The media's coverage of religion is an important question for academic researchers, given the central role which news media play in ensuring that people are up-to-date with religion news developments. Not only is there a lack of treatment of the subject in other countries, but there is also the absence of comparative study on news and religion. A key question is how the media, the political system, the religions themselves, the culture, and the economy influence how religion is reported in different countries. Spiritual News: Reporting Religion Around the World is intended to fill this gap. The book is divided into six parts: an introductory section; the newsgathering process; religion reporting in different regions; media events concerning religion; political and social change and the role of religion news; future trends.

What is the effect of globalisation on nationalism, and conversely how does the persistence of the nation affect globalizing forces? Does globalisation spell the end of the nation-state and if so, what is it that accounts for the persistence of nationalism in the modern world? Nationalism and globalisation are two central phenomena of the modern world, that have both shaped and been shaped by each other, yet few connections have been made systematically between the two. This book brings together leading international scholars to examine the relationship between nationalism and globalisation. With a range of case studies from Europe, the US and Asia, the authors focus on the interaction between globalisation, national identity, national sovereignty, state-formation and the economy and consider the ways in which nationalism has shaped globalising processes. Divided into three parts: * Part one provides the theoretical framework, identifying the issues that arise from this interrelationship, exploring whether nationalism and globalization are conflicting or can be complementary. * Part two examines how nationalism has shaped and has been shaped by globalising forces in the past. * Part three focuses on contemporary issues, including regionalisation, migration and citizenship, finance and capitalism, and the emergence of transnational popular and elite cultures on the nation state and national identity. It will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, sociology, history, economics and international relations.

An interdisciplinary political economy perspective on globalization, discussing its characteristics, its problems for developing countries, and the relationship between globalization and European integration. A book not to be missed by anyone with an interest in globalization.

In this book, ten substantive chapters examine how collisions between technological developments (globalizing forces) and thickening populist pressures (localizing dynamics) constantly keep reinventing the state in unforeseen and unpredictable ways. We learn of how international organizations have fared, and to what extent grass-roots grumbles have impacted big-picture developments in quite diverse parts of the world. Just placing unfolding crises under the microscope cannot but generate policy-solving observations. Treated in corresponding order, these crises revolve around adjusting international institutions; absorbing current populist outbursts; shifting from peacekeeping to peacemaking; spying in the global south; absorbing displaced persons; Rwandan land reform; pandemic and RMG readjustments; Bangladesh's democratic transition; Rohingyan-Syrian refugees; and Mexico's 1990s liberalization. Though overarching, observations in the book accent state strength battling with state porosity; the downward spiraling of global order; and the simple lack of any controlling mechanism against globalizing/localizing dynamics in the trenches of everyday life being matched by continued uncertainty on the analytical plane.

At a time of societal urgency surrounding ecological crises from depleted fisheries to mineral extraction and potential pathways towards environmental and ecological justice, this book re-examines ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) from a historical and comparative perspective. The theory of ecologically unequal exchange posits that core or northern consumption and capital accumulation is based on peripheral or southern environmental degradation and extraction. In other words, structures of social and environmental inequality between the Global North and Global South are founded in the extraction of materials from, as well as displacement of waste to, the South. This volume represents a set of tightly interlinked papers with the aim to assess ecologically unequal exchange and to move it forward. Chapters are organised into three main sections: theoretical foundations and critical reflections on ecologically unequal exchange; empirical research on mining, deforestation, fisheries, and the like; and strategies for responding to the adverse consequences associated with unequal ecological exchange. Scholars as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from the spirited re-evaluation and extension of ecologically unequal exchange theory, research, and praxis.

Global society has been analyzed in any number of ways: books dealing with its economic and cultural implications flood the market. But Planetary Politics highlights something unique. It explores globalization with an eye on the transformation of politics into a planetary enterprise. Unifying this collection is a political purpose: the attempt to engage in progressive fashion the dominant trends, the terrible excesses, and the positive prospects in a decidedly new era marked by the transition from a corrosive interplay between nation-states to a burgeoning planetary politics. Bringing together the work of major scholars with national and international reputations, this exciting new work offers perspectives for dealing with the complexity of power in the planetary life of the new millennium.

The Western liberal democratic world order, which seemingly triumphed following the collapse of communism, is looking increasingly fragile as populists and nationalists take power in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, as the momentum of democratization in developing countries stalls, and as Western liberal establishments fail to deal with economic stagnation, worsening political polarization, social inequality, and migrant crises. At the same time there is a shift of economic power from the West towards Asia. This book explores these critical developments and their consequences for the world order. It considers how far the loss of the West's power to dominate the world order, together with the relative decline of US power and its abdication of its global leadership role, will lead to more conflict, disorder and chaos; and how far non-Western actors, including China, India and the Muslim world, are capable of establishing visionary policy initiatives which reconfigure the paths and rules of economic integration and globalization, and the mechanisms of global governance. The book also assesses the sustainability of the economic rise of China and other non-Western actors, explores the Western liberal democratic order's capacity for resilience, and discusses how far the outlook is pessimistic or optimistic.

The Western liberal democratic world order, which seemingly triumphed following the collapse of communism, is looking increasingly fragile as populists and nationalists take power in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, as the momentum of democratization in developing countries stalls, and as Western liberal establishments fail to deal with economic stagnation, worsening political polarization, social inequality, and migrant crises. At the same time there is a shift of economic power from the West towards Asia. This book explores these critical developments and their consequences for the world order. It considers how far the loss of the West's power to dominate the world order, together with the relative decline of US power and its abdication of its global leadership role, will lead to more conflict, disorder and chaos; and how far non-Western actors, including China, India and the Muslim world, are capable of establishing visionary policy initiatives which reconfigure the paths and rules of economic integration and globalization, and the mechanisms of global governance. The book also assesses the sustainability of the economic rise of China and other non-Western actors, explores the Western liberal democratic order's capacity for resilience, and discusses how far the outlook is pessimistic or optimistic.

In this powerful book, William F. Felice argues that a new range of human rights duties for individuals, nation states, and global institutions has emerged in our modern interconnected era. He investigates the compelling ideas of ethical interdependence and new global human rights duties in four case studies: mass incarceration in the United States, LGBT rights in Africa, women's rights in Saudi Arabia, and environmental rights in China. Felice argues that in all four cases a "human-rights threshold" has been surpassed, and urgent action is needed to address unacceptable levels of human suffering. Beginning with a primer on how the international community through the United Nations has codified international human rights law, Felice explores the conflicts between rights, problems of compliance, and the difficulties that emerge when cultural and religious rights are privileged over the rights of individuals and groups. He shows that a robust normative framework of global governance and global citizenship is central to the actualization of human rights protection for all.

This book critically examines elements of America-First nationalism, neo-conservatism, neo-realism, neo-liberalism, environmental theories, and social constructionism by way of developing an "alternative realist" approach to the study of the origins of major power war. The author critiques concepts of "polarity" and "sovereign" decision making and diplomacy before developing the concept of "highly uneven polycentrism." The book then develops a unique comparative historical approach that seeks to compare and contrast the pre-World War I, pre-World War II, and Cold War eras with the contemporary post-Cold War period. It is argued that the US, as it remains the leading global hegemon, must fully engage in multilateral diplomacy with major friends and rivals alike in the establishment of differing forms of power sharing and joint sovereignty accords-in order to prevent the global system from polarizing into two contending alliances more reminiscent of both the pre-World War I and pre-World War II periods than the "new Cold War."

This edited volume analyses different forms of resistance against international institutions and charts their success or failure in changing the normative orders embodied in these institutions. Non-state groups and specific states alike advocate alternative global politics, at the same time finding themselves demonized as pariahs and outlaws who disturb established systems of governance. However, over time, some of these actors not only manage to shake off such allegations, but even find their normative convictions accepted by international institutions. This book develops an innovative conceptual framework to understand and explain these processes, using seven cases studies in diverse policy fields; including international security, health, migration, religion and internet politics. This framework demonstrates the importance of coalition-building and strategic framing in order to form a successful resistance and bring change in world politics.

This book explains the making of the South African state and thereby contributes to the development theory by analyzing the concept of the embedded neoliberal state. The author offers a theoretical exploration of state formation as an inherently interconnected international and domestic social process as applied to the history and development of South Africa. A genuine social science that eschews disciplinary boundaries, this will appeal to a wide audience of scholars in the fields of political development, political science, African and development studies.

This exciting book, available in paperback for the first time, provides an illuminating account of contemporary globalisation that is grounded in actual transformations in the areas of production and the workplace. It reveals the social and political contests that give 'global' its meaning, by examining the contested nature of globalisation as it is expressed in the restructuring of work. Rejecting conventional explanations of globalisation as a process that automatically leads to transformations in working lives, or as a project that is strategically designed to bring about lean and flexible forms of production, this book advances an understanding of the social practices that constitute global change. Through case studies that span from the labour flexibility debates in Britain and Germany, to the strategies and tactics of corporations and workers, the author examines how globalisation is interpreted and experienced in everyday life. Contestation, she argues, is about more than just direct protests and resistances. It has become a central feature of the practices that enable or confound global restructuring. This book offers students and scholars of international political economy, sociology and industrial relations an innovative framework for the analysis of globalisation and the restructuring of work. -- .

Under contemporary capitalism the extraction of value from the built environment has escalated, working in tandem with other urban processes to lay the foundations for the exploitative processes of gentrification world-wide. Global gentrifications: Uneven development and displacement critically assesses and tests the meaning and significance of gentrification in places outside the `usual suspects' of the Global North. Informed by a rich array of case studies from cities in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Southern Europe, and beyond, the book (re)discovers the important generalities and geographical specificities associated with the uneven process of gentrification globally. It highlights intensifying global struggles over urban space and underlines gentrification as a growing and important battleground in the contemporary world. The book will be of value to students and academics, policy makers, planners and community organisations.

Globalization is in retreat, but history tells us that this is but a temporary reversal. Globalization will return, but in what form? More cycles of boom and bust? Or can globalization be rebuilt on a more feasible and sustainable platform? These are the compelling questions that Michael Veseth tackles in this thoroughly revised and updated edition of his award-winning book. Veseth shows how pre-crash visions of globalization were based on three powerful myths: that global finance was a stable foundation for a global economy, that global markets homogenized and Americanized the world, and that globalization itself was irresistible impossible to shape or oppose at any level from the grassroots on up. The world economic crisis has revealed globalization's Achilles heel: the fundamental instability of global financial markets and the unsettled foundation of economic globalization generally. This realization is a necessary first step, but it alone is not enough. We must rethink the rest of globalization's myths, Veseth persuasively argues, if we want to move beyond boom and bust to a sustainable global future."

Political representation and democracy are at odds and we need new models to organize politics without relying so heavily on elected representatives. Similarly, capitalism undermines markets, as the rich and wealthy shield their assets and make them untenable for average earners. Elitism thus undermines both democracy and markets and we need to devise ways to limit the power of professional politicians, as well as the asset holdings of the rich so that the goods they hold can re-enter general markets. A broad array of institutions and laws have been enacted in different places and at different times to block economic elitism and protect democratic self-rule. This book presents a number of such cases, historical as well as contemporary, where solutions to the problem of political and economic elitism have successfully been practiced. It then compares these cases systematically, to determine the common factors and hence the necessary conditions for ensuring, and protecting self-rule and equal opportunity. This book encourages the idea that alternatives to representative, capitalist democracy are possible and can be put to practice.

This book analyzes the leadership ethics dilemma of whether the diaspora ought to vote specifically in their homeland franchise. This quagmire becomes even more complex in the case of Africa, where some diasporas participate in their countries' elections and others don't. It implies and goes beyond the mere question of "why" or what are the reasons behind the fact that members of some countries vote and those of other nations do not. The analysis contained in the book deals with whether it is right or wrong (good or bad; just or unjust; virtuous or immoral, desirable or undesirable) for citizens living overseas to participate in their countries' suffrages, and for the leaders of African countries to extend the franchise rights to their diaspora. Pedagogically, the book proposes an applied methodology of leadership decision-making based on ethical dilemmas, which instructors and learners of various disciplines, particularly those in leadership ethics, as well as global leaders might find useful. The combined DIRR (Description, Interpretation, Rehearsal and Re-discernment) proposed by Enomoto & Kramer (2007) and the prudent pragmatism by Bluhm & Heineman (2007) correspond to the traditional African "baobab tree" as a physical space of social and political conflict resolutions. In this book, the "baobab tree", an ethical arena of public debates, helps to weigh primarily the need for diaspora Africans to get the right to vote, as well as the social, political and economic benefits such a right, if it were granted, would entail for all the parties involved. Drawing from the examples of countries that have championed some form of democratic processes, including expatriate elections, the book brings to the forefront the crucial role of both the leadership of Africa and that of their diaspora in spearheading the continent on the path of sustainable development.

In this powerful book, William F. Felice argues that a new range of human rights duties for individuals, nation-states, and global institutions has emerged in our modern interconnected era. He investigates the compelling ideas of ethical interdependence and new global human rights duties in four case studies: mass incarceration in the United States, LGBT rights in Africa, women's rights in Saudi Arabia, and environmental rights in China. Felice argues that in all four cases a "human rights threshold" has been surpassed, and urgent action is needed to address unacceptable levels of human suffering. Beginning with a primer on how the international community through the United Nations has codified international human rights law, Felice explores the conflicts between rights, problems of compliance, and the difficulties that emerge when cultural and religious rights are privileged over the rights of individuals and groups. He shows that a robust normative framework of global governance and global citizenship is central to the actualization of human rights protection for all.

Human trafficking has come to be seen as a growing threat, and transnational advocacy networks opposed to human trafficking have succeeded in establishing trafficking as a pressing political problem. The meaning of human trafficking, however, remains an object of significant-and heated-contestation. This project draws upon feminist and poststructuralist international relations theories to offer a genealogy of U.S. neo-abolitionism. The analysis examines activist campaigns, legislative and policy debates, and legislation surrounding human trafficking and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in order to argue that the dominant US framing of trafficking as prostitution and sex slavery is not as hegemonic as scholars and activists commonly argue. In fact, constructions of human trafficking have become more amenable to reconfiguration, paradoxically in large part because of Evangelical attempts to widen the frame. This is an empirically novel and theoretically rich account of an urgent transnational issue of concern to activists, voters and policymakers around the globe.

Globalization is a phenomenon which has attracted much attention in the past, but there are still many questions that remain unanswered. This book categorizes globalization into three types: Financial Globalization, the collapse of the Cold War order and the ensuing convergence toward the capitalistic system; and the rise of the emerging nations. The globalization of capitalism has two implications. One is trust in the market economy system and support for a minimal state while another is an aspect of the Casino Capitalism as typically seen by the rampant emergence of hedge funds. This book explores both the light and shadows cast by globalization, endeavoring to identify both positive and problematic effects of the globalization process on the world economy. For this purpose we would first examine the nature and the feature of the world capitalism in relation to globalization. Then we would discuss and investigate the path along which important nations - first the developed nations (the USA, EU and Japan), followed by the emerging nations (BRICs) - have proceeded under the influence of globalization. Focusing on this phenomenon from diverse points of view, which is to be taken by the first-rank contributors in their fields, will be extraordinarily fruitful for understanding not only the world capitalism. This collection, from a selection of leading international contributors, will not only shed light on world capitalism as it is now, but will also offer pointers as to its future directions.

This book takes performance studies in exciting new directions, exploring the ways in which ethics can be used to understand the complex questions facing contemporary spectators. Engaging with five key performances, the book reflects on the emotional and intellectual impacts of politically inflected performance on spectators, critics and theorists.

The impact of globalisation is increasingly evident through both mass migration and the social, political, and economic changes that have produced new and growing social divides. The increased mobility and the opening of national borders that have arisen as part of these changes has also meant a rise in the diversification of migration (superdiversity) in all its forms. The multi-sited flows of people have also led to the flow of knowledge, culture, and languages. English - as a global language - has taken on a prominent role in the neoliberal discourses of commodification, value and distinction, and the role of language in the reproduction of social inequalities. This edited volume explores a range of issues related to the role of language. In particular, it addresses competency in English and multilingualism, both of which facilitate success for skilled migrants in the workplace and enable them to contribute to development efforts in their home communities. In more general terms, the book looks at the communicative competencies and language resources which skilled migrants require in order to engage productively in professional and development endeavours. It examines the notion that English is the linguistic capital for skilled migration, given its global status in higher education, development, and professional communication. This book was originally published as a special issue of Globalisation, Societies and Education.

In the wake of globalization, the humanities and social sciences have explored the existence and the possibilities of human community on a global scale. But these investigations have been developed within separate academic disciplines, with little exchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries. This book draws together a variety of perspectives to offer an interdisciplinary, and critical, examination of global community past and present. The volume opens with a contribution by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, one of the world's most renowned scholars in the humanities, then follows up with original contributions by established and promising young researchers from across the humanities and the social sciences. The chapters provide conceptual, normative and empirical investigations of global community, examining it through the lenses of postcolonialism, cosmopolitanism, world literature, transnational networks, and global ethics. The book contributes to a renewed debate about the past, present and future of global community, allowing for a broader and deeper understanding of these timely phenomena across disciplinary boundaries.

Since ancient times the exercise of individual freedom has been inseparable from the expansion of the market, driven by the search for profit. This force, namely capitalism, has stimulated human aggression and creativity in ways that have produced immense benefits. As capitalism has broadened its scope in the epoch of globalisation, so these benefits have become even greater. Human beings have been liberated to an even greater degree than hitherto from the tyranny of nature, from control by others over their lives, from poverty, and from war. The advances achieved by the globalisation of capitalism have appeared all the more striking when set against the failure of non-capitalist systems of economic organisation. However, capitalist freedom is a two-edged sword.In the epoch of capitalist globalisation, its contradictions have intensified. It threatens to produce intense conflict over access to scarce resources.

This book draws on the thought of Baudrillard to explore the effects of globalisation and tourism in a Thai context. Arguing that tourism does not necessarily erode local culture but that local culture can in fact be recreated through globalisation and tourism, the author employs studies of the Damnoen Saduk and Pattaya floating markets, showing them to be simulations of Thai culture that undergo changes of form, cultural content and activity, through various stages of representation. With a focus on the themes of the circulation of value and signs, the play of differences and orders of simulacra, this volume examines the extent to which Baudrillard's theory can apply in a non-western context and in relation to tourism. A study of consumption, tourism and the relations between the global and the local, Globalisation, Tourism and Simulacra will appeal to scholars of sociology and geography with interests tourism, globalisation and social theory.