Impressive strands of research have shown the emergent reality of increasing world-level interconnection in almost every field of social action. As a consequence, theories and models have been developed which are aimed at conceptualising this new reality along the lines of an institutionalised World Culture. This offers a new understanding of the worldwide diffusion of specifically modern i.e. mainly Western rules, ideologies and organisational patterns, and of attendant harmonisation and standardisation of fields of social action.

World Culture theories have not gone unchallenged. Rather, cross-cultural studies have revealed much more complex processes of regional fragmentation and (re-)diversification; of the refraction, appropriation, and hybridisation, through distinct socio-cultural conditioning, of world-level models and ideas; and of the ongoing effectiveness both of structural path-dependencies and of specifically cultural aspects such as collective memories, social meanings, and religious (or ideological) belief systems. Comparative research has thus highlighted an intricate simultaneity of contrary currents: of the increasing world-level interconnection of communication and exchange relations on the one hand, and, on the other, the persistence of context-specific interpretations, translations, and deviation-generating re-contextualisations of world-level forces and challenges.

This research provides the theoretical "problematique" that animates this volume. The chapters explore the conceptual tools and explanatory power of theories and models which do not just oppose or reject World Culture theory, but are instead suited to complementing and differentiating it. The volume offers an enlightening conceptualisation of the intricate interaction of global processes with local agency, and of world-level forces with the self-evolutionary potentials inherent in specific contexts, socio-cultural structures, and distinctive meanings constellations.

This book was originally published as a special issue of "Comparative Education.""

Written by scholars and professionals from such organizations as the Council of Europe and the European Community, this volume provides a comprehensive examination of education throughout Europe. The particularities of national educational systems are of necessity within its purview, but overall organization of the volume reflects such thematic and regional concerns as the impact of social and economic integration on education, the modification of educational structures and curricula following the demise of communism in Eastern Europe, degree equivalency, the financing of educational change, privatization, the impact of migration and immigration, national concerns, intercultural education, and multiculturalism.

The volume's experts discuss European education's common heritage and the distinct national traditions it preserves. They deal with the interpretations of European education systems put forward in the shape of educational theories or reform-oriented programs, policies, and ideologies, as well as with the social actors, forces, and movements that have fuelled reform. The book's chapters also address the challenges European education has to face as a consequence of processes of change occurring at multiple levels: at the levels of cultural values, socio-political reconstruction, intercultural migration, supra-national integration, and ongoing global interconnection.

This volume explores the reception of John Dewey's ideas in various historical and geographical settings such as Japan, China, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Russia, and Germany, analyzing how and why Dewey's thought was interpreted in various ways according to mediating local discursive and ideological configurations and formations.

"This volume explores the reception of John Dewey's ideas in various historical and geographical settings such as Japan, China, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Russia, and Germany, analyzing how and why Dewey's thought was interpreted in various ways according to mediating local discursive and ideological configurations and formations"--

Impressive strands of research have shown the emergent reality of increasing world-level interconnection in almost every field of social action. As a consequence, theories and models have been developed which are aimed at conceptualising this new reality along the lines of an 'institutionalised' World Culture. This offers a new understanding of the worldwide diffusion of specifically modern - i.e. mainly Western - rules, ideologies and organisational patterns, and of attendant harmonisation and standardisation of fields of social action. World Culture theories have not gone unchallenged. Rather, cross-cultural studies have revealed much more complex processes of regional fragmentation and (re-)diversification; of the refraction, appropriation, and hybridisation, through distinct socio-cultural conditioning, of world-level models and ideas; and of the ongoing effectiveness both of structural path-dependencies and of specifically cultural aspects such as collective memories, social meanings, and religious (or ideological) belief systems. Comparative research has thus highlighted an intricate simultaneity of contrary currents: of the increasing world-level interconnection of communication and exchange relations on the one hand, and, on the other, the persistence of context-specific interpretations, translations, and deviation-generating re-contextualisations of world-level forces and challenges. This research provides the theoretical problematique that animates this volume. The chapters explore the conceptual tools and explanatory power of theories and models which do not just oppose or reject World Culture theory, but are instead suited to complementing and differentiating it. The volume offers an enlightening conceptualisation of the intricate interaction of global processes with local agency, and of world-level forces with the self-evolutionary potentials inherent in specific contexts, socio-cultural structures, and distinctive meanings constellations. This book was originally published as a special issue of Comparative Education.

Cet ouvrage traite, dans une perspective comparatiste internationale, de la construction de la notion de citoyennete et de sa circulation dans des espaces scolaires et sociaux a l'ere de la mondialisation. Cela se realise par la complementarite des expertises mobilisees et par la variete des contributions et des ancrages geoculturels de leurs auteurs. Il offre ainsi une diversite de regards analytiques sur le processus de mondialisation de l'education, vu sous l'angle de la gestion des identites, de la diversite et de la promotion de la citoyennete. Il invite a une lecture croisee des dynamiques culturelles, historiques et sociales dans des societes a la fois fragmentees et reliees entre elles.

The debate concerning the role of knowledge in the economic growth process has gained considerable attention, both because of the importance of its implications in terms of economic policy and due to the number of theoretical and empirical analyses it has engendered. Thus, the argument according to which endogenous growth models explain long-term economic growth is often put forward. It is held that the production of knowledge induces self-maintained economic growth. However, in spite of numerous theoretical developments, attempts at empirical verification have run up against serious methodological difficulties. The first and most serious stumbling block is the way in which an intangible good of incommensurable size such as knowledge is evaluated. Moreover, most of the empirical studies carried out in recent years have taken the form of cross-national comparisons designed to analyse the role of different socio-economic factors in growth. So far, however, they have not succeeded in making conclusive statements of whether or not knowledge can induce long-term economic growth. Taking this state of research into consideration, the main objective of the present volume is to re-examine, by way of new techniques of quantitative analysis, theoretical models developed with a view to ascertaining the endogenous nature of economic growth induced by the production of knowledge.