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Social Networks and Japanese Democracy: The Beneficial Impact of Interpersonal Communication in East Asia (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)
by Sean Richey Ken'ichi IkedaMany who critique democracy as practiced in East Asia suggest that the Confucian political culture of these nations prevents democracy from being the robust participatory type, and limits it to a spectacle designed to create obedience from the public. Certainly some East Asian nations have had elections for decades, but for democracy to be meaningful, a country needs an active public sphere, political tolerance, egalitarian beliefs, and vigorous political participation. The Asian-values debate focuses on whether the creation of this optimal version of democracy in East Asian nations will be hindered by their shared Confucian cultural heritage and at the centre of this debate is whether there is an active political culture in East Asia that allows citizens to freely discuss, debate, and disagree about politics. With Japan as its focus, this book examines the role of social networks and political discussion in Japanese political culture and asks whether discursive participatory democracy is indeed possible in East Asia. In order to answer this question the authors undertook the largest academic political survey ever conducted in Japan to give the book exceptional empirical credence. This data reveals how the Japanese people interact politically, concluding that through the powerful influence of social networks on Japanese political behaviour, Japan has a more globalized and less hierarchical society where Confucian culture is not dominant and where creation of a vibrant civil society is possible. This book will be invaluable for students and scholars of Japanese politics, democracy, civil society, and globalization.
Social Networks and Public Support for the European Union (Routledge Advances in European Politics)
by Elizabeth RadziszewskiAlthough political conversations on European integration are common, they are not part of existing explanations for attitude formation on the EU. This book examines the impact of social interactions, specifically interpersonal and informal discussions, on shaping individuals’ views on European integration. Looking at opinion formation through the lens of social networks, the author develops an innovative argument about the role that social networks play in delivering information and moulding individuals’ identities. Including original survey data and an extended case study on Poland, the book identifies three processes through which informal discussions could affect views on integration and shows that differences in discussion dynamics explain why some people change their opinions while other remain loyal to their views. It shows that well-connected leaders in small communities can use informal talks to ensure the spread of local ideas, such as opposition to the EU, even when such ideas are unpopular at the national level. This book demonstrates that people who engage in informal talks about politics behave differently than those who are excluded from such interactions. Social Networks and Public Support for the European Union will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union politics, public opinion, social networks, political marketing, deliberation, Eastern Europe and comparative politics.
Social Networks and Regional Identity in Bronze Age Italy
by Emma Blake"This book takes an innovative approach to detecting regional groupings in peninsular Italy during the Late Bronze Age, a notoriously murky period of Italian prehistory. Applying social network analysis to the distributions of imports and other distinctive objects, Emma Blake reveals previously unrecognized exchange networks that are in some cases the precursors of the named peoples of the first millennium BC: the Etruscans, the Veneti, and others. In a series of regional case studies, she uses quantitative methods to both reconstruct and analyze the character of these early networks and posits that, through path dependence, the initial structure of the networks played a role in the success or failure of the groups occupying those same regions in later times. This book thus bridges the divide between Italian prehistory and the Classical period, and demonstrates that Italy's regionalism began far earlier than previously thought"--
Social Networks and Travel Behaviour (Transport And Society Ser.)
by Matthias Kowald Kay W. AxhausenIn aiming to understand and model peoples’ out-of-home movements, the academic field of transport planning is confronted with two major challenges. Firstly, leisure travel is increasing in importance and is more complex and variable than work-related travel, being less rigid in temporal and spatial patterns and more influenced by external factors such as social contacts or weather conditions. Secondly, traditional aggregated transport models do not include any information on peoples’ social interactions or their personal social networks. In contrast, the recent development and availability of disaggregated models allows more detailed modelling of elements such as individual characteristics, motivations, constraints and travel costs, as well as a consideration of influences from an actor’s social environment. People travel not only within an infrastructure but also within a social structure. These two main factors have driven transport planners to focus on peoples’ interaction and their social network. In recent years there have been a remarkable number of data collection efforts in the field, surveying information on the link between travel behaviour and social motivation. Providing an overview of selected exemplary studies, this volume addresses the overlap between transport planning and methods of social network analysis; applied methods of social network analysis and related empirical results; and current challenges and new research questions in this field.
Social Networks, Terrorism and Counter-terrorism: Radical and Connected (Contemporary Terrorism Studies)
by Martin BouchardThis book examines two key themes in terrorism studies, the radicalization process and counter-terrorism policies, through the lens of social networks. The book aims to show that networks should be at the forefront not only when analysing terrorists, but also when assessing the responses to their actions. The volume makes a unique contribution by addressing two relatively new themes for terrorism studies. First it puts social relations and cooperation issues at the forefront – an approach often identified as crucial to future breakthroughs in the field. Second, many contributions tackle the role of the Internet in the process of radicalization and in recruitment more generally, a highly debated topic in the field today. In addition, the book provides a valuable mix of review essays, critical essays, and original empirical studies. This balanced approach is also found in the topics covered by the authors, as well as their academic disciplines, which include sociology, computer science, geography, history, engineering, and criminology as well as political science. Many of the true advances in terrorism studies depend on the successful collaboration of multi-disciplinary teams, each with a different set of methodological and conceptual tools. This volume reflects the newfound diversity in this field and is a true product of its time. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, social networks, security studies, sociology, criminology and international relations in general.
Social Norms
by Michael Hechter Karl-Dieter OppSocial norms are rules that prescribe what people should and should not do given their social surroundings and circumstances. Norms instruct people to keep their promises, to drive on the right, or to abide by the golden rule. They are useful explanatory tools, employed to analyze phenomena as grand as international diplomacy and as mundane as the rules of the road. But our knowledge of norms is scattered across disciplines and research traditions, with no clear consensus on how the term should be used. Research on norms has focused on the content and the consequences of norms, without paying enough attention to their causes. Social Norms reaches across the disciplines of sociology, economics, game theory, and legal studies to provide a well-integrated theoretical and empirical account of how norms emerge, change, persist, or die out. Social Norms opens with a critical review of the many outstanding issues in the research on norms: When are norms simply devices to ease cooperation, and when do they carry intrinsic moral weight? Do norms evolve gradually over time or spring up spontaneously as circumstances change? The volume then turns to case studies on the birth and death of norms in a variety of contexts, from protest movements, to marriage, to mushroom collecting. The authors detail the concrete social processes, such as repeated interactions, social learning, threats and sanctions, that produce, sustain, and enforce norms. One case study explains how it can become normative for citizens to participate in political protests in times of social upheaval. Another case study examines how the norm of objectivity in American journalism emerged: Did it arise by consensus as the professional creed of the press corps, or was it imposed upon journalists by their employers? A third case study examines the emergence of the norm of national self-determination: has it diffused as an element of global culture, or was it imposed by the actions of powerful states? The book concludes with an examination of what we know of norm emergence, highlighting areas of agreement and points of contradiction between the disciplines. Norms may be useful in explaining other phenomena in society, but until we have a coherent theory of their origins we have not truly explained norms themselves. Social Norms moves us closer to a true understanding of this ubiquitous feature of social life.
Social Norms, Gender and Collective Behaviour: Development Paradigms in India
by Indranil De Shyam Singh Shilpi Smita PandaThis book explores the nature and type of prevalent collective behavior that influences women empowerment, women workforce participation and behavior change in sanitation. The influence of collective norms and customs have been investigated through a series of studies throughout India. There are very few research works on understanding social norms that distinguishes it from a range of other collective behaviors. This understanding would not only improve analytical clarity on collective behavior in general and social norms in particular, in the context of gender and sanitation, but also improve development practice in these areas. This book is also novel as it would expound the social network in the context of sanitation behavior in India. The tools and techniques discussed in the book are replicable and hence would be helpful for other researchers and development practitioners to analyse other collective behaviours.
Social Order and Political Change
by Duane ChampagneUnder what conditions can democratic governments be formed and become stable? The author addresses this question in a unique way that brings sociological and political theory to bear on the study of traditional societies, long the preserve of historians and anthropologists. By examining in detail the history of four American Indian societies—the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Creek—the author documents a general theory of politics and constitutional government. The four societies present an opportunity to study the process of democratic institution building in a controlled, comparative historical context. The societies were subject to similar geopolitical relations with the United States; they were incorporated into the same sequence of world economic system relations (initially fur trade and then the cotton market); they experienced the emergence of class structures; and they all produced some form of constitutional democracy. The Cherokee, however, adopted a stable constitutional government earlier and with less coercion than the other three nations. Why was this so? With the aid of comparative analysis, the author finds the answer in the Cherokee differentiation of politics from the nationally and religiously ordered clan system. This set of institutional relations allowed the Cherokee to maintain a strong sense of social solidarity while tolerating conflict, increased political differentiation, and formation of a political nationality. The other three societies were either less differentiated or less socially unified. They formed their constitutional governments thirty to forty years later than the Cherokee and with more internal political coercion—and, in the Creek case, with less political stability. The formation and stabilization of democratic state governments is a major issue in such contemporary phenomena as political change in Third World nations and the transformation of the governments of Eastern Europe. The four case studies presented in this hook form the basis of a new and powerful theoretical argument for understanding historical patterns of democratic change, political stability, and the relations of political power.
Social Order and the General Theory of Strategy (Routledge Library Editions: Security and Society)
by Alexander AtkinsonIs there a place left in international politics for the real use of violence as an instrument of policy in the nuclear age? Originally published in 1981, Dr Atkinson attempts to answer this question with new considerations in the presentation of a general theory of strategy. He argues that the classical theory of strategy, so influential for the 19th century and for the better half of the 20th century, was built on a mainly hidden structure of reasoning that still infested theory at the time. The larger and socially-rooted lessons that insurgent warfare can inform, as best exemplified in the primary sources of the Chinese Civil War period, reveal in a new light this hidden structure of which Clausewitz is the earliest and most eloquent example. By this analysis of the insurgent and classical paradigm opposites the author intends to strip away the blinds of convention still circulating in theory at the time so that observers and students of international politics may see where new forms of politically motivated violence in the nuclear age seem more than ever to be headed.
Social Organizations and the Authoritarian State in China
by Timothy HildebrandtReceived wisdom suggests that social organizations (such as non-government organizations, NGOs) have the power to upend the political status quo. However, in many authoritarian contexts, such as China, NGO emergence has not resulted in this expected regime change. In this book, Timothy Hildebrandt shows how NGOs adapt to the changing interests of central and local governments, working in service of the state to address social problems. In doing so, the nature of NGO emergence in China effectively strengthens the state, rather than weakens it. This book offers a groundbreaking comparative analysis of Chinese social organizations across the country in three different issue areas: environmental protection, HIV/AIDS prevention, and gay and lesbian rights. It suggests a new way of thinking about state-society relations in authoritarian countries, one that is distinctly co-dependent in nature: governments require the assistance of NGOs to govern while NGOs need governments to extend political, economic, and personal opportunities to exist.
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
by Barrington Moore Jr.A landmark in comparative history and a challenge to scholars of all lands who are trying to learn how we arrived at where we are now. "-New York Times Book Review""
Social Partners and Gender Equality: Change and Continuity in Gendered Corporatism in Europe (Gender and Politics)
by Johanna Kantola Anna Elomäki Paula Koskinen SandbergThis book breaks new ground in gender and politics research by studying the multiple ways in which gender and intersectional equalities shape and are shaped by social partners representing employers and employees in Europe, as well as the relationships between those social partners. Little critical attention has been paid to these organizations, yet, as this volume illustrates, social partners are important actors in relation to gender and other inequalities at the level of both individual European countries and the European Union. The chapters in this volume explore the impact of social partners on (in)equalities in a variety of 21st-century political contexts, taking into account phenomena such as neoliberalisation, austerity, and the COVID-19 crisis. This volume adds a crucial dimension to studies on gender inequalities in the labour market, contributing to research on issues such as domestic work, the gender pay gap, and the persistent undervaluation of women’s labour and feminized reproductive labour, in particular care work. It also represents a significant contribution to the literature on gender equality policy. The book’s focus on social partners provides important insights that help to explain the persistence of gender inequalities and the difficulties of adopting and implementing policies to combat them. This volume should appeal to students and researchers of gender studies, politics, European politics, employment relations, and international relations, as well as to policymakers engaged in addressing gender inequalities in the labour market.
Social Perspectives on the Sanitation Challenge
by Gert Spaargaren Peter Oosterveer Bas Van VlietThis collection presents a timely collection of social scientific papers dealing with innovative sanitation issues and concepts, perceptions and decision-making support. It comprises a valuable resource for political scientists, environmental engineers and urban planners involved in the study, design and implementation of sanitation projects worldwide and whose work relates to meeting the ambitious Millennium Development Goal of halving, by 2015, the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. In developed countries the sanitation challenge is to initiate a transition from strongly centralized, water-based infrastructure regimes towards more sustainable, source-separation oriented, sanitation regimes. This calls for social scientific research and demonstration on different levels and scales, including concept development, institutional learning and governance building. In the developing world the sanitation challenge is to provide sanitation services to the poor and the very poor, without compromising on sustainability. New configurations employing the best practices of sanitation technology and management for rural and urban contexts are needed. The sanitation challenge in both worlds is to go beyond traditional dichotomies between 'small, appropriate' and 'modern/advanced' technologies and to develop rural and urban sanitation with a mix of scales, strategies, technologies, payment systems and decision-making structures, that better fit the physical and human systems for which they are designed. This volume is unique in its presentation of social scientific research findings from urban planners, sociologists, economists, political scientists and environmental engineers who are involved in international sanitation research and implementation. Theoretically the volume include insights from Science and Technology Studies, Environmental Sociology and Urban Studies. Its empirical scope stretches from sanitation projects in Western Europe to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Social Philosophy (Explorations In Philosophy Ser.)
by Gerald F. GausThis accessible introductory text discusses how people in a pluralistic society such as ours can accept a common social ethic - a publicly justified morality. It presents analyses of the basic concepts, including justifications of liberty, harm to others, private property rights, distributive justice, environmental harms, help to others and offensive behaviour. Gaus acquaints the reader with the major figures in social philosophy - John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, John Rawls, David Gauthier, and Joel Feinberg - as well as recent communitarian philosophers. The basic technical aspects of social philosophy are also introduced: game theory, social choice theory, the ideas rational action, rational bargaining, and public goods. Throughout, helpful short examples and stories are used to illustrate the material.
Social Philosophy of Vivekananda and Indian Nationalism
by Surinder Kumar LijharaAmong the galaxy of scholars, Swami Vivekananda stands out as a majestic tower of light who has given a new tempo to the building up of a new sense of nationalism in modern India. The uniqueness of Vivekananda was his endeavour to translate every ounce of
Social Policies and Emotions: A Look from the Global South
by Adrian Scribano Angélica De SenaThis book analyzes the connections between social policies and politics of sensibilities. The authors show how social policies build sociabilities, experiences and sensibilities, producing processes of conflict avoidance and consecration of the given. After discussing violence against women as a case study in order to understand the current state of social policies, the authors then describe how the “place” and “value” of education have become central features to social policies in order to disband conflict. Finally, they explain the emergence of a social phenomenon in the last sixteen years in Latin America and particularly Argentina: the compensatory consumption system and the resulting emergence of the “assisted citizen.”
Social Policies and Social Control: New Perspectives on the 'Not-So-Big Society'
by Malcolm Harrison and Teela SandersDrawing on a wide array of policy domains and events, this book provides an innovative account of social control and behaviourism within welfare systems and social policies, and the implications for disadvantaged groups. This accessible collection reviews the controls, assumptions and persuasions applied to individuals and households and explores broader themes, including how ‘new behaviourism’ was consolidated during the New Labour and Cameron periods. Social policy and social control offers timely engagements with key issues for researchers and policy makers, and is relevant for students in social policy, sociology, socio-legal studies, social work and social care, disability studies, human geography, politics and public policy, and gender, family and life course studies.
Social Policies in Times of Austerity and Populism: Lessons from Brazil
by Natália SátyroFeaturing the latest research by Brazilian-based scholars previously inaccessible to an English-speaking audience, this book is a timely, authoritative, multidisciplinary overview of social policies in Brazil during the Temer austerity and the Bolsonaro populist presidencies. The breadth of policies studied herein provides clues on the political agenda, preferences, and strategies during this tumultuous period in Brazil’s history.Divided into four parts, Part I is a conceptualization: it brings basic understanding of Brazilian social policies, explains the trajectory of the Brazil political landscape, including the growth of a populist right-wing movement, the economic crisis and the increase in poverty and inequality in Brazil prior, and the threat to democracy brought about by the disinformation ecosystem. Part II discusses social security, social assistance, conditional cash transfers, and healthcare. Part III analyzes the neoliberal strategies to social investment policies, specifically labor, family, and education. In Part IV, the authors turn their attention to non-conventional topics that are not typically included in research on welfare state retrenchment, including the environment and indigenous rights, and police violence and gun control.Social Policies in Times of Austerity and Populism is unhesitatingly recommended to all those who teach welfare state politics, comparative public policy, development studies, Brazilian politics, and right-wing politics.
Social Policy
by Hugh Bochel Guy DalyThis thoroughly updated new edition provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary social policy, and addresses its historical, theoretical and contextual foundations. Divided into four sections, it opens with a survey of the socio-economic, political and governmental contexts within which social policy operates, before moving on to look at the historical development of the subject. The third section examines contemporary aspects of providing welfare, whilst the final part covers European and wider international developments. The text explores the major topics and areas in contemporary social policy, including: work and welfare education adult health and social care children and families crime and criminal justice health housing race disability Issues are addressed throughout in a lively and accessible style, and examples are richly illustrated to encourage the student to engage with theory and content, and to help highlight the relevance of social policy in our understanding of modern society. It is packed with features including, ‘Spotlight’ ‘Discussion and review’ and ‘Controversy and debate’ boxes, as well as further readings and recommended websites. A comprehensive glossary also provides explanations of key terms and abbreviations. Social Policy is an essential textbook for undergraduate students taking courses in social policy and related courses such as criminology, health studies, politics, sociology, nursing, youth and social work.
Social Policy
by Hartley DeanHow do human societies provide for the wellbeing of their members? How far can we organise the ways in which we care for and about each other? And who should take responsibility for providing the support we all need? These are some of the fundamental questions addressed by social policy today. In this short introduction, suitable for students at any level, Hartley Dean explains the extraordinary scope and importance of social policy. He explores its foundations and contemporary significance; the principal issues it addresses and their diverse economic, political and sociological dimensions, and concludes by looking at the fundamental challenges facing social policy in an ever changing world. Introducing social policy as a broadly conceived study of human wellbeing, this fully revised and updated edition examines the ways in which governments and peoples throughout the world attend to, promote, neglect or even undermine the things that make life worth living. These include essential services, such as healthcare and education; the means of livelihood, such as jobs and money; and vital but sometimes intangible things, such as physical and emotional security. Some of these are organised by governments and official bodies. Others are provided by businesses, social groups, community organizations, neighbours and families. Trying to understand all these elements, which together constitute human wellbeing, is the stuff of social policy.
Social Policy
by Hugh Bochel; Guy DalyThis thoroughly revised and expanded new edition provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary social policy and addresses its historical, theoretical and contextual foundations as well as contemporary policy issues relating to health, education and welfare as well as the impact of Brexit. Divided into four sections, it opens with a survey of the socio-economic, political and governmental contexts within which social policy operates, before moving on to look at the historical development of the subject. The third section examines contemporary aspects of providing welfare, whilst the final part covers European and wider international developments. The text explores the major topics and areas in contemporary social policy, for example: work and welfare education adult health and social care children and families crime and criminal justice health housing race disability social care and includes new chapters on class as well as comparative social policy. Issues are addressed throughout in a lively and accessible style and examples are richly illustrated to encourage the student to engage with theory and content and to help highlight the relevance of social policy in our understanding of modern society. It is packed with features including ‘Spotlight’ ‘Discussion and review’ and ‘Controversy and debate’ boxes, as well as further readings and recommended websites. A comprehensive glossary also provides explanations of key terms and abbreviations. This is an essential textbook for undergraduate students taking courses in social policy and related subjects such as criminology, health studies, politics, sociology, nursing, youth and social work.
Social Policy 1830-1914: Individualism, Collectivism and the Origins of the Welfare State (Routledge Library Editions: The History of Social Welfare #1)
by Eric J EvansFirst published in 1978, this book gathers an extensive range of documents which illuminate the complex and important process by which the State in Britain has taken on increased responsibility for the health and welfare of its citizens. It uses extracts from a variety of sources, including reports, debates, speeches, articles and reviews, and commentary from leading figures of the period, such as Disraeli, Dickens, Edwin Chadwick and Churchill. The book begins with a discussion of the notion of an ‘age of laissez-faire’ in the mid-nineteenth century, and an examination of the extent to which the Liberal government embarked on a conscious policy of ‘welfarism’ between 1906 and 1914. The extracts themselves cover the entire field of social policy, including factory legislation, public health, housing, education, poverty, pensions and unemployment. This book will be of interest to those studying the history of social welfare and social policy.
Social Policy 3E: Theory and Practice
by Paul SpickerSocial Policy: Theory and practice is a fully revised, updated and extended edition of a bestselling social policy textbook, extensively reworked and adapted to meet the needs of its international readership. The book lays out the architecture of social policy as a field of study, binding the discussion of theory to the understanding of social policy in practice. It aims to provide students and practitioners with a sense of the scope, range and purpose of the subject while developing critical awareness of problems, issues and common fallacies. Written in an accessible and engaging style, it explains what social policy is and why it matters; looks at social policy in its social context; considers policy, the role of the state and the social services; explores issues in social administration and service delivery; and focuses on the methods and approaches of the subject. For practitioners, there are discussions of the techniques and approaches used to apply social policy in practice. For students, there are boxes raising issues and reviewing case studies, questions for discussion and a detailed glossary. The book’s distinctive, path–breaking approach makes it invaluable for students studying social policy at a range levels, professionals and practitioners in the field of social policy.
Social Policy Developments in Greece
by Elias MossialosIn recent years there has been much debate surrounding the future of the welfare state in Europe, the complex factors influencing reform, and the extent to which responses to pressures on welfare could lead to irreversible systemic changes in social policy. By providing an in-depth analysis of social policy developments in Greece, this work furthers understanding of welfare reform trajectories in Europe. The authors thoroughly examine aspects of structural change, challenges and responses in major policy areas of employment, social security, family and gender, health and social care, and migration. Research issues central to the debate on 'recasting European welfare states', such as structural adjustments with regard to the production, organization and delivery of welfare, significant changes in the financial side of social protection, the role of political parties, the social partners and other major social actors in influencing (or resisting) policy reform, are at the forefront of the contributions to this volume. The scope and intensity of pressures on the Greek welfare state emanating from the supranational level and the challenges linked to European integration and economic and monetary union are also of crucial importance in the analyses undertaken.
Social Policy Dismantling and De-democratization in Brazil: Citizenship in Danger (Societies and Political Orders in Transition)
by Sonia FleuryThis book examines the emergence of authoritarian populist regimes, analyzing Brazil as a case study. The authors explain how the tactics employed by the Bolsonaro administration to dismantle bureaucracy and public policies, especially labour and social policies, find expression in the fiscal austerity measures recently inscribed in the Federal Constitution: a counter-democratic device employed by technical and financial elites to systemically derail the social protection system.Through this in-depth case study, the book presents new theoretical arguments and concepts that can be useful to understand the dynamics of such new regimes, and discussing similar cases in other contexts. Democratic governments in Brazil, driven by social movements and political actors, have strengthened social protection through a distinctive institutional architecture that combines the strengthening of public bureaucracies, the creation of intergovernmental networks, and the democratic instances of social participation and agreement. The contributions throughout this volume analyze these transformations in different sectors of public policy, such as labour, employment, pensions, food and nutrition security, health, and social assistance. Each contribution discusses the recent trajectory through a political analysis of the main actors and institutions, reform processes and policy changes, and the results achieved. Finally, the existing weaknesses in each of these social protection sectors are identified in the context of the literature on policy dismantling, revealing the strategies used to take advantage of these political and institutional weaknesses.This book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of political science and public policy, interested in a better understanding of de-democratization by social policy dismantling.