Confucianism has influenced Chinese societies for more than 2,000 years, and such influence is likely to continue in the future. However, during the preceding centuries, the nature of what was understood to be Confucianism has changed, and this process will also continue. Today, the scholarly tradition is adapting both to the modernization of Chinese societies--mainland China, Singapore, and Taiwan--and to the emergence of global society.

Tamney and Chiang focus on current social changes, their implications for the Chinese scholarly tradition, and the responses of...

The relationship between police and the communities and citizens they serve has long been a topic of study and controversy. Sung provides a place-oriented theory of policing to guide strategies for crime control and problem-oriented policing. He contends that community policing is a product of power relations among communities. Sung also explores:

how police and citizens interact with each other in stratified and residentially segregated communities

how services are delivered by police

how citizens respond to those charged with protecting them and enforcing the law

...

Bringing together prominent scholars in the sociology of religion, this collection of essays offers a framework for understanding the transition from the essentially penitential purposes of the medieval pilgrimage, to the rise of the varied spiritualities of contemporary religious tourism. Covering over 1,500 years of religious travel, these essays explore the forms of expression and experience which we must engage reflectively to better understand the idea of pilgrimage and religious tourism as an important aspect of religious affirmation. This unique volume sheds light on the...

What is Futures Studies, what are the theories and methods underlying the field? What are its basic concepts and metaphors, and how is it related to other academic fields? These are the core questions addressed in this book by a comprehensive assembly of distinguished scholars. They explore the enigma of why Futures Studies, despite its growing maturity as an intellectual endeavor, after more than three decades of groundbreaking work, still struggles for institutional acceptance. Together these contributors paint a picture of Futures Studies not so much a product of the stale intellectual...

The period from 1876 to 1946 in Korea marked a turbulent time when the country opened its market to foreign powers, became subject to Japanese colonialism, and was swept into agricultural commercialization, industrialization, and eventually postcolonial revolutionary movements. Gi-Wook Shin examines how peasants responded to these events, and to their own economic and political circumstances, with protests that shaped the course of postwar revolution in the north and reform in the south. Utilizing interviews, documentary research, and statistical analysis, Shin analyzes variation in...