Analysing social change has too often been characterized by parochialism, either a Eurocentrism that projects European experience outwards or a disciplinary narrowness that ignores insights from other academic disciplines. This book moves beyond these limits to develop a global perspective on social change. The book provincializes Europe in order to analyse European modernity as the product of global developments and brings together renowned scholars from international relations, history and sociology in the search for common understandings. In so doing, it provides a range of promising theoretical approaches, analytical takes and substantive research areas that offer new vistas for understanding change on a global scale.

Since the 1970s, various sociological approaches have tried to understand and conceptualize "the global," yet few of them have systematically addressed the full spectrum of social relationships. Prominent exponents of the global approach - such as world systems analysis - instead have focused on particular domains such as politics or the economy. Under the label of "world society," however, some authors have suggested alternatives to the predominant equivocation of society and the nation-state. The contributions to this volume share that objective and take their point of departure from the two most ambitious projects of a theory of world society: world polity research and systems theory, mapping out the common ground and assessing their potential to inform empirical analyses of globalization.

Since the 1970s, various sociological approaches have tried to understand and conceptualize the global, yet few of them have systematically addressed the full spectrum of social relationships. Prominent exponents of the global approach - such as world systems analysis - instead have focused on particular domains such as politics or the economy. Under the label of world society, however, some authors have suggested alternatives to the predominant equivocation of society and the nation-state. The contributions to this volume share that objective and take their point of departure from the two most ambitious projects of a theory of world society: world polity research and systems theory, mapping out the common ground shared by world polity research and systems theory and assessing their potential to inform empirical analyses of globalization.

This volume contains an Open Access chapter. We have witnessed an avalanche of quantitative public measures over the past decades. Research in the social sciences has shown that rankings in particular are now a driving force of social change - both, desired and undesired - in many areas of modern life. This volume explores the distinct allure of rankings in diverse empirical settings such as healthcare, the IT sector, the arts, professional sports, anti-slavery advocacy, the pharma industry, and educational governance. Drawing from a rich variety of social theories and methodologies, the contributions to this volume advance our understanding of the production, institutionalization, and effects of rankings significantly, sparking new debates and suggesting promising pathways forward.

Analysing social change has too often been characterized by parochialism, either a Eurocentrism that projects European experience outwards or a disciplinary narrowness that ignores insights from other academic disciplines. This book moves beyond these limits to develop a global perspective on social change. The book provincializes Europe in order to analyse European modernity as the product of global developments and brings together renowned scholars from international relations, history and sociology in the search for common understandings. In so doing, it provides a range of promising theoretical approaches, analytical takes and substantive research areas that offer new vistas for understanding change on a global scale.

Der Band versammelt Beitrage zu einem Thema, das in der Globalisierungsforschung in den letzten Jahren zunehmendes Interesse gefunden hat, zu dem aber noch Publikationen fehlen, die die theoretisch-vergleichende Auseinandersetzung mit dem Gegenstand vorantreiben. Hier anzuknupfen bietet sich insbesondere fur ein weltgesellschaftstheoretisches Forschungsinteresse an, dem an der Verbindung empirischer Globalisierungsforschung mit theoretischem Anspruch gelegen ist.

Rankings sind in der modernen Gesellschaft allgegenwartig: Athleten, Hotels, Nationalstaaten, Unternehmen, Universitaten, Kunsttreibende und viele andere sehen sich Leistungsvergleichen in der Form von regelmassig veroeffentlichen Ranglisten ausgesetzt. Die Beitrage des Sammelbandes nahern sich dem Phanomen aus einer genuin soziologischen Perspektive und untersuchen u.a. die Produktion, Verwendungsweisen, Institutionalisierung und Effekte von Rankings in unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Feldern.