bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Standardization
Authors: Mendel Peter 
Published: March 2012

AbstractBroadly speaking, standardization refers to attempts to explicitly formulate general rules defining and regulating activity or technology (Brunsson & Jacobsson 2000). The development of standards is normally justified with functional and economic rationales. They enable economies of scale, compatibility of interfaces, and common frameworks for organizing social life and economic production. They convey information to the general public or to specific parties engaged in exchange in a consistent and understandable manner, as well as enhance competition by facilitating comparisons among producers and products. Standards can also be used to aid the diffusion of technological advances and help promote other public goals, such as the protection of health, safety, and the environment (National Research Council 1995). Standards themselves frequently become the object of standardization, justified in terms of lowering the costs of evaluating and complying with redundant or inconsistent sets of standards (Zuckerman 1997). From this perspective, standards‐making is associated with increasing rates of interaction, as methods to enhance or, in the case of some interested actors, dominate exchange.
State Autonomy
Authors: Béland Daniel 
Published: March 2012

AbstractOne of the major debates about the role and significance of globalization in contemporary societies concerns the impact of global economic, political, and social forces on nation‐states. A key component of this debate is centered onstate autonomy, a concept that broadly refers to the capacity of national governments to make a difference in an increasingly global world where national boundaries are called into question or, at the very least, are seen as less adapted to contemporary global challenges like climate change which require transnational coordination at odds with traditional state sovereignty and autonomy.
Structuration
Authors: Stones Rob 
Published: March 2012

Abstract

Structuration theory is a way of looking at social phenomena as the product of social structures and social action, rather than just one or the other of these. Social
structures
are understood as intended and unintended outcomes produced by social
actors
whose actions are in turn carried out in, and profoundly influenced by, their social‐structural context. Social actors, who are knowledgeable and reflexive, will have been shaped in considerable part through their insertion and socialization into social structures and, conversely, those social structures will be shaped in significant part by the actors who populate them. Thus, not only are social actors constituted in significant part by structures, but structures are constituted in significant part by social actors. There is a continual and dynamic
process
in which actors situated within structures interpretatively draw upon that context in producing their meaningful practices, and those practices, in turn, help to constitute the structures – through contributing to their reproduction or through affecting change.
Sustainability
Authors: Vercelli Alessandro 
Published: March 2012

AbstractSustainability refers to the capacity of a process to endure or to be maintained and improved. This term acquired a specialized meaning in ecology where it came to describe biological systems, such as wetlands or forests, which may survive and evolve in healthy conditions, that is, without irreversible depletion of resources or deterioration of their environmental qualities. By extension, the Bruntland Report, commissioned by the United Nations (WCED 1987), introduced the neologismsustainable developmentthat refers to the long‐term well‐being of social systems in the light of the interaction between their economic, environmental and social conditions. In this entry the focus is on the sustainable development of single countries and the global community is examined in its interaction with the process of globalization (a more detailed analysis on the same lines may be found in Borghesi & Vercelli 2008). Although some background information on this interaction since the first industrial revolution will be provided, the analysis will focus on developed countries after World War II.
Sustainable Consumption
Authors: Eden Sally 
Published: March 2012

Abstract

Sustainable consumption
is an umbrella term used for a variety of consumer behaviors that seek to reduce the environmental damage caused by everyday production and consumption. These behaviors include not only buying sustainable products but also using products, energy, and other resources more sustainably. Examples are: reducing fossil fuel use by buying domestic appliances with high ratings for energy, efficiency; buying food grown sustainably; buying food grown locally; and buying recycled paper. Less commonly, the term refers to reducing overall consumption levels by buying less, perhaps supported by growing one's own food.
Technology
Authors: Aneesh A. 
Published: March 2012

AbstractTechnology is arguably one of the most important elements in globalization processes. Accelerated interactions across the globe over the last two centuries have been made possible by technologies of time‐space compression, a term used by David Harvey (1989) to signify processes by which the world appears a smaller place. Technological innovations focused on the removal of spatial barriers include the railroad, telegraph, automobile, radio, telephone, jet aircraft, television, and the recent telecommunications revolution, connecting disparate markets and cultures together while also speeding up the experience of social life. From 1500 to 1960, for instance, the world became 70 times smaller because the average speed of horse‐drawn carriages in 1500 was 10 miles per hour compared to airplanes in 1960 that could fly 700 miles per hour. Such technological changes have altered our perception of the world from a place of limitless and open frontiers to a materially limited domain. The global age begins when there are no unchartered territories left to discover, when it becomes impossible to undo the awareness that there are others sharing one planet, and when important events tend to implicate the entire globe (Albrow 1997; Beck 2000). The role of transportation, communication, and media technologies in this global shift is noteworthy.
Environmental Activism
Authors: Fisher Dana R. 
Published: March 2012

Abstract
Environmental activism is defined by collective social action that is focused on issues related to the natural environment. Such action can be in support of the protection of environmental goods, such as a coral reef or a virgin forest, or in protest of the distribution of environmental bads, such as toxic waste that is released during industrial processes or the siting of a garbage landfill in a community. Environmental activism can take place at all scales of governance and can target actors at the local, national, or transnational levels. In recent years, environmental activism has increasingly targeted actors at multiple levels simultaneously.
Information war
Authors: Ritzer George 
Published: March 2012

AbstractThe new, advanced technologies have made possible both traditional warfare and the more recent “information war” (Tumber & Webster 2007). This new information technology is deeply implicated in the advanced weaponry employed in contemporary wars. For example, the “smart missiles” employed by the United States in the second Iraq War required advanced information technology so that they could be targeted to hit very small and precise targets with a high degree of accuracy (although these weapons, like virtually all weapons, were not immune from missing their targets and causing collateral damage). Not only do these weapons depend on advanced information technologies, but so do many other aspects of contemporary warfare such as surveillance (by satellites, airplanes, drones, etc.) as well as the “command and control” needed to run a modern military operation.
Mercosur
Authors: Roett Riordan 
Published: March 2012

AbstractTraditional rivals in the Southern Cone of Latin America, Argentina and Brazil first explored economic collaboration in the early 1980s. For the first time in centuries, the moment was right. Both countries underwent political transitions in the mid 1980s from military rule to civilian regimes, Argentina in 1983 and Brazil in 1985. The reestablishment of democratic governments provided an opportunity to seek policies that would consolidate the democratic process and limit the sphere of influence of the armed forces. In November 1985, newly elected democratic presidents met to inaugurate a new bridge at Iguacu Falls on the border between the two states. They agreed to create a binational commission to study the possibilities of increased economic cooperation and integration. In 1986, the Argentine–Brazilian Program for Integration and Cooperation (PICAB) was announced. In 1986, the two presidents signed the Act of Brazil–Argentine Friendship in Brasilia. It was also announced that the two countries would pursue a policy of peaceful nuclear development.
Privatization
Authors: Spector Alan 
Published: March 2012

Abstract
Privatization is the governmental policy of selling publicly owned assets to private interests or turning over publicly managed services to private organizations. Contemporary examples of the former include the selling of publicly owned factories in Russia to private corporations and the selling of publicly owned water rights in many countries to private companies for them to re‐sell to the public. Contemporary examples of the latter include turning over the management of ambulance services, medical services, trash collection services, education, and incarceration.
Second Modernity
Authors: Beck Ulrich , Grande Edgar 
Published: March 2012

Abstract

When a world order collapses, that's the moment when reflection should begin. Surprisingly, this has not been the case with the type of social theory dominant today. The mainstream of social theory still floats loftily above the lowlands of epochal transformations (climate change, financial crisis, nation‐states) in a condition of universalistic superiority and instinctive uncertainty. This universalistic social theory, whether structuralist, interactionist, Marxist or systems theoretical, is now both out of date and provincial. Out of date because it excludes
a priori
what can be observed empirically: a fundamental transformation of society and politics within modernity (from First to Second Modernity); provincial because it mistakenly absolutizes the trajectory, the historical experience and future expectation of Western, that is, predominantly European or North American, modernization and thereby also fails to see its particularity.
Transnational Capitalist Class
Authors: Sklair Leslie 
Published: March 2012

Abstract
The transnational capitalist class (TCC) as a theoretical concept and an empirical reality has its origins in theories of capitalist globalization developed since the 1960s. Traditional Marxist theories of the international bourgeoisie tend to be conceptualized in state‐centrist terms and to focus mainly on business leaders, usually big capitalists, and their corporations in rich and powerful countries exploiting capitalists, workers and peasants in poor countries. The transnational corporation (TNC), in contrast, transcends national class structures and, for some researchers, includes groups whose members do not directly own the means of production but, nevertheless, directly serve the interests of global capitalism.
War on Terror
Authors: Newman Saul 
Published: March 2012

AbstractThe War on Terror is commonly understood as a global campaign – comprising military, political, security, diplomatic, economic, and legislative strategies – waged by certain nation‐states, usually led and instigated by the United States, against a terrorist enemy (or enemies), usually identified as either al‐Qaeda or, more broadly, “Islamic extremism.” However, a clearer and more precise definition of the War on Terror is problematic, and we encounter a major difficulty in separating its true meaning from its ideological connotations and political manipulations. Indeed, it may be more accurate to define the War on Terrorasan ideology, or at least a hegemonic political discourse – one that, nevertheless, has had a major impact on world politics in the first decade of the twenty‐first century.
War on Terror, International Law On
Authors: Nagan Winston P. , Haddad Aitza M. 
Published: March 2012

AbstractThis entry begins with a short background to the problem of terrorism in the postwar era. Probably the most sustained use of terrorism emerged from the independence struggle against French colonialism in Algeria, in which the anti‐colonial forces were sufficiently weak not to risk direct confrontation. Their strategy was, therefore, to use terrorist methods against the vastly superior colonial enemy. Terrorism was promoted as a necessary form of struggle for national liberation. It was the weapon of the weak. It is unclear whether the price paid to secure Algerian independence was so high and institutionalization of violence within the culture so deep that, even during independence, the Algerians have experienced the violence of sporadic terrorism and excessive responses from the authorities to these challenges. Nevertheless, the ostensible message of the Algerian war of national liberation served as a model for other struggles against colonial rule or foreign occupation. Essentially, the struggle was strategically directed by terrorism and, since the Algerians succeeded in discarding colonial rule, terrorism, the weapon of the weak, seemed to be legitimated.
Welfare State
Authors: Peoples Clayton D. 
Published: March 2012

Abstract

The welfare state is an integral part of a number of Western capitalist societies. As its name implies, it refers to situations in which the
state
(government and its associated apparatus) is actively involved in providing for the
welfare
of its people, particularly in a financial sense. Put differently, a welfare state can be defined as a situation in which “state responsibilities extend beyond the mere maintenance of internal order and external security to a public responsibility for the well‐being of citizens” (Alber 1988: 231).
Women's Rights
Authors: Faupel Alison 
Published: March 2012

Abstract“Women's rights” refers to the basic rights and liberties to which all women and girls are entitled. Broadly speaking, women's rights may be divided into three general categories: civil, political, and social (Marshall 1964). Civil rights ensure one's personal liberty, freedom of speech and expression, freedom from physical harm, and the right to own property and enter contracts. Political rights entail the right to participate in political decision making, including the right to vote, the right to assemble, and the right to petition one's government. Social rights include the rights to an adequate standard of living, education, health care, and welfare.
Worker Rights Consortium
Authors: Ross Robert J.S. 
Published: March 2012

AbstractFounded in April 2000, the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) describes itself as “an independent labor rights monitoring organization, conducting investigations of working conditions in factories around the globe” whose “purpose is to combat sweatshops and protect the rights of workers who sew apparel and make other products sold in the United States” (Worker Rights Consortium 2009a). Created by the “sweatfree campus” movement organized by United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) in the mid 1990s, the WRC had, as of December 2009, 186 university and college and four high school affiliates. While some affiliations were voluntary and enthusiastic, others joined only after student sit‐ins and/or hunger strikes (Featherstone & USAS 2002).
World Cities
Authors: Lin Jan 
Published: March 2012

AbstractWorld cities are the main hubs of the global economy and international cultural life. They are nexus points in the accumulation and circulation of capital, labor, and culture in the capitalist world system. They comprise discrete social and spatial structures that can be investigated and help us comprehend the nature of macro‐level social phenomena typically described as globalization and neoliberal capitalism. World cities are also ideal contexts for investigating the interaction of global structures with local dynamics from the regional, neighborhood, and street‐level perspectives. Community‐based and ethnographic perspectives on the world city contribute to our intellectual comprehension of the interplay between structure and agency that is a perennial academic objective of the field of sociology. The study of urban culture in the everyday life of world cities helps us understand the nature of emerging forms of transnational community and citizenship.
World Council of Churches
Authors: Pratt Douglas 
Published: March 2012

Abstract
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is an organization whose membership comprises some 350 churches worldwide. Member churches, including Anglican, Protestant, Orthodox, African Independent, and Pentecostal, among others, represent well over half a billion Christians spread across much of the globe. By its own definition the WCC is “a fellowship of churches” held together by a common Christian confession of faith and the intention of member churches “to fulfil their common calling” through cooperative action and enhanced mutual interaction. The lead goals of “visible unity,” “common witness,” and shared engagement in Christian service on many fronts comprise the chief drivers of programmatic agendas. The WCC is thus an institutional expression of the ecumenical movement that, since the mid twentieth century, has become a defining feature of Christianity.
World Culture
Authors: Lechner Frank J. 
Published: March 2012

AbstractAt the end of the nineteenth century, British traders and educators, sports enthusiasts all, promoted the newly codified game of association football (“soccer” in the remainder of this entry) in distant places. Eagerly adopted in several countries, especially in Latin America, the game fostered new ties, for example, in the form of international competitions, and over time gave rise to an elaborate framework of rules, the “laws of the game,” supervised by an international nongovernmental organization, FIFA. Both professional clubs and national teams jockeyed for position in border‐crossing contests, measuring themselves against foreign opponents in terms of global standards and strategies. With the aid of new satellite technology and the support of multinational corporations, FIFA staged increasingly elaborate versions of its World Cup tournament, drawing an audience of billions by the end of the twentieth century. The quintessential global game thus illustrates the evolution of world culture, comprised of specific rules that constitute globalized practices, more general ideas that guide the participants in such practices, and, in broadest terms, a shared awareness of the world as a single place.
World Food Programme
Authors: Jachertz Ruth 
Published: March 2012

Abstract

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food aid arm of the United Nations system. In 2009 it provided 4.6 million metric tons of food to 102 million people spending 4.2 billion dollars in the process. Eighty‐one percent of worldwide emergency food aid was provided through the WFP. The organization employs roughly 10 200 staff, of whom 90 percent work in the field delivering food and monitoring its use (
http://www.wfp.org/content/wfp‐annual‐report‐2010‐english
; information on food aid flows [from 1988 to 2009] is gathered in the food aid information system:
www.wfp.org/fais
).
World Government
Authors: Kahraman Filiz 
Published: March 2012

AbstractThe term world government refers to the unification of all human beings under a single political entity. Since antiquity the concept has fallen in and out of favor, over history and through different regimes of social thought and political organization. Philosophers and scholars from a variety of disciplines have appealed to this idea at times as a solution to end wars or in hopes of realizing unity under one God. Discussions regarding world government have gained renewed impetus in the globalizing post–Cold War era, with social scientists and political philosophers alike reviving the notion as a solution to global injustices and rising security threats. Within the field of international relations, scholars mostly discuss the possibility of a world government as a guarantor of world peace and an alternative to the realist conception of “anarchy” in the international arena. Additionally, the idea has been taken up by some normative political theorists and economists, who stress the need for international or supranational regulation due to the perceived inability of nation‐states to address global problems of poverty, environmental degradation, migration, and financial regulation.
World Polity Theory
Authors: McNeely Connie L. 
Published: March 2012

AbstractWorld polity theory was developed as an analytical frame for interpreting global relations, structures, and practices. Invoking an image of the world as a system of interrelated interdependent units, it is a theory of transnational interaction and global social change. It provides a sociological institutionalist account of global relations within a cultural model positing norms and identities for actors and prescribing related actions and goals. Social actors and associated structures and behaviors are viewed as shaped by the broader environment; individuals, organizations, governments, and other actors are embedded in a cultural context that frames and determines their identity, structure, and behavior. Thus, the world polity gives meaning and value to particular actors and activities, integrating them into larger schemes within a broader analytical framework. The world itself is conceived as an increasingly integrated social system within a cultural framework that affects various actors as system subunits and puts into place models of social action in a world society. (Indeed, world polity theory is sometimes referenced as world society theory.)
World Society Theory
Authors: McNeely Connie L. 
Published: March 2012

Abstract
World society theory is a theory of transnational interaction and global social change that emphasizes the importance of global institutions and culture in shaping the structure and behavior of individuals, organizations, and nation‐states around the world. Developed by sociologist John W. Meyer, world society theory provides a sociological institutionalist account of global relations in which social actors and units are embedded in a world‐level cultural context that frames and shapes their identities, structures, and behaviors.
World‐Systems Analysis
Authors: Reifer Tom 
Published: March 2012

AbstractWorld‐systems analysis emerged out of the movements of the 1960s and brought together a fruitful synthesis of Third World radicalism, Marxism, and critical elements of historical social science, from the German historical school to the geohistorians of theAnnalesschool. This materialist conflict analysis, which early on pioneered the study of what today is called globalization, was inaugurated by Immanuel Wallerstein in the mid 1970s and offered a bold critique of the then dominant liberal consensus paradigm in the structural functionalist modernization theory of US and world social science.