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PART ONE: INTERPRETATIONS
PART TWO: DIVISIONS
PART THREE: EXPERIENCES
PART FOUR: DYNAMICS AND CHALLENGES
If you would like to get into the theory and concepts that inform the discipline (on which we have little space to expand) a reliable account is Scott’s Social Theory: Central Issues in Sociology (2004), in which there are ‘focus boxes’ to aid comprehension.
If you are interested in finding out more about the origins and history of the discipline, a demanding but thorough evaluation of the debates about the meaning and value of the Sociological tradition is Peter Baehr’s (2002) Founders, classics, canons : modern disputes over the origins and appraisal of sociology's heritage .
Graham Crow’s book on Comparative Sociology and Social Theory (1997) gives a good account of how sociologists of development came to understand societies other than their own. Chapters 6 and 7 are particularly helpful.
Leslie Sklair’s Sociology of the Global System (second edition 1995) has been a pioneering introductory text. Despite the title, he particularly stresses the economic aspects of globalization. Another good text, with a global orientation, is John J. Macionis and Ken Plummer’s Sociology: a Global Introduction (2005).
Martin and Beittel’s essay ‘Towards a Global Sociology?’ (1998) gives a US focused account of the responses to the growing call for a global sociology, they examine in detail how sociologists have understood state formation and development in this context.
Baehr, P. (2002) Founders, classics, canons: modern disputes over the origins and appraisal of sociology's heritage , New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers.
Scott, J. (2004) Social Theory: Central Issues in Sociology, London: Sage.
Sklair, L. (1995) Sociology of the Global System, London: Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Crow, G. (1997) Comparative Sociology and Social Theory, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Macionis, J. J. and Plummer, K. (2005) Sociology: A Global Introduction, Harlow, Essex: Pearson.
Martin, W. G. and Beittel, M. (1998) ‘Towards a Global Sociology? Evaluating Current Conceptions, Methods and Practices’ Sociological Quarterly, 39(1), 139-161.
Roland Robertson is a leading sociologist of globalization who blazed the trail that others now follow. Though his book, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (1992), is quite advanced, you should sample some chapters especially 1, 3, 5, 6 and 12.
If you would like to know more about globality as a concept and how it is linked to the global-democratic concerns and the global-Western state--Martin Shaw’s book Theory of the Global State: Globality as an Unfinished Revolution (2000) will give you a thorough revised grounding in the terms of debate about globalization.
David Harvey’s The Condition of Postmodernity (1989) is very wide-ranging and raises many issues we discuss later on. Parts II and III are particularly relevant.
John Urry’s book, Sociology Beyond Societies (2000) is a quite difficult but very useful book that expands and builds on many themes relating to the sociology of globalization developed by earlier writers.
For a light-hearted and delightfully contrasting book that explores the exciting, exhausting and whirling nature of life under global conditions you could try Pico Iyer’s The Global Soul: Jet-lag, Shopping Malls and the Search for Home (2001).
Kevin Cox’s book Spaces of Globalization: Reasserting the Power of the Local (1997) includes an interesting chapter (Chapter 6) which will give you more information about the meaning of the term glocalization and illustrates how the global and the local are intertwined.
Robertson, R. (1992) Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture, London: Sage.
Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, Oxford: Blackwell.
Urry, J. (2000) Sociology Beyond Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-First Century, London: Routledge.
Iyer, P. (2001) The Global Soul: Jet-Lag, Shopping Malls and the Search for Home, London: Bloomsbury.
Shaw, M. (2000) Theory of the Global State: Globality as an Unfinished Revolution Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Swyngedouw, E. (1997) ‘ Neither global nor local: ‘glocalization’ and the politics of scale’ in Cox, K. Spaces of Globalization: Reasserting the Power of the Local New York: Guildford Press.
Formations of modernity, edited by Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben (1992), offers a highly accessible discussion of the nature and causes of modernity. You may find chapters 1, 2 and 6 especially helpful.
Anthony Giddens’s The nation state and violence (1985) provides a readable account of the rise of the European absolutist states.
K. Marx and F. Engels’s short pamphlet, The communist manifesto, first published in 1848, the year of revolutions across Europe, offers a passionate and clear introduction to their theory of capitalism.
E. A. Brett, The world economy since the war: the politics of uneven development (1985) contains an excellent analysis of the post-Second World War world economy.
If you would like to know more about the spread of English as an international language a not strictly speaking sociological but informative account of the rise of English as a global language is David Crystal’s book English as a Global Language (2003).
If you are interested in the historical link between earlier and later versions of globalization Tony Ballantyne’s essay 'Empire, knowledge and culture: from proto-globalization to modern globalization' provides some an interesting historical perspective.
Hall, S. and Gieben, B. (eds) (1992) Formations of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press in association with the Open University.
Giddens, A. (1985) The Nation State and Violence, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1967) The Communist Manifesto, Harmondsworth: Penguin (first published 1848).
Brett, E. A. (1985) The World Economy Since the War: The Politics of Uneven Development, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Crystal, D. (2003) English as a Global Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ballantyne, T. (2002) 'Empire, knowledge and culture: from proto-globalization to modern globalization' in Hopkins, A. (eds) Globalization in World History New York: Norton.
S. Edgell’s book, Sociological Analysis of Work: Change and Continuity in Paid and Unpaid Work (2005) offers an up-to-date, thorough and very accessible examination of most themes relating to work, including Fordism and post-Fordism. Chapter 4 is especially relevant.
F. Webster’s analysis in Theories of the Information Society (2002) explores many issues and debates pertaining to the ways in which ICTs are changing our experience of work and leisure.
The two readers by A. Amin (ed.) Post-Fordism, and T. Elger and C. Smith (eds.) Global Japanization? contain up-to-date summaries of the main debates in these areas. They are really aimed at advanced students and academic specialists, but most of the readings are nevertheless reasonably accessible and will amply reward those who persevere.
Written in simple but lively prose, the book edited by A. Ross, No Sweat, offers a wide range of recent material on the various and recent worldwide experiences of casualized workers and their struggles to bring about change.
If you would like a accessible introduction to Marxist Thought then Jon Elster’s book (1986) will provide you with critical introduction to Marx's social, political and economic thought and its importance in current society. Chapter 3 on Alienation is particularly relevant for the themes we have explored here.
An important book with a deserved wide recognition is Ritzer’s The McDonaldization of Society (2004). It discusses how broader processes of globalization are spreading more widely and more deeply into various social institutions such as education, medicine, the criminal justice system, and more.
Amin, A. (ed.) (1994) Post-Fordism: A Reader, Oxford: Blackwell.
Edgell, S. (2006) Sociological Analysis of Work: Change and Continuity in Paid and Unpaid Work, London: Sage.
Webster, F. (2002) Theories of the Information Society, London: Routledge.
Elger, T. and Smith, C. (1994) (eds) Global Japanization? The Transnational Transformation of the Labour Process, London: Routledge.
Elster, J. (1986) An Introduction to Karl Marx Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ritzer, G. (2004a) The McDonaldization of Society, Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge and Sage (revised New Century edition).
C. W. Kegley Jr and E. R. Wittkopf’s book, World Politics: Trend and Transformation (2004) provides a wide-ranging discussion both of changing approaches to the study of international relations and the volatile nature of world politics in an age of rapid globalization. It is regularly revised and includes pictures, maps, tables and other accessible material.
D. Held and A. McGrew have written a number of leading works on politics and globalization. Their short book, Globalization/Anti-Globalization (2002) includes an immense amount of relevant information and many carefully summarized assessments of the debates on the changing nature of power.
G. Delanty’s book, Citizenship in a Global Age: Society, Culture, Politics (2000) offers a comprehensive review of theories of citizenship and shows how it needs to change with globalization.
R. A. Nisbet’s, The Sociological Tradition (1970) still offers a highly readable account of sociology’s early development as a discipline. Try chapters 3 and 4.
The chapters on democracy by P. Lewis (chapter 1) and citizenship and welfare by D. Riley (chapter 4) in Political and Economic Formations of Modernity, edited by John Allen, Peter Braham and Paul Lewis (1992) would be useful accompaniments to the first part of this Chapter.
Richard Falk’s article ‘The decline of citizenship in an era of Globalization’ (2000) puts forth a strong and detailed argument about the weakening of traditional bonds of identity between individuals and the state.
Although it comes from a more political point of view, Mann’s article ‘ Has globalization ended the rise and rise of the nation-state?’ (1997) provides a cogent answer to the debate about the end of the nation-state, particularly useful is his model distinguishing between local, national, inter-national, transnational and global interaction networks.
Kegley, C. W. and Wittkopf, E. R. (2004) World Politics: Trend and Transformation, Belmont, CA: Thomson & Wadsworth.
Held, D. and McGrew, A. (2002) Globalization/Anti-Globalization, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Delanty, G. (2000) Citizenship in a Global Age: Society, Culture, Politics, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Nisbet, R. A. (1970) The Sociological Tradition, London: Heinemann Educational Books.
Allen, J., Braham, P. and Lewis, P. (eds) (1992) Political and Economic Forms of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Falk, R. (2000) ‘The decline of citizenship in an era of Globalization’ Citizenship Studies 4(1), 5-17.
Mann, M. (1997) ‘ Has globalization ended the rise and rise of the nation-state?’ Review of International Political Economy 4(3) 472-496.
Sylvia Walby’s book, Theorizing Patriarchy (1990), summarizes the complex debates and evidence on this key aspect of feminist thought in a very readable and lively way.
Kenan Malik’s account of The Meaning of Race (1996) is a lively and interesting account while Ellis Cashmore’s Dictionary of Race and Ethnic Relations (1994) should be available in most university libraries and contains excellent short entries by the world’s leading scholars.
Class analysis is a little out of favour compared with the 1960s and 1970s when Marxism was an influential political current that sociologists had to consider. A neo-Marxist account of class can be found in Wright’s (1985) book, simply titled Classes. An influential non-Marxist account on Britain’s class structure is Goldthorpe et al. (1980).
For an applied use of the concept of cultural capital see Lareau’s (1999) study of parents' involvement with their children that reveals how some black parents, concerned about the legacy of discrimination against blacks in schooling, approach schools critically.
An attempt to theorize race, class and gender collectively from ananthropological perspective is made by Sacks (1989) who stresses that axes of social inequality cannot be separated.
Walby, S. (1990) Theorizing Patriarchy, Oxford: Blackwell.
Cashmore, E. (ed.) (1994) Dictionary of Race and Ethnic Relations (3rd edn), London: Routledge.
Malik, K. (1996) The Meaning of Race: Race History and Culture in Western Society, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Goldthorpe, John H. in collaboration with Catriona Llewellyn and Clive Payne (1980) Social Mobility and Class Structure in Modern Britain, Oxford: Clarendon.
Wright, E. O. (1985) Classes, London: Verso.
Lareau, A. (1999) ‘Moments of Social Inclusion and Exclusion: Race, Class, and Cultural Capital in Family-School Relationships’ Sociology of Education 72 (1) 37-53.
Sacks, K. (1989) ‘Towards a unified theory of Class, Race and Gender’ American Ethnologist 16(3) 534-550.
Easily the most accessible book on this topic is P. Dicken’s, Global Shift (1992, revised 2003) with its useful information on TNCs, changing patterns of world trade and investment and fascinating studies of key industries looked at within a global context.
Although we have questioned P. Hirst and G. Thompson’s Globalization in Question (1996), the authors summarize the main debates in this area and offer a controversial and thought-provoking alternative to the more usual heady views on economic globalization.
The possibilities of internal reform of the TNC are probed in G. E. Marcus’s Corporate Futures: the Diffusion of the Culturally Sensitive Firm (1998).
The book published by UNRISD, States of Disarray: the Social Effects Of Globalization (1995), contains a hard-hitting critique of corporate irresponsibility.
J. Bové is a French farmer who gained worldwide fame or notoriety (depending on your point of view) by driving his tractor into a McDonald’s food outlet. With F. Dufour and A de Casparis, he records his strong views in The World is Not For Sale: Farmers Against Junk Food (2001).
M. Wolf mounts a sturdy defence of corporations, which he says are not more powerful than countries and do not dominate the world through their brands. See his Why Globalization Works: the Case for the Global Market Economy (2004: 220 - 48).
An interesting case study of TNCs’ contradictory position in the global arena is Bonnanno et al’s (2000) article ‘Powers and limits of transnational corporations : The case of ADM’ in which they argue that TNCs maintain significant powers which allow them to avoid the laws and regulations of nation-states.
Freidberg’s exploration of the trail of the green bean (2001) is interesting as a case study both methodologically and conceptually. It is worth reading in full.
Hirst, P. and Thompson, G. (1996) Globalization in Question: The International Economy and the Possibilities of Governance, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Marcus, G. E. (ed.) (1998) Corporate Futures: The Diffusion of the Culturally Sensitive Firm, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bové, J., Dufour, F. and de Casparis, A. (2001) The World is Not for Sale: Farmers Against Junk Food, London: Verso.
Wolf, M. (2005) Why Globalization Works, Yale: Yale University Press.
Bonanno, A. et al (2000) ‘Powers and limits of transnational corporations : The case of ADM’ Rural Sociology 65(3) 440-460.
Freidberg, S. (2001) ‘On the trail of the global green bean: methodological considerations in multi-site ethnography’, Global Networks, 1 (4), 353–68.
For material on peasants, look at The Journal of Peasant Studies if it is in your library. In addition to some high quality, though sometimes difficult, articles the journal carries a section called ‘Peasants Speak’, which reproduces interviews and other material gathered at grassroots level.
Alan Gilbert and Josef Gugler’s Cities, Poverty and Development (1992) provides an excellent overview of urban problems. It is especially good on Latin America and Africa.
Amartya Sen’s Poverty and Famine: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation has been contested in detail, but it remains a classic work that is challenging and stimulating if you give it a little time. (You can ignore some of the more technical economics in order to get to the essence of the argument.)
The consequences of deindustrialization in the USA, especially for black workers, are considered in Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton’s book American Apartheid.
A good article addressing the question of the link between globalization and poverty is Robert Wade’s article ‘Is globalization reducing poverty and inequality?’ (2004) which questions the empirical basis for the neo-liberal argument.
A relevant and enlightening case study of the urban poor in the South is Bayat’s ‘From Dangerous classes to Quiet Rebels (2000) which examines the activism of the urban subaltern in Third World cities (and therefore would be equally relevant in Chapter 18).
Gilbert, A. and Gugler, J. (1992) Cities, Poverty and Development: Urbanization in the Third World, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (1981) Poverty and Famine: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Massey, D. S. and Denton, N. A. (1993) American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wage, R. H. (2004) ‘Is Globalization reducing poverty and Inequality?’ International Journal of Health Services 34(3) 381-414.
Bayat, A. (2000) ‘From Dangerous classes to Quiet Rebels: Politics of the Urban Subaltern in the Global South’ International Sociology 15 (3) 533-557.
On global crime, Pearce and Woodiwiss’s edited collection (1993) Global Crime Connections has useful chapters on corporate crime, fraud in the European Union and US policies to control the drugs trade.
In Snowfields, the journalist Clare Hargreaves (1992) covers the Bolivian drugs trade, while P. Reuter has a useful book, Disorganised Crime (1983), on the markets the Mafia developed. Reuter has also published a number of studies on the effects of drugs interdiction.
Waddington’s book Sport, Health and Drugs (2000) provides a good analysis on use of drugs in global sport.
Juergensmeyer’s Terror in the Mind of God (2003) is an excellent account and will be helpful in Chapter 16 too, but it is, as the title indicates, concerned with terrorism driven by religion rather than the more general issues covered here.
Hazel Croall’s book Understanding White Collar Crime (2001) is an accessible introduction to the issue and also has a useful section on corporate crime.
For an up to date and detailed discussion of Sociology’s contribution to understanding Terrorism, see Turk’s article ‘Sociology of Terrorism’ (2004).
Pearce, F. and Woodiwiss, M. (eds) (1993) Global Crime Connections: Dynamics and Control, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Hargreaves, C. (1992) Snowfields: The War on Cocaine in the Andes, London: Zed Books.
Reuter, P. (1983) Disorganised Crime: The Economics of the Visible Hand, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Waddington, I. (2000) Sport, Health and Drugs: A Critical Sociological Perspective, London: E & FN Spon.
Juergensmeyer, M. (2003) Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Croall, H. (2001) Understanding White Collar Crime Buckingham: Open University Press.
Turk, A. (2004) ‘Sociology of Terrorism’ Annual Review of Sociology 30: 271-286.
Dorothy Stein’s People Who Count: Population and Politics, Women and Children (1995) has useful material on India, China and Tibet and has an unusually strong emphasis on children (see especially chapter 3).
T. M. Dyson’s Population and Food (1996) is balanced and thoughtful.
Stephen Castles and Mark Miller’s The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 3rd edn 2003, 2nd edn 1998) provides an accessible introduction to many of the topics on migration covered in the second half of this chapter.
Robin Cohen’s edited volume The Cambridge Survey of World Migration (1995) provides 95 short articles on various aspects of contemporary migration.
Douglas and Roberts’ book Japan and Global Migration: Foreign Workers and the Advent of a Multicultural Society (1999) provides an interesting case study of labour migration which is not covered in this chapter.
As noted earlier Caneles’ (1999) discusses urban development in relation to migration patterns in Mexico and is an accessible case study worth reading in full.
Stein, D. (1995) People who Count: Population and Politics, Women and Children, London: Earthscan.
Dyson, T. M. (1996) Population and Food: Global Trends and Future Prospects, London: Routledge.
Castles, S. and Miller, M. (2003) The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (3rd edn).
Cohen, R. (ed.) (1995) The Cambridge Survey of World Migration, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Douglass, C and Roberts, G. (1999) Japan and Global Migration: Foreign Workers and the Advent of a Multicultural Society London: Routledge.
Caneles, A. (1999) ‘Industrialization, urbanization and population growth on the border’, Borderlines, 7 (7) 1 -15.
Both the recent textbooks mentioned in this chapter on the sociology of health provide excellent introductions. For example, K. White’s, An Introduction to the Sociology of Health and Illness, published by Sage in 2002.
Foucault is not easy to read. However, A. Sheridan’s 1980 analysis of Foucault, called Michel Foucault: The Will to Truth, is useful and accessible. Similarly, the discussion of Foucault in chapter 6 of S. Seidman’s book on contemporary sociology, Contested Knowledge: Social Theory in the Postmodern Era, published in 1998, is excellent.
Both books written by B. Turner and used in this chapter are highly recommended. He manages to make very complex, theoretical issues seem eminently readable and fascinating. Try Regulating Bodies: Essays in Medical Sociology published in 1992.
For up-to-date information, it is necessary to keep checking quality broadsheets and magazines such as the Economist or New Internationalist as well as websites and WHO reports. In book form, Diseases of Globalization by C. McMurray and R. Smith is quite useful.
Evans and Lees’ book Real Bodies (2002) is a fascinating read and a particularly good introduction to the Sociology of the body.
White, K. (2002) An Introduction to the Sociology of Health and Illness, London: Sage.
Sheridan, A. (1980) Michel Foucault: The Will to Truth, London: Tavistock.
Seidman, S. (1998) Contested Knowledge: Social Theory in the Postmodern Era, Oxford: Blackwell.
Turner, B. (1992) Regulating Bodies: Essays in Medical Sociology, London: Routledge.
McMurray, C. and Smith, R. (2001) Diseases of Globalization: Socioeconomic Transitions and Health, London: Earthscan.
Evans, M. and Lee, E. (eds) (2002) Real Bodies: A Sociological Introduction, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
K. Meethan’s book, Tourism in Global Society (2001), provides excellent coverage of all the key debates on the sociology of international tourism and is detailed, thoughtful and analytical while remaining thoroughly accessible to student readers.
For a recent re-evaluation and update of the thinking on tourism’s impact on traditional societies see the useful chapters by Pi-Sunyer et al., Van Broeck and Puijk in V. Smith and M. Brent (eds) Hosts and Guests Revisited: Tourism Issues of the 21st Century.
M. Sheller’s and J. Urry’s co-edited volume, Tourist Mobilities: Places to Play, Places in Play (2004) offers a generous compendium of lively research findings from many different countries while exploring a range of different tourist styles from eco-tourism to websites and surfing.
The book edited by M.-F. Lanfant, J. B. Allcock and E. M. Bruner, International Tourism: Identity and Change (1995) is excellent. It contains some difficult material but you will find the introduction and chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9 challenging and enjoyable.
Nezar AlSayyad’s book Consuming Tradition, Manufacturing Heritage: Global Norms and Urban Forms in the Age of Tourism (2001) is useful if you would like to explore further the debates on the reinvention of tradition.
Perkins and Thorns’ critique of Urry’s Tourist gaze (2001) is particularly worth looking at in detail and their development of a concept of the bodily performance of tourism is very insightful.
Meethan, K. (2001) Tourism in Global Society: Place, Culture, Consumption, New York: Palgrave.
Smith, V. L. (ed.) (1989) Host and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism (2nd edn), Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Sheller, M. and Urry, J. ( 2004) Tourism Mobilities: Places to Play, Places in Play, London: Routledge.
Lanfant, M. F., Allcock, J. B. and Bruner, E. M. (eds) (1995) International Tourism: Identity and Change, London: Sage.
AlSayyad, Nezar (2001) Consuming Tradition, Manufacturing Heritage: Global Norms and Urban Forms in the Age of Tourism London: Routledge.
Perkins, H. C. and Thorns, D. C. (2001), ‘Gazing or performing? Reflections on Urry’s tourist gaze in the context of contemporary experience in the Antipodes’, International Sociology, 16 (2), 185–204.
Mysteriously, writing on consumerism – something we all engage in every day – is not always easy to understand. However, D. Slater’s book, Consumer Culture and Modernity (1997) is more accessible than most and provides a lively introduction to this subject. Try chapters 1, 2 and 3.
Similarly, T. Edwards’s Contradictions of Consumption (2000) offers a wide-ranging exploration of the sociology of consumption and related topics.
The book edited by D. Howes, Cross-Cultural Consumption (1996), includes some fascinating material. The introduction and chapters 2, 4, 6 and 8 are especially useful.
J. Tomlinson’s, Globalization and Culture (1999) explores the Americanization thesis critically while exploring other useful themes relevant to global culture.
Warde et al’s article ‘ Consumption and the problem of variety: cultural omnivorousness, Social Distinction and Dining Out’ (1999) is a demanding but rewarding read which uses the concept of ‘habitus’ to explore consumption practices of diverse ethnic cuisines.
Soraj Hongladarom’s article ‘Global culture, local cultures and the internet: The Thai example’ (1999) is a revealing case study of the role of the local in shaping the global and would be equally relevant for chapter 14.
Slater, D. (1997) Consumer Culture and Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Edwards, T. (2000) Contradictions of Consumption: Concepts, Policies and Politics in Consumer Society, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Howes, D. (ed.) (1996) Cross-Cultural Consumption:Global Market, Local Realities, London: Routledge.
Tomlinson, J. (1999) Globalization and Culture, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Warde, A. Martens, L. and Olsen, W. (1999) ‘ Consumption and the problem of variety: cultural omnivorousness, Social Distinction and Dining Out’ Sociology33:105-127.
Hongladarom, S. (1999) ‘Global culture, local cultures and the internet: The Thai example’ AI and Society 13(14) 389-401.
Frances Cairncross, a journalist at the Economist has been a very active writer in the field of telecommunications. Her major works are ‘The death of distance’ (Economist, 30 September 1995) and ‘Telecommunications’ (Economist, 13 September 1997a). Her book (1997b), again titled The Death of Distance, consolidated her work.
The book edited by Edward S. Herman and Robert W. McChesney, The Global Media (1997) argues that the media have become the advance guard of international capital.
Manuel Castells’s major work The Rise of the Network Society (1996, revised 2000) has a strong prologue and the first two chapters are relevant to this chapter.
As media studies courses have proliferated a number of student-friendly books and readers (reprints of already published articles) have battled for market share. Two established texts are Branston and Stafford’s The Media Student’s book (2003) and Sreberny-Mohammadi et al. Media in Global Context: A Reader (1997).
Still valuable on feminist views of the media is Liesbet Van Zoonen’s Feminist Media Studies (1994).
A useful and interesting case study of how the Internet can foster and reinforce democratic communities is Klein’s ‘ Tocqueville in Cyberspace: Using the Internet for
Citizen Associations’ (1999).
An accessible text on Gender and the media is David Gauntlett’s book Gender, Representation and Identity: An Introduction (2002) The book is also supported by a regularly updated website at: www.theoryhead.com/gender.
Cairncross, F. (1997b) The Death of Distance, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society (vol. 1 of Castells, M., The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture), Oxford: Blackwell (revised edn 2000).
Branston, G. and Stafford, R. (2003) The Media Student’s Book, London: Routledge.
Sreberny-Mohammadi, A., Winseck, D., McKenna, J. and Boyd-Barrett, O. (1997) Media in Global Context: A Reader, London: Edward Arnold.
Van Zoonen, L. (1994) Feminist Media Studies, London: Sage.
Klein, H. (1999) ‘ Tocqueville in Cyberspace: Using the Internet for Citizen Associations’ Information Society 15(4) 213-220.
Gauntlett, D. (2002) Gender, Representation and Identity: An Introduction London: Routledge.
Maguire’s book, Global Sport: Identities, Societies, Civilizations (1999), provides an accessible and clear overview of all the main themes relating to globalization and sport.
The edited book by Finn and Giulianotti, Football Culture: Local Contests, Global Visions (2000) contains some excellent chapters and spans a range of countries.
The extremely interesting book by Bale and Sang, Kenyan Running: Movement Culture, Geography and Global Change (1996) explores in vivid detail all aspects of the rise of a modern achievement culture in an African context.
Mangan’s edited volume, Tribal Identities: Nationalism, Europe and Sport (1996) also contains a lively and readable spread of chapters examining many aspects of sport in relation to national identities and patriotic games.
Sugden’s Boxing and Society: An International Analysis provides a readable historical and comparative sociology of boxing, with case studies in Northern Ireland, the USA and Cuba. His account of the dangers of doing ethnographies in his chosen field sites is amusing and instructive.
Jackson and Andrews’ article ‘Between and beyond the global and the local: American popular Sporting culture in New Zealand’ (1999) is an enlightening case study of the Americanization of a global sport commodity.
Susan Brownell’s book Training the body for Chinais a thoughtful exploration of the debates about Sport and the body within a nationhood context.
Finn, G. P. T. and Giulianotti, R. (eds) (2000) Football Culture: Local Contests, Global Visions, London: Frank Cass.
Bale, J. and Sang, J. (1996) Kenyan Running: Movement Culture, Geography and Global Change, London: Frank Cass.
Mangan, J. A. (1996) ‘Duty unto death: English masculinity and militarism in the age of the new imperialism, in Mangan, J. A. (ed.) Tribal Identities: Nationalism, Sport and Europe, London: Frank Cass, 10 -38.
Sugden, J. (1996) Boxing and Society: An International Analysis, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Jackson, s. and Andrews, D. (1999) ‘Between and beyond the global and the local: American popular Sporting culture in New Zealand’ International Review for the Sociology of Sport 34(1) 31-42.
Brownell, S. (1995) Training the Body for China: sports in the moral order of the people's republic Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wilson ’s Religion in Secular Society: a Sociological Comment (1966) is the classic account of the secularization thesis.
There are a number of excellent reference books on religion In Fisher’s (1997) encyclopaedia of the world’s faiths, Living Religions, she includes substantive chapters on Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism, a list that is not dissimilar from that provided in Hinnells’s (1997) A New Handbook of Living Religion, though Hinnells contains some more ambitious essays.
Such reference books generally provide poor coverage of new religious movements. James Beckford is one of the leading scholars worldwide on this theme. See, for example, his Cult Controversies: The Societal Response to New Religious Movements (1985).
We are not generally keen on the very short handbooks that have become so popular among students, but Ruthven’s Islam: A Very Short Introduction (2000) packs an awful lot into a small number of words.
Jon R. Stone’s edited collection, Expecting Armageddon: Essential Readings in Failed Prophecy (2000), provides a good introduction to the subject, together with some extracts from classical accounts and some arresting case studies.
Sallnow’s article on the consequences of Christian Pilgrimages in the Andes (1981), although a little dated, provides a good example of how pilgrimages have gained importance globally.
Wilson, B. (1966) Religion in Secular Society: A Sociological Comment, London: Watts.
Fisher, M. P. (1997) Living Religions, London: Prentice Hall.
Hinnells, J. R. (ed.) (1997) A New Handbook of Living Religion, Oxford: Blackwell.
Beckford, J. A. (1985) Cult Controversies: The Societal Response to New Religious Movements, London: Tavistock.
Ruthven, M. (2000) Islam: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stone, J. R. (2000) ‘Introduction’, in Stone, J. R. (ed.) Expecting Armageddon: Essential Readings in Failed Prophecy, New York: Routledge, pp. 1 -29.
Sallnow, M. (1981) ‘Communitas Reconsidered: The Sociology of Andean Pilgrimage’ Man 16:2 163-82.
Bryan Roberts’s Cities of Peasants (1978) provides a good account of cities in Latin America.
John Friedman’s classic article in Development and Change (1986) on ‘The world city hypothesis’ was what started the debate on global cities.
The most accomplished and extensive work on the theme of global cities is Saskia Sassen’s (1991) The Global City, which has a lot of detail on New York, Tokyo and London. Although lengthy, the book is not difficult and contains excellent data.
One of the USA’s most eminent sociologists is William J. Wilson, whose books on The Declining Significance of Race (1978) and The Truly Disadvantaged (1987) are landmarks in the study of deprivation in US cities.
Mike Davis’s City of Quartz (1991) provides a prophetic left-wing critique of urban development in Los Angeles. A data-rich account of LA is given in Waldinger and Bozorgmehr’s edited book, Ethnic Los Angeles (1996).
Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nuttall edited a special issue of Public Culture in 2004 that contains ten challenging articles on Johannesburg, including their excellent introductory chapter.
If you would like to know more about the feminization of employment in global cities, it is worth having a closer look at Phizacklea’s study of women home workers (1992).
Although Rogerson’s article ‘ Urban tourism in the developing world: the case of Johannesburg’ (2002) would be a very useful case study for the chapter on tourism, it also provides analysis of Johannesburg as a global metropolis.
Roberts, B. (1978) Cities of Peasants: The Political Economy of Urbanization in the Third World, London: Edward Arnold.
Friedman, J. (1986) ‘The world city hypothesis’, Development and Change, 17 (2), January, 69–83.
Sassen, S. (1991) The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Wilson, W. J. (1978) The Declining Significance of Race, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wilson, W. J. (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass and Public Policy, Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Davis, M. (1991) City of Quartz, London: Verso.
Waldinger, R. and Bozorgmehr, M. (eds) (1996) Ethnic Los Angeles, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Mbembe, A. and Nuttall, S. (2004) ‘Writing the world from an African metropolis’, in Mbembe, A. and Nuttall, S. (eds) Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis, special issue of Public Culture, 44, 347 -72.
Phizacklea, A. (1992) ‘Jobs for the girls: the production of women’s outerwear in the UK’, in Cross, M. (ed.) Ethnic Minorities and Industrial Change in Europe and North America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 94–110.
Rogerson, C. (2002) ‘ Urban tourism in the developing world: the case of Johannesburg’ 19(1) 169-190.
Social Movements in Development: The Challenges of Globalization and Democratization , edited by S. Lindberg and A. Sverrisson (1997) contains some valuable material. Pay particular attention to chapters 1, 3, 7, 12 and 13.
R. Cohen and S. Rai’s edited collection Global Social Movements (2000) contains articles on a number of different movements – peace, women’s, religious, labour, human rights and environmental – which, they argue in their editors’ introduction, have all become significantly more global.
Global Civil Society , the series of books edited by Anheier et al. and published each year since 2001, provides a mine of detailed and interesting information with up-to-date explanations for and debates on a host of themes and issues relating to global civil society.
Kiely’s book, The Clash of Globalizations (2005), also offers a thoughtful and accessible exploration of the impact of neo-liberalism on people worldwide and the struggles going on between the pro and anti-globalizing forces in the world at present.
Mayo’s book (2005) and Murphy and Pfaff’s (2005) article both give thorough and up-to-date accounts of the challenges ahead for the global justice movement.
Lindberg, S. and Sverrisson, A. (eds) (1997) Social Movements in Development: The Challenges of Globalization and Democratization, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Cohen, R. and Rai, S. (eds) (2000) Global Social Movements, London: Athlone.
Anheier, H., Glasius, M. and Kaldor, M. (2005) (eds) Global Civil Society 2004/05, London: Sage.
Kiely, R. (2005b) The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization, Leiden: Brill.
Mayo, M. (2005) Global Citizens: Social Movements and the Challenge of Globalization London: Zed Books.
Murphy, G.H. and Pfaff, S (2005)‘Thinking Locally, Acting Globally? What the Seattle WTO Protests Tell us About the Global Justice Movement’ Political Power and Social Theory 17 151-176.
Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics by C. Enloe (1989) is not meant to provide an especially sociological analysis. However, it is witty and accessible and offers a useful way into theorizing about gender.
In Women’s Movements in International Perspective (2001) M. Molyneux looks at women’s movements in Latin America, especially in Cuba, Nicaragua and the Argentine, though she also explores more general themes that are relevant to women’s struggles.
S. Rowbotham is a central figure in the development of feminist thought. In Homeworkers Worldwide (1993), she gives a lively and simple introduction to this topic.
In an edited book called States of Conflict: Gender, Violence and Resistance, S. Jacobs et al. (2000) include some excellent chapters on the forms of violence to which women have been exposed at the hands of states and military authorities.
An interesting case study of women’s local/global activism is Sperling et al’s ‘Constructing global feminism: Transnational Advocacy Networks and Russian Women’s activism’ (2001).
Robin Morgan’s Anthology (1996) of essays, facts, and statistics on the status of women's rights and roles in 70 countries representing every region and political system is a very comprehensive and accessible read.
Enloe, C. (1989) Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Molyneux, M. (2001) Women’s Movements in International Perspective: Latin America and Beyond, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Rowbotham, S. (1993) Homeworkers Worldwide, London: Merlin Press.
Jacobs, S., Jacobson, R. and Marchbank, J. (eds) (2000) States of Conflict: Gender,
Violence and Resistance, London: Zed Books.
Sperling, V. Ferree, M. and Risman, B. (2001) Constructing Global Feminism: Transnational Advocacy Networks and Russian Women's ActivismSigns 26( 4) 1155-1186.
Morgan, R. (1996) Sisterhood is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology London: Feminist Press.
R. Scarce’s Eco-warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement, offers a lively introduction to green radicalism. Chapter 8 deals with international movements.
S. Yearley ’s Sociology, Environmentalism, Globalization assesses environmentalism’s global claims and the debate on sustainable development from a thoroughly sociological perspective.
The Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2004, focuses specifically on how contemporary consumer behaviour is linked to environmental problems, but some chapters also consider what can be done to alleviate these through adopting simple lifestyle changes.
A. Dobson’s book, Green Political Thought (2000) provides a clear and interesting exposition of green thinking; try especially chapters 1, 3 and 4.
The chapter by P. Newell, in Global Civil Society 2005/06, offers an excellent, lively and thoughtful analysis of recent changes in the green movement.
Lundy’s study of Environmentalism in Jamaica (1999) is interesting for its perspective on social movements and also because of its geographical context in the global South.
Ghai and Vivian’s book on Grassroots environmental Action (1995) is a good exploration of how local struggles can be used in the pursuit of global goals.
Scarce, R. (1990) Eco-warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement, Chicago: Noble Press.
Yearley, S. (1996a) Sociology, Environmentalism, Globalization: Reinventing the Globe, London: Sage.
Worldwatch Institute (2004) State of the World 2004: Progress Towards a Sustainable Society, London: Earthscan.
Dobson, A. (2000) Green Political Thought, London: Routledge (3rd edn).
Newell, P. (2006) ‘Climate for change? Civil society and the politics of global warming’, in Glasius, M., Kaldor, M. and Anheier, H. (eds) Global Civil Society 2005/06, London: Sage, 90 -120.
Lundy, P. (1999) ‘Fragmented Community Action or New Social Movement? A Study of Environmentalism in Jamaica’ International Sociology 14(1) 83-102.
Ghai, D. and Vivian, J. Grassroots Environmental Action: People's Participation in Sustainable Development London : Routledge.
There are many readers and textbooks on ethnicity and nationalism. Among the most significant are Anthony D. Smith’s Ethnicity and Nationalism (1992) and the same author’s Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era (1995), although it is difficult to choose from among this sociologist’s many works on the question.
A well-balanced reader titled The Ethnicity Reader: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Migration has been edited by Rex and Guiberrnau (1997).
Michael Ignatieff’s Blood and Belonging (1994) is a powerful book, based on a television series.
Huntington’s Who are We? (2004) is one of a number of accounts by conservative American academics and commentators decrying what they see as the excesses of multiculturalism.
Two books on diasporas are Robin Cohen’s Global Diasporas (1997) and a reference book with 34 previously published articles titled Migration, Diasporas and Transnationalism edited by Vertovec and Cohen (1999).
Itzigsohn et al’s article ‘ Mapping Dominican transnationalism: narrow and broad transnational practices’ (1999) gives an interesting and detailed case study of transnationalism and its web of social practices.
For a discussion of local/global identity formation in the workplace, Ailon-Souday and Kunda’s article is very informative (2003).
Smith, A. D. (1992) Ethnicity and Nationalism, Leiden: Brill.
Smith, A. D. (1995) Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Rex, J. and Guiberrnau, M. (eds) (1997) The Ethnicity Reader: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Migration, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Ignatieff, M. (1994) Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism, London: Vintage.
Huntington, S. P. (2004) Who Are We? America’s Great Debate, London: Simon & Schuster.
Cohen, R. (1997) Global Diasporas: An Introduction, London: UCL Press.
Vertovec, S. and Cohen, R. (eds) (1999) Migration, Diasporas and Transnationalism, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Itzigsohn, J. Cabral, C. Medina, E. and Vazquez O. (1999) ‘Mapping Dominican transnationalism: narrow and broad transnational practices’ Ethnic and Racial Studies 22 (2) 316-339.
Ailon-Souday, G. and Kunda, G. (2003) ‘The Local Selves of Global Workers: The Social Construction of National Identity in the Face of Organizational Globalization’ Organization Studies 24(7) 1073-1096.
An articulate and coherent critique of globalization from a Marxist point of view is provided in Roger Burbach et al. (1997) Globalization and its Discontents: The Rise of Postmodern Socialisms.
Although written by an anthropologist rather than a sociologist, Hannerz’s Cultural Complexity (1992) provides an insightful account of cultural and social change in many settings.
Benjamin Barber’s Jihad vs. McWorld (1995) speaks to the gloomy visions of a clash of civilizations and a homogenized global consumer culture.
Martin Albrow’s The Global Age (1996) remains an incisive introduction to global thinking.
An accessible Reader on with a focus on cultural Globalization is Benyon and Dunkerley’s book (2004).
A fascinating case study of creolisation and globalisation is Medea’s article about Reunionese identities and collective memory (2002).
Burbach, R., Núñez, O. and Kagarlitsky, B. (1997) Globalization and its Discontents: The Rise of Postmodern Socialisms, London: Pluto Press.
Hannerz, U. (1992) Cultural Complexity: Studies in the Social Organization of Meaning, New York: Columbia University Press.
Barber, B. (1995) Jihad vs. McWorld , New York : Ballantine Books.
Albrow, M. (1996) The Global Age, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Benyon, G. Dunkerley, D. (2004) Globalization: The Reader London: Routledge.
Medea, L. (2002) ‘ Creolisation and Globalisation in a Neo-Colonial Context: the Case of Reunion’ Social Identities 8(1) 125-141.
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