Social Change

Globalization and Social Change challenges conventional thinking regarding the inevitability of globalization. Rather than seeing globalization as 'the end station of capitalism', it presents the development of this phenomenon as a disruptive and conflicting process.

Globalization and Social Change takes a refreshing new perspective on globalization and widening social and spatial inequalities. It draws on ideas about the new economy, risk society, welfare regimes and political economy to explain the growing social and spatial divisions characteristic of our increasingly divided world.Combining original argument with a clear exposition of the underlying processes, the book illustrates it's points through a series of case studies linking people in rich and poor countries. Emphasis is placed on the socio-economic aspects of change, particularly changes in working patterns and living arrangements, and reference is made to the new global division of labour, declining industrial regions and widening social divisions within what the author terms superstar regions. Broad in scope, changing family structures, the feminization of employment, migration, work life balance and new conceptions of gender identity and gender roles, are all discussed.Diane Perrons' enlightening book concludes that divisions by social class and gender are in some ways becoming more significant than divisions between nations, and suggests that new systems of social end economic organization are necessary for social peace in the new millennium.

Bad architecture. Soulless. Destructive of communities. The suburbs are much-maligned places. We see this time and again in films like American Beauty and novels like The Ice Storm. But are they really as homogenous and conservative as we think they are?In this wide-ranging comparative study of England and the United States, Mark Clapson offers new interpretations on suburbia. The majority of people in both countries now live in suburbs, largely as a result of the rising affluence of the postwar period. Millions of Americans pursued an aspiration to settle away from the poorer town and city centres in new subdivisions, while in England people were keen to leave terraced streets and poorer suburban housing areas.Examining housing policies, the politics of affluence and social class, Clapson challenges deeply held myths by demonstrating the complexity of suburban life. He shows how suburbs are becoming increasingly multicultural and compares the minority experience in both countries. He analyzes voting patterns to reveal some surprising political trends. In addition, he discusses gender and the experience of community life. Throughout, he uncovers the similarities and differences in the English and American experience of suburbanization in the twentieth century.This is a timely and original account that looks beyond the stereotypes of life in the 'burbs.

What do European societies look like, at the end of a turbulent millennium which saw western Europe slowly rise to global domination, and then rapidly decline to its present position, prosperous but clearly behind the USA in world influence? This is the only book by a single sociologist to make a systematic and up to date comparison of virtually all west European countries across a wide range of social institutions. These include: work and occupations, the structure of the economy, the family, education, religion, nationality and ethnicity, and the mechanism of citizenship in the welfare state. Particular emphasis is placed on the place of gender and social class. By including basic details on Japan and the United States throughout, the author is able to draw attention to any shared west European specificities. The book also develops a theory of change in contemporary societies. Starting from a model of a mid-century social compromise based on certain balances between industrialism, capitalism, traditional community institutions, and community it traces its subsequent destabilization and places particular importance on the resurgence of capitalism in shaping a new social order. This important new study of the social structure of western Europe will be essential reading for all students of comparative sociology and European sociology.

For the first time, life expectancy is declining in an industrialized society. In this pioneering work, William C. Cockerham examines the social causes of the decline in life expectancy beginning in the 1960s in the former Soviet Union: Russia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and East Germany. He argues that the roots of this change are mainly social rather than biomedical -- the result of poor policy decisions, stress and an unhealthy diet. Cockerham presents a theory of postmodern social change that goes beyond the borders of Eastern Europe.

The 1990s have been termed as `Japan's Lost Decade' to describe how the phenomenal growth in the Japanese economy ground to a halt and the country was subsequently crippled by enormous and ongoing political, economic and social problems. Socially, these unprecedented difficulties have led to high rates of suicide, alcoholism and rising levels of crime particularly among the young. Controversially, this book argues that the Japan that emerges from these manifold problems may, in fact, be stronger than before.

Tamara K. Hareven is Unidel Professor of Family Studies and History at the University of Delaware.

The book sets out a new logic of rules, developed to demonstrate how such a logic can contribute to the clarification of historical questions about social rules. The authors illustrate applications of this new logic in their extensive treatments of a variety of accounts of social changes, analysing in these examples the content of particular social rules and the course of changes in them.

Rabinowitz examines the experience, operational practices, and future prospects of philanthropists who have been involved in funding national campaigns and grassroots organizations that focus on social change concerns over the past 30 years. He offers new insights into who the funders are and how they think, how funders actually make decisions, what types of grants are made, and the tax, political and historical aspects of social change funding and its role in America's philanthropic system.

In this brief, interpretive history of American schooling, John Rury focuses on the evolving relationship between education and social change. The book considers the impact of social forces, such as industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and cultural conflict on the development of schools and other educational institutions. It also examines the various ways that schools have contributed to social change, particularly in providing avenues of social mobility and success for certain social groups and not for others. Detailed accounts of the experiences of women and minority groups in American history explain how their lives have been affected by education.