psychological distress among older people in four nations. Methods. Data from four Western Pacific nations (N = 3,277) are used to test additive and multiplicative models of the relationships between financial strain, social relations, and psychological distress. Results. Financial strain is associated with higher levels of psychological distress in three of the four nations. Interactive models of the effects of financial strain and social relations on distress were uncovered in three of the four nations, but the type of social relation influencing the strain-distress relationship varied. Subjective health and IADLs were significant predictors of psychological distress in all four nations. Discussion. Findings suggest that although financial strain is quite likely to lead to psychological distress among elders, this can be mitigated, at least in part, by social relationships. Modernization was not associated with higher psychological distress.

British urban policy : an evaluation of the urban development corporations

Abstract: PART ONE: URBAN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS IN CONTEXT Assessing Urban Policy and the Urban Development Corporations - Rob Imrie and Huw Thomas PART TWO: THE BRITISH URBAN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS: POLICIES AND PRACTICES Turning the East End into the West End - Sue Brownill The Lessons and Legacies of the London Docklands Development Corporation Urban Development Corporations, Urban Entrepreneurialism and Locality - Richard Meegan The Merseyside Development Corporation Urban Policy, Modernisation and the Regeneration of Cardiff Bay - Huw Thomas and Rob Imrie Tyne and Weir UDC - Turning the Uses Inside Out - David Byrne Active Deindustrialisation and its Consequences 'Good Conservative Policies Translated into Practice' - Fred Robinson, Keith Shaw and Marty Lawrence The Case of the Teesside Development Corporation Urban Policy in Sheffield - Gordon Dabinett and Peter Ramsden Regeneration, Partnerships and People 'Out of Touch, Out of Place, Out of Time' - Nick Oatley and Andrew May A Valediction for Bristol Development Corporation Rescripting Urban Regeneration the Mancunian Way - Iain Deas et al PART THREE: PROSPECTS FOR URBAN POLICY New Deal or No Deal for People-Based Regeneration? - Bob Colenutt Just Another Failed Urban Experiment? - Allan Cochrane The Legacy of the Urban Development Corporations

Religious institutions and transnationalism: A case study of catholic and evangelical Salvadoran immigrants

Abstract: Modern social science theory assumed that as modernization and scien tific rationalism took hold in society religion would wither. Religion, how ever, has not only persisted, but in some respects, its importance seems to have increased. One may even argue that, throughout the world, religious groups now constitute some of the most important forms of social organiza tion and sources of worldviews (Rudolph 1997). For those who find them selves part of increasingly more encompassing global population move ments, religion provides a unique way both to make sense of their predicament and to bridge new realities with experiences in their home lands. For migrants, religious participation offers not just a way to express and interpret their individual interests and to remain connected to their origin communities; it also provides a link to churches and religious organi zations that maintain an active collective engagement by creating and shap ing transnational spaces. In fact, it has been argued that in today's post modern age, religious communities have become vital agents in the creation of transnational civil society (Rudolph 1997: 1). This paper seeks to examine religious institutions as they shape Salva doran immigrants' links to their communities of origin. It will focus on the Catholic and evangelical churches' organizational structures as they sometimes coincide?even promote?but, at other times, conflict with the immigrants' own interests to sustain ties with their homelands. A focus on the organizational and institutional structures of these religious groups provides an important angle from which to examine how these structures enable or constrain the creation of transnational spaces.1 An ethnically heterogeneous and highly bureaucratized church that operates worldwide that is confronted with a multicultural membership locally, will likely adopt strategies aimed at uniting its membership, creating new "pan" identities in

Turkish women's predicament.

Abstract: Synopsis — To the foreign observer, Turkish women constitute an anomaly amongst Muslim societies. Since the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Turkey has engaged in a project of modernization and secularization. As part and parcel of this process of modernization, Turkish women have been granted social, political, and legal rights. Despite Kemalist reforms of the 1920s, the basics of male domination stayed intact. It is this paradoxical character of Kemalist reforms that this article emphasises. The legal equality granted to Turkish women did not succeed in their emancipation. The image of Turkey as the only modern, secular, democratic country in the Islamic Middle East has been an effective distortion, concealing many truths about Turkey. The author proposes that the Mediterranean culture, the Islamist traditions, and the Kemalist ideology act together in perpetuating the oppression of women in Turkey and keep patriarchy intact. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Macrohistory: Essays in Sociology of the Long Run

Abstract: List of figures Introduction: the golden age of macrohistorical sociology 1 Maturation of the state-centered theory of revolution and ideology 2 The geopolitical basis of revolution: the prediction of the Soviet collapse 3 'Balkanization' or 'Americanization': a geopolitical theory of ethnic change 4 Democratization from the outside in: a geopolitical theory of collegial power 5 German-bashing and the theory of democratic modernization 6 Market dynamics as the engine of historical change 7 An Asian route to capitalism Appendices Notes Bibliography Index

The People’s Liberation Army in the Information Age

Abstract: : This volume is the product of a conference, jointly sponsored by the RAND Center for Asia-Pacific Policy (CAPP) and the Taiwan-based Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies (CAPS), held in San Diego, California, from 9-12 July 1998. The meeting brought together Chinese military experts to discuss a subject too long ignored: the non-hardware side of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA's) modernization. The result is a comprehensive examination of the critical "software" side of China's military modernization, covering topics as diverse as civil-military relations, professionalism, logistics, training, doctrine, systems integration, and force structure, whereas financial and logistical support for the conference was supplied by CAPS and CAPP, funding for the publication of this volume was provided by RAND's Project AIR FORCE Strategy and Doctrine Program, under the leadership of Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad. This program is in the third year of a comprehensive study of issues related to Chinese military and security affairs for the United States Air Force; the project is entitled "Chinese Defense Modernization and Its Implications for the U.S. Air Force." It focuses on the fundamental question of how U.S. policy should deal with China, a rising power that could have the capability, in the not too distant future, of challenging the U.S. position in East Asia and its military, political, and economic access to that dynamic and important region. It then addresses the implications for the Air Force, in the areas of shaping the environment, deterrence, and war fighting. To achieve these objectives, RAND is building a "Center of Excellence" for the study of China and the PLA.

Locating Environmental Education between Modern Capitalism and Postmodern Socialism: A Reply to Lucie Sauve.

Abstract: In countries as diverse as Belgium, Mexico, Bangladesh and China, 1998 brought severe flooding which threatened the lives and livelihoods of countless millions of people. More and more disaster experts, development agencies, and citizens' groups are supporting the theory that the globalisation of economies is largely responsible for such human misery. Structural adjustment programmes, deregulation and the opening of markets may be good for international capital, but such processes increase inequalities, encourage people and countries to over-exploit natural resources, and contribute to reductions in spending on social and environmental welfare. The global environmental crisis cannot be separated from the global economic crisis and any analysis of the causes and possible solution to environmental problems should start from this fact.

Ecological modernization and the environmental transition of Europe: between national variations and common denominators

Abstract: Environmental policies and politics in the countries of the European Union (EU) have transformed dramatically over the past two decades. Ecological modernization theory has tried to understand and capture the nature of the transformations from the mid-1980s onwards, having a limited number of North-west European nations as its empirical base. This article reviews the development of ecological modernization ideas for analysing such environmental reforms, especially focusing on the tension between national variations reported in empirical research and common denominators claimed by ecological modernization theorists. The article concludes that (i) since the empirical basis on which ecological modernization ideas are founded (environmental reforms in North-west Europe) shows remarkable diversity, we do not have to be too afraid of diversity and other regional ‘variations’ of ecological modernization ideas; and (ii) there is still sufficient common ground among national variations and sufficient distinction a...

‘Public Service’, ‘Public Management’ and the ‘Modernization’ of French Public Administration

Abstract: Since the mid-1980s, successive French governments have attempted to ‘modernize’ the structures and methods of public administration. Although this vocabulary of ‘modernization’ is distinctly French, many of the actual reforms appear, at first sight, to be based on imported ‘new public management’ doctrines. In this article, we analyse the recent French reforms and the ideas underpinning them and we attempt to locate these reforms in their comparative context, employing data from a wide range of official reports and secondary sources and from a series of semi-structured interviews with senior officials. We build on the analyses of Hood (1991 and 1995) and Wright (1994) that if many governments are dealing with similar problems by adopting similar approaches to reforms based on private sector man-agement methods, the actual nature of the reforms in any individual state depends on the national context, or ‘initial endowment’. In France, the importance of administrative law, the successful experience of nationalized, monopoly, public-service providers in the post-war period, the political weight and established rights of civil servants, and the idea of the ‘general interest’, represented at the local level by the prefect, explain many of the distinctive features of the hybrid modernization reforms. In short, an analysis of the policy of modernization and its origin leads to conclusions which are highly consistent with new institutional explanations of policy making (Hall 1987)

The Perfect Path: Gay Men, Marriage, Indonesia

Abstract: GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies THE PERFECT PATH Gay Men, Marriage, Indonesia Tom Boellstorff J n a 1997 ad for Ciputra Hotels that appeared in the Indonesian national airline’s in-flight magazine, a smiling Balinese dancer in bejeweled “traditional” garb stands juxtaposed to glittering hotel facades. The ad proclaims that “Indonesia is also home to Asia’s newest hotel concept. . . . While tradition thrives in Indo- nesia, the world’s most modern concepts are equally at home” (fig. 1). Presumably, one of these “modern concepts” is the “Western” male business traveler, who will feel “at home” under the domestic attentions of the female staff.’ It hardly takes a subversive reading to see that the ad constructs Indo- nesia as a hybrid of tradition, gendered female, and modernity, gendered male. This binarism has a long history, extending from colonialism to modernization theory. Many non-“Western” intellectuals have addressed its symbolic violence, including the man many consider Indonesia’s greatest living author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer. His novel Footsteps, which opens in 1901, is set in the late colonial period but speaks by analogy to the Indonesia of the 1970s and 1980s, when it was written. The protagonist, Minke, has just come from Surabaya to the capital, known informally as Betawi. Alone and poor but on his way to medical school and a “modern” career, Minke frames his arrival as a change of time as well as place: Into the universe of Betawi I go-into the universe of the twentieth century. And, yes, to you too, nineteenth century-farewell! . . . People say only the modern man gets ahead in these times. In his hands lies the fate of humankind. You reject modernity? You will be the plaything of all those forces of the world operating outside and around you. I am a modern person. . . . And modernity brings the loneliness of orphaned humanity, cursed to free itself from unnecessary ties of custom, blood-even the land, and if need be, from others of its kind.2 GLQ 5:4 pp. 475-510 Copyright 0 1999 by Duke University Press Published by Duke University Press from

Reflexive Modernization and Beyond Knowledge and Value in the Politics of Environment and Technology

Abstract: The relationship between knowledge and values, experts and lay people, represents a major issue of the debate involving environment and technology. There is a growing awareness that the connection between value commitments and technical solutions, scientific expertise and lay competence, is much more entangled than once was believed. The article deals with this issue by analysing Robert Dahl's `minipopulus' and Silvio Funtowicz and Jerry Ravetz's `extended peer communities' arguments. They are subsequently inserted into the sociological debate which is, at present, considerably influenced by the reflexive modernization framework. As a result, Ulrich Beck's and Anthony Giddens' theories appear as one of four ideal-typical approaches to the social construction of the issues that can be outlined, according to the priority assigned to knowledge versus power and nature versus society. The idea of an `extended peer review' of problems and solutions is remarkably close to the deliberative democracy concept. Howe...

China's Strategic Modernization: Implications for the United States

Abstract: : Conventional wisdom portrays the People's Republic of China (PRC) People's Liberation Army (PLA) as a backward continental force that will not pose a military challenge to its neighbors or to the United States well into the 21st century. PLA writings that demonstrate interest in exploiting the revolution in military affairs (RMA) are dismissed by a large segment of the PLA-watching community as wistful fantasies. Major Mark A. Stokes, assistant air attache' in Beijing from 1992-1995, offers an alternative perspective. In this study, funded by the United States Air Force Institute for National Security Studies, he outlines emerging PLA operational concepts and a range of research and development projects that appear to have been heavily influenced by U.S. and Russian writings on the RMA. Fulfillment of the PLA's vision for the 21st century could have significant repercussions for U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region. Major Stokes ventures into facets of PLA modernization that are often ignored. Backed by extensive documentation, he argues that the revolutionary modernization of the PRC's telecommunications infrastructure, a robust space-, air-, and ground-based sensor network, and prioritization of electronic attack systems could enable the PLA to gain information dominance in future armed conflicts around its periphery. Information dominance would be further boosted by China's traditional emphasis on information denial and deception.

Buddhism in Taiwan: Religion and the State, 1660-1990

Abstract: Examines the institutional and political history of Chinese Buddhism in Taiwan. The text seeks to shed light on the ways in which changing social circumstances have impacted Buddhist thought and practice and it traces Buddhism's development on the island from Qing times through to the late 1980s. It looks in particular at a number of significant changes that modernization had brought: the decline in clerical ordinations; the increasing prominence of nuns within the monastic order; the enhanced role of the laity; alterations in the contents of lay precepts; and the founding or large, international organizations.

The Natural and the Artefactual: The Implications of Deep Science and Deep Technology for Environmental Philosophy

Abstract: In this book, philosopher Keekok Lee challenges one of the central assumptions of contemporary environmentalism: that if we could reduce or eliminate pollution we could 'save' the planet without unduly disrupting our modern, industrialized societies. Lee argues instead that the process of modernization, with its attendant emphasis on technological innovation, has fundamentally transformed 'nature' into just another manmade 'artefact.' Ultimately, what needs to be determined is if nature has value above and beyond human considerations, whether aesthetic, spiritual, or biological. This provocative book attempts to reconfigure environmental ethics, positing the existence of two separate ontological categories-the 'natural' and the 'artefactual.' Natural entities, be they organisms or inert matter, are 'morally considerable' because they possess the ontological value of independence, whereas artefacts are created by humans expressly to serve their own interests and ends.

Social cohesion and conflict prevention in Asia : managing diversity through development

Abstract: The regional consultation on social cohesion and conflict management gave experts and practitioners in key fields of economic, social, and political development an opportunity to exchange views on fault lines in societies, the root causes of violent conflict, and the lessons to be drawn from past policies and programs for managing diversity. The papers included in this volume, and the discussions at the consultation, identified a variety of traditional obstacles to social cohesion and integration in the region, ranging from xenophobic nationalism to deep-seated poverty, socioeconomic disparities, gender inequality, and ethnic, religious, and cultural discrimination and exclusion. Among the topics explored were the need for new early-warning indicators and development responses to problems of social cohesion and conflict prevention. Some participants took the view that rising ethnic and religious sentiments have not fundamentally challenged the trends toward improved governance and a market-oriented economic order and observed that globalization could be a positive force for balancing state excesses. They agreed, however that modernization and globalization have led to increased disparities between the rich and poor and the growing exclusion and marginalization of certain groups, making the prospects for peaceful development less predictable.

IT-enabled credit risk modernization: a revolution under the cloak of normality

Abstract: This paper focuses on IT-enabled credit risk modernisation in commercial retail banking. The empirical material is based upon a longitudinal case study conducted during 1993–1996 using an interpretive approach. It documents the introduction of a leading-edge computer-based decision support system into middle market corporate lending processes in a major UK retail bank. An analysis is constructed against the backcloth of contemporary social theory with the aim of stimulating debate regarding the ethics and politics of corporate risk positions. It is suggested that changes to the definition, assessment and management of credit risk in a major financial services institution, implemented through the introduction of a new technology and enacted in everyday acts of normal consumption, need debating. The paper concludes by asserting that if we turn aside from our responsibility to challenge the epistemological basis of contemporary risk assessment and management we may find that our social, political and economic landscape has changed without our consent.

Modernity: a non-European conceptualization.

Abstract: In the light of insights drawn from historical sociology and Parsons' theory of differentiation/modernization, an attempt is made to conceptualize modernity in such a way as to avoid both eurocentrism and the total rejection of the concept by those who view it as an ideological means for the further advancement of western cultural imperialism.

The One-Way Mirror of Leisure Research: A Need for Cross-National Social Scientific Perspectives

Abstract: The modernization of the world economy and information systems leads, presumably, to globalization in all areas, including leisure research. To explore this idea, the level of cross-national research published in leading leisure-science journals, including the Journal of Leisure Research , Leisure Sciences , and Leisure Studies was examined. F ollowing the dramatic shift toward globalization in the past 20 years, it was assumed leisure-science research would reflect an increase in cross-national research published. Using content analysis, 1352 published articles were reviewed and just 20 (1.5%) of these were cross-national. Reasons for this pattern are discussed, along with a call for scholars in the leisure sciences to shift toward a more international perspective.

Risk in the modern age : social theory, science, and environmental decision-making

Abstract: List of Figures List of Tables List of Contributors Preface SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION Sociology, Social Theory, and Risk: An Introductory Discussion M.J.Cohen SECTION 2: CRITIQUES OF RISK AND RATIONALITY The Rational Action Paradigm in Risk Theories: Analysis and Critique O.Renn, C.Jaeger, E.A.Rosa & T.Webler Menus of Choice: The Social Embeddedness of Decisions K.Purcell, L.Clarke & L.Renzulli SECTION 3: THEORETICAL EXTENSIONS OF THE RISK SOCIETY Dealing with Environmental Risks in Reflexive Modernity J.Hogenboom, A.Mol & G.Spaargaren The Risk Society Reconsidered: Recreancy, The Division of Labor, and Risks to the Social Fabric W.R.Freudenburg SECTION 4: EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENTS OF REFLECTIVE MODERNIZATION Outsiders Just Don't Understand: The Need for Contextual Inquiry About Life in the Contaminated World M.Edelstein The Exxon Valdez Disaster as Localized Environmental Catastrophe: Dis(similarities) to the Risk Society J.S.Picou & D. Gill SECTION 5: RISK AND ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION-MAKING Discovering and Inventing Extreme Environments: Sociological Knowledge and Publics At Risk S.R.Couch, S.Kroll-Smith & J.Kinder Scientific Evidence or Lay People's Experience? On Risk and Trust with Regard to Modern Environmental Threats R.Lidskog Taming Risks Through Dialogue: The Social Function of Discursive Institutions in Late Modernity K.Eder Section 6: CONCLUSION An Historical Perspective on Risk D.Lowenthal Index

State Building and Religious Resources: An Institutional Theory of Church-State Relations in Iran and Mexico:

Abstract: In the past several decades, religion has made a surprising and dramatic resurgence in political life. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 reminded scholars of the mobilizing power of religious fundamentalism. In Latin America, evangelical protestantism has been altering the social arena and influencing presidential elections in countries such as Columbia, Guatemala, and Peru. Likewise, religious movements are transforming the political landscape in nations as diverse as Algeria, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, Tibet, and the United States, to name just a few. Scholars have been quick to note the importance of the resurgence of religious politics, inspiring Samuel Huntington to posit that future political conflict will not be between states but between “civilizations” or “cultures,” of which religion is a primary component. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences considered the topic worthy enough to fund a four-volume, cross-disciplinary study—The Fundamentalism Project—examining the changing role of religion in societies around the globe. The growing interest in religion and politics is a recent phenomenon. Influenced by modernization theory, the reigning notion among political scientists prior to the 1980s was that as societies industrialized, religion would fade into the

The study of industrial labour in post-colonial India—The informal sector: A concluding review

Abstract: Though many had expected that industrialisation would lead India to both a modernisation of production and a universal 'freeing' of labour, this has not happened. Instead new forms of tying labour ...