Sociology is subject to a process of internationalisation. The rapid development of China has provided the 'China experience' and shown the emergence of a new sociology. In this book a dialogue between European and Chinese sociologists is opening up new horizons for Western thought in a context of economic and cultural globalisation. The objective is to embark on a process of epistemological reconfiguration, deconstructing reality on the basis of dividing up the world. This book deals with some fundamental sociological issues: modernities and globalisation, class and society, state and...

Global Society and Human Rights tries to grasp and reconstruct the processes of global unification and the shaping of a common feeling of humanity: the conviction, in different cultural contexts, of the unity of mankind and the existence of inalienable human rights. Contrary to the past, the quest for the unity of mankind does not imply the denial of differences; on the contrary, it brings to light the common traits of the social and political organizations from which the potential recognition and the assertion of individual differences arise. The basic claim set forth in this book is...

Secure Oil and Alternative Energy: The Geopolitics and Energy Paths of China and the European Union is the follow-on study to the well-received The Globalization of Energy: China and the European Union (Brill 2010). While intensive cooperation between China and the EU in the fields of energy use, environmental protection, and sustainability is highly needed, the question remains unanswered how this cooperation could be organized. Since the proven gas and oil reserves lay outside China and the EU, they are both facing geopolitical challenges to energy security in the foreseeable...

The idea of a better society as associated with the communal idea is investigated from both theoretical perspectives and through contemporary experiences around the world. This idea leaves nobody indifferent. Whatever the hardship that its concretization implies, however, once it does materialize, it cannot, as such avoid new challenges, tensions and unexpected claims. This means, at varying degrees, negations of, and removals from, the "utopian inspiration." Humans are able to create unprecedented conditions of life under most ambitious inspirations, but are unable to safeguard their...

While in the days of the Cold War models of citizenship were relatively clear-cut around the contrasting projects of reform and revolution, in the last three decades Latin America has become a laboratory for comparative research. The region has witnessed both a renewal of electoral democracy and the diversification of experiments in citizen representation and participation. The implementation of neo-liberal policies has led to countervailing transformations in democratic citizenship and to the rise of populist leaderships, while the crisis of representation has been accompanied by new forms...

Conflict and Peace in Central Eurasia combines theory with in-depth description and systematic analyses of ethnoterritorial conflict and coexistence in Central Eurasia. Central Eurasia is at the heart of the Eurasian continent around the Caspian Sea. Much of this macro-region is made up of the post-Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus, but it also covers other areas, such as parts of Russia and Iran. Central Eurasia is subject to a number of ethnoterritorial conflicts. Yet at the same time, a large number of ethnic groups, speaking different languages and following...

In China, East Asia and the European Union specialist authors from both Europe and Asia reflect on the dynamic relationship between the three actors from an International Relations perspective. The book is a testimony to China's seemingly unstoppable rise, both in the East Asian region and in the relationship with the EU and its member states. The authors investigate why the economic links between the European Union and East Asia have become so firmly established, while in comparison the political bond has remained underdeveloped. They conclude that the crises the EU is currently...

This book is the product of a joint research program between the Institute of West Asia & African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing and the Energy Program Asia of the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University. China's transition to an urban-industrial society relies on its abundant domestic coal supplies, and on an increase in oil and gas imports. However, authorities are confronted with trade-offs between investments in expanding supplies of fossils, environmental sustainability, energy efficiency and in clean energy. Resources spent on expanding...

In Life Advice from Below, Eric C. Hendriks offers the first systematic, comparative study of the globalization of American-style self-help culture and the cultural conflicts this creates in different national contexts. The self-help guru is an archetypical American figure associated with individualism, materialism and the American Dream. Nonetheless, the self-help industry is spreading globally, thriving in China and other seemingly unlikely places. Controversy follows in its wake, as the self-help industry, operating outside of formal education and state institutions, outflanks...

In Cultural Constellations, Place-Making and Ethnicity in Eastern India, c. 1850-1927, Swarupa Gupta outlines a fresh paradigm moving beyond stereotypical representations of eastern India as a site of ethnic fragmentation. The book traces unities by exploring intersections between (1) cultural constellations; (2) place-making and (3) ethnicity. Centralising place-making, it tells the story of how people made places, mediating caste / religious / linguistic contestations. It offers new meanings of ‘region’ in Eastern Indian and global contexts by showing how an interregional arena...