The 38th World Congress of IIS addressed some of the most fundamental issues of sociological inquiry in light of global processes and the development of different fields of knowledge: What does it mean to be human? What is the nature of social as opposed to natural processes? How do efforts to map the social and political world interact with that world and with traditional sociological practices? What can we say about relationships between scientific, political and religious beliefs? This volume sets the stage for a sustained look at what social science can say about the twenty-first century and to address the theme of the congress in 2008: Sociology Looks at the 21st Century. From Local Universalism to Global Contextualism. Contributors are: Gustaf Arrhenius, Rajeev Bhargava, Craig Calhoun, Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, Yehuda Elkana, Raghavendra Gadagkar, Peter Hedstroem, Hans Joas, Hannes Kloepper, Ivan Krastev, Steven Lukes, Vinh-Kim Nguyen, Helga Nowotny, Shalini Randeria, Alan Ryan, Jyotirmaya Sharma, Christina Toren, Michel Wieviorka, Bjoern Wittrock, Petri Ylikoski.

There is a wealth of scholarship on tourism from a variety of different disciplines, but few attempts to synthesize its broad themes into a coherent analytical framework. This book addresses this problem by analyzing tourism in light of contemporary social theory. By focusing on tourism in terms of consumption, commodification, and the political and cultural economy, the relationships between tourism, globalization, people, and place are explored in an empirically grounded but theoretically informed analysis.

Mobile money, e-commerce, cash cards, retail credit cards, and more-as new monetary technologies become increasingly available, the global South has cautiously embraced these mediums as a potential solution to the issue of financial inclusion. How, if at all, do new forms of dematerialized money impact people's everyday financial lives? In what way do technologies interact with financial repertoires and other socio-cultural institutions? How do these technologies of financial inclusion shape the global politics and geographies of difference and inequality? These questions are at the heart of Money at the Margins, a groundbreaking exploration of the uses and socio-cultural impact of new forms of money and financial services.

In the past decade, the field of memory has been dramatically reconfigured. Global conditions have powerfully impacted on memory debates, and at the same time, claims to memory are negotiated globally. This is a fundamental shift, as until recently, the dynamics of memory production unfolded primarily within the bounds of the nation-state; coming to terms with the past was largely a national project. Under the impact of processes of globalization, this has changed fundamentally. Today it has become impossible to understand the trajectories of memory outside a global frame of reference. This book offers an innovative inroad into the various problematics of memory in a global age. It presents analytical categories to chart the terrain, and it supplies richly documented case studies that illustrate the complexities of contemporary ways of appropriating the past. Written from different cultural positions and from different disciplinary backgrounds, the collection of essays emphasizes the positionality of memory production as it is negotiated locally and globally.

Pursuing an interdisciplinary approach, this book offers detailed insights into the empirical relationships between overall social key figures of states and cultures in the fields of information and communication technology (ICT) (digital divide/inequality), the economy, education and religion. Its goal is to bridge the 'cultural gap' between computer scientists, engineers, economists, social and political scientists by providing a mutual understanding of the essential challenges posed and opportunities offered by a global information and knowledge society. In a sense, the historically unprecedented technical advances in the field of ICT are shaping humanity at different levels and forming a hybrid (intelligent) human-technology system, a so-called global superorganism. The main innovation is the combined study of digitization and globalization in the context of growing social inequalities, collapse, and sustainable development, and how a convergence towards a kind of global culture could take place. Accordingly, the book discusses the spread of ICT, Internet Governance, the balance between the central concentration of power and the extent of decentralized power distribution, the inclusion or exclusion of people and states in global communication processes, and the capacity for global empathy or culture.

Babel Inc. is an essential primer on the politics of globalisation and multiculturalism. Bolton demonstrates that conventional distinctions between the political left and right have been transcended by transnational corporations who regard the remnants of the nation-state as the last hurdle for global domination and the attainment of their "new world order."

Babel Inc. is an exposE of multiculturalism as a "social control mechanism" that scorches the earth in preparation for the coming of the rationale of global capitalism: homo globicus. This global man will be at home anywhere in the world because the world will be homogeneously liberal. If that idea seems farfetched now, perhaps at the conclusion of Babel Inc. it will seem less a possibility than a growing reality.

The strength of Bolton's book lies not just in his studious research of historical facts, but also in his ability to focuses on the theoretical root causes of the problem, i.e., the dynamics of the Enlightenment and its religion of Progress, coupled with the starry-eyed American Puritanism, whose violent and inhumane secular avatars can no longer be ignored.

"Dr. Kerry Bolton's book Babel Inc. Multiculturalism, Globalisation, and the New World Order has the potential to be truly explosive." -- Mark W. Dyal

Financial reform is often seen as the "achilles' heel" of the overall Chinese reform process: this book assesses the stability of the Chinese economy and the nature of its economic governance. Svenja Schlichting examines how internationalization has impacted on financial market development in China and how far this has contributed to the development of new institutions within China.

Assembling a high profile group of scholars and practitioners, this book investigates the interplay of forecasting; warnings about, and responses to, known and unknown transnational risks. It challenges conventional accounts of 'failures' of warning and preventive policy in both the academic literature and public debate.

Globalization may be the most hotly debated issue surrounding poverty. The benefits and costs of global economic integration are critical and complex. Is a globalized, free-market economy part of the solution to economic injustice or part of the problem? Are the international monetary systems pursuing policies that will reduce poverty or are they serving the interests of the wealthy? What do pro-poor policy reforms look like in the areas of trade and foreign investment? What kinds of immigration restrictions or reforms are consistent with the Christian faith? Should development aid be awarded only to well-governed, democratic countries? Would unrestrained economic growth imply environmental destruction? Economic Justice assembles leading economists to debate these and other issues surrounding globalization's effects on the poor. Writers urge an informed church to help identify the essentials of a Christian perspective on the societal, environmental and economic implications of globalization and to live accordingly.

The study of global governance has often led separate lives within the respective camps of International Political Economy and Foucauldian Studies. Despite vast differences in these approaches, Guzzini and Neumann's study recognises that ongoing changes in global governance go far beyond a proliferation of steering techniques and has a systems-changing potential. As politics becomes increasingly global in character and the number of agents attempting to govern grows, this in-depth range of case studies suggests the emergence of a global polity.

Shahar Hameiri argues that state building interventions are creating a new form of transnationally regulated statehood. Using case-studies from the Asia-Pacific, he analyzes the politics of state building and the implications for contemporary statehood and the global order.

This book analyzes social movements across a range of countries in the non-Western world: Bosnia, Brazil, Egypt, India, Iran, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Turkey and Ukraine in the period 2008 to 2016. The individual case studies investigate how political and social goals are framed nationally and globally, and the types of mobilization strategies used to pursue them. The studies also assess how, in the age of transnationalism, the idea of participatory democracy produces new collective-action frames and mass-mobilization strategies. The book challenges the view that most social movements unequivocally seek to achieve higher levels of democratization. Instead, the authors argue that protesters across different movements advocate more involved forms of citizen participation, since passive representation through liberal democratic institutions fails to address mass grievances and demands for accountability in many countries.

What is a 'global polity' and can it be squared with the continued strength of nation-states?
This book argues that our current understanding of globalization makes it impossible to grasp some crucial changes in world politics. Drawing innovatively on both Foucault and Waltz Constructing a Global Polity reframes the debate about global politics by redefining the term 'polity' as a new model of political structure. Unlike hierarchy and anarchy, polity draws attention to how new objects of governance such as the global economy or climate affect the structure of world politics.
Through this new lens the author examines the construction of a global polity in the controversy that followed the dramatic 'anti-globalization' protests at global elite gatherings. The findings challenge the standard typology of positions in the globalization debate and suggest that, even while states remain central, the logic of world politics may be shifting in more subtle ways.

Globalization has pushed China and India to the centre of the stage but what has been the impact on workers in these countries? This book demonstrates the complexity of the processes and responses at play. There are signs that both states are shifting their role in a 'counter movement from above'. But will this be enough to quell the social unrest?

This book assesses the challenge to the dominance of Euro-American political and economic liberalism from China’s emergence as a global presence. It does so by exploring China’s search for a balance between competition and integration in the global community. The paradox of resistance to global domination lies in the requirements of accumulating power locally in order to resist power globally. China presents the most significant present-day example of this dual process of participation and resistance, and so Jeremy Paltiel’s work in this book offers intriguing insights into the elusive prospect of equality in a system of global power.

"Post-NAFTA North America" uniquely combines an institutional examination of NAFTA with a geo-economic and geo-political approach. The author argues that in the post-9/11 era, North America is evolving from a primarily economic space to a strategic 'securitized' one and that NAFTA has been utilized by the US as a regulatory framework for dealing with the pressures of globalization that have emerged in the post-Cold War era.

Van der Westhuizen examines the remarkable similarity between the South African and Malaysian political economies, analyzes how Malay, Afrikaner, and African Nationalists have sought to make domestic demands for state intervention compatible with international pressures for economic liberalization, and shows what happens when they fail.

Globalization poses daunting challenges to state elites in the developing world. Caught between domestic expectations for state intervention to reduce inequalities on the one hand and global neo-liberal pressures for a liberalized economy on the other, the developing world bears the brunt of globalization's socially disruptive effects. For state elites in deeply divided societies like Malaysia and South Africa, the heightened potential for ethnic polarization makes the challenge twice as large. In both, state elites have sought to mitigate such polarization by embarking upon a program of ethnic redistribution with growth, that is, advancing subjugated ethnic majorities into the middle class through state intervention without fundamentally alienating the privileged ethnic minority upon whose economic dominance the process of social advance depends.

However, what happens if globalization prevents state elites from employing ethnic redistribution with growth? How do these state elites attempt to retain their legitimacy and what happens if they do not succeed? Van der Westhuizen examines these issues by showing how state elites in Malaysia and apartheid South Africa successfully pursued ethnic redistribuiton with growth during the heydays of Keynesianism and Fordism and the complexity of such a strategy in the post-Cold War, post-Fordist world of the competition state. He examines the ways in which Malaysia and South Africa have adapted to globalization by becoming competition states and the implication this process has for democratic consolidation. He provides a provocative analysis of particular interest to scholars, students, and researchers involved with development studies, international political economy, and comparative politics.

"At Home in the Chinese Diaspora" explores issues of memory and how memories are deployed and negotiated to re-establish a sense of belonging. This volume breaks new ground in analyzing the relationships between migrants' adjustment, assimilation, and remembering home through the focal point of memories. Some chapters focus conceptually on memories as social expressions, a locus of place, cultural capital, and imagination. Others explore the tensions and conflicts in representing and renegotiating memories through the world of literature and cinema.

Globalization and changes to statehood challenge our understanding of space and territory. This book argues that we must understand that both the modern state and globalisation are based on a cartographic reality of space. In consequence, claims that globalization represents a spatial challenge to state territory are deeply problematic.

This edited collection outlines the accomplishments, shortcomings, and future policy prospects of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, arguing that the Convention is not broad enough to confront the challenges concerning human rights, sustainability, and cultural diversity as a whole.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen documents the startling rise of the Arab Gulf States as regional powers with international reach and provides a definitive account of how they have become embedded in the global system of power, politics, and policy-making.

Diasporas have become a visible phenomenon of our world. Wherever we go in the major metropolitan world centres, we run into not only China and India "Towns", but we also witness the individual faces of old and recent immigrants from a variety of other nations flooding the airports, shopping centres and city parks. The impact of these "worlds on the move" on globalisation, migration and identity negotiations is the subject matter of this book.

The global centre of gravity continues to shift to the Asia-Pacific, the most dynamic region in the world. These economies have generally grown faster for longer periods of time than any other major region in world history. Their embrace of globalization has been a central feature, and driver, of their dynamism. The management of Asia-Pacific economic integration and globalization is crucial not only for the countries themselves but also for the state of the global economy, including importantly latecomer developing economies who look to the region for analytical and development policy lessons. Twenty-seven leading international authorities in the field, drawn from nine countries, provide a comprehensive examination of the causes, consequences and challenges of globalization, in a volume that celebrates the distinguished career of Professor Prema-Chandra Athukorala. Among the major issues examined are the region's distinctive approach to trade liberalization, the effects of economic growth on poverty reduction and the labour market, the special challenges of by-passed regions, the role of ideas in influencing policy making, the modalities of connecting to global production networks, and the importance of remittances in economic development. Several country case studies provide in-depth analyses of development processes and outcomes. These include episodes in economic development, the challenges faced by transition economies, the macroeconomics of adjusting to slower growth and rising debt in advanced economies, and the so-called middle-income trap phenomenon.

This edited collection captures the intersection between migration, mobility and childhood studies. Contributors explore under-researched child and youth short-term and micro movements within major migration fluxes that occur in response to migration and global change.

This book provides insights into the viability of the idea of global constitution. Global constitutionalism has emerged as an alternative paradigm for international law. However, in view of the complex and varied structure of contemporary constitutionalism, in reality it is extremely difficult to use constitutional law to provide a new paradigm for international law. The book argues that the cultural paradigm can offer functional tools for the global constitutionalism discourse. In other words, global constitutionalism could be handled in the context of a global "constitutional culture" instead of a global constitution. This would provide a more realistic basis for discussing global constitutionalization of a society as diverse as the international community, where a globalized polity and a globalized legal system have not yet been achieved.