One of the most significant global events in the last forty years has been the rise of China— economically, technologically, politically, and militarily. The question on people's minds for decades ...has been whether China will replace the United States as a superpower in the near future. But for China, this power must be comprehensive — having strong economic and militant forces are only two pieces of the puzzle. China must also possess soft power, such as attractive ideologies, values, and culture. China as Number One? explores China’s soft powers through the eyes of Chinese citizens. Utilizing data from the World Values Survey, the contributors to this collection analyze the potential soft power of a rising China by examining its residents' social values. A comprehensive study of changes and continuities in the political and social values of Chinese citizens, the book examines findings in the context of evolutionary modernization theory and cross-national comparison.
When looking at the impact of the political, territorial, and social transformations which occurred in Central and Eastern Europe after the defeat of the Central Powers in the First World War, an ...evidence check suggests that sport was deeply influenced by the sudden disappearance of the Habsburg Empire. This article examines the shift triggered in the relation between a 'centre' (e.g. Bucharest) and a 'periphery' (former Austro-Hungarian provinces) of sporting life by the political outcome of the First World War. The joy and difficulties surrounding the emergence of 'Greater Romania' were well highlighted in the field of sport by tensions which appeared mostly in internal competitions and debates, rather than in the international arena.
Abstract
In this paper, the author explores how development affects public opinions on an Islamic Leviathan as an appropriate political system in the Middle East. He asks the following: In the MENA ...region (Middle East and North Africa), what influences political attitudes toward the Islamic Leviathan? To answer this question, he looks at the influence of seven independent variables on attitudes toward the Islamic Leviathan as a state system. The seven variables are (1) society's overall development, (2) the socioeconomic class of respondents, (3) society's corruption, (4) religiosity, (5) education, (6) gender, and (7) age. The author finds the observations needed to assess his theory in the Carnegie Middle East Governance and Islam Dataset 1988-2014 (CMEGID), which includes 15,194 relevant observations throughout the MENA region. His findings show that societies' overall development has the most influence over Arab attitudes toward the Islamic Leviathan as an appropriate state system.
As a major source of social values, Modern Confucian theory assumes essential significance amidst the proliferation of instrumental rationality in contemporary China. This current is distinguished by ...a multifaceted attempt to revitalize traditional thought by means of new influences borrowed or derived from Western systems. It defines itself with a search for a synthesis between “Western” and traditional Chinese thought, aiming to elaborate a new system of ideas and values, suitable for the modern, globalized society. The present contribution examines the ways in which 3rd generation of Modern Confucian philosophers changed the framework within which traditional Chinese philosophical inquiry has been carried out, exposing the importance of immanent transcendence.
This article deals with one of the foremost but frequently neglected issues raised by E.P. Thompson´s The Making of The English Working Class: the abortion of a fully democratic revolution in late ...Eighteenth Century and early Nineteenth Century-England. Reconsidering the popular projects that were annihilated by liberalism means not only to reevaluate those popular fights in the framework of their historical context; it also implies a historical critique of the liberal theories of modernization, whose main result consists in a symbolic repression of class struggles and exploitation. In order to understand Thompson's work from this point of view, and building on the Marxist and poststructuralist literary theory, we need to closer look at his own theory of history as well as at his most fruitful contradictions. Thus, Thompson's work becomes an endless inspiration for understanding the history of capitalism and its alternatives.
Este artículo se ocupa de uno de los principales temas desarrollados por Thompson en La formación de la clase obrera en Inglaterra, frecuentemente ignorado por la historiografía: el del fallido proyecto de revolución democrática en Inglaterra a finales del siglo XVIII y principios del siglo XIX. El evocar nuevamente los proyectos populares que fueron aniquilados por el liberalismo, supone no sólo revalorizar esas luchas dentro de su propio contexto histórico. Constituye también un intento por poner en cuestión las teorías liberales de la modernización que minimizan el papel del conflicto social y de la clase trabajadora en la historia. Por otra parte, para entender el contenido de la obra de Thompson desde esta perspectiva, y siguiendo en buena medida a Walter Benjamin y a la teoría literaria marxista y postestructuralista, creemos imprescindible atender también a la forma en la que Thompson concebía la historia, así como a alguna de las exclusiones y contradicciones más evidentes que conformaron la producción y recepción de su obra.
As a major source of social values, Modern Confucian theory has assumed great significance amidst the proliferation of instrumental rationalities in contemporary China. This neo-conservative current ...is distinguished by a multifaceted attempt to revitalize traditional thought by means of new influences borrowed or derived from Western systems. It is defined by a search for a synthesis between "Western" and traditional Chinese thought, aiming to elaborate a new system of ideas and values suitable for the modern, globalized society. Adapted from the source document.
The purpose of the article is to analyse Immanuel Wallerstein’s approach towards social change and to compare it with the concept of macrosocial change in modernization theories. The main thesis ...proposed by the author is that although Immanuel Wallerstein declares that perception of social change as framed by the “ahistorical models” (such bias being typical of modernization theories) should be abandoned, he nevertheless advances a model which is equally ahistorical.
Two major approaches have dominated the field of the sociology of development: theories of modernization, which focus on developed countries, and theories of development, which concentrate on Latin ...America, Africa, and East Asia. However, the societal transition in China, Russia, and the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe has confronted the sociology of development with a series of new issues for which existing approaches may not be adequate: How should one evaluate the various paths to development in different countries and regions? How should one examine the state-society relationship in social development and transition? How can one deal with the social inequality in the process of development? These topics have expanded the scope of the sociology of development and provided an opportunity to construct new theories. I suggest that, in response to the ongoing societal transition, the field of the sociology of development needs, in addition to theories of modernization and theories of development, theories of transition.
Two major approaches have dominated the field of the sociology of development: theories of modernization, which focus on developed countries, and theories of development, which concentrate on Latin ...America, Africa, and East Asia. The social transformations in China, Russia, and the other European former socialist countries since 1989, however, have challenged both the traditional approaches of Sociology of Development with a series of new issues: how should one evaluate the various pathways to development in different countries and regions? how should one examine the state-society relationship in social development and transition? how can one deal with the social inequality in the process of development? These topics have expanded the scope of the Sociology of Development and provided an opportunity to construct new theories. I suggest that, in response to the practice conditions of ongoing socio -economic transformation, new theories of transition, in addition to theories of modernization and theories of development, is the imperative need in the field of the sociology of development.
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