The Moral Fabric in Contemporary Societies

The Moral Fabric in Contemporary Societies
Author: Graçzyna Skñapska
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2003
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9789004131149

These IIS annals delve into the issues of trust, economic inequalities, multiple modernities, postcommunism, corruption, and, finally, genocide and its social consequences. The book opens and closes with reflections on the theoretical aspects of what constitutes the moral fabric today.

From 'Civil Society' to 'Europe'

From 'Civil Society' to 'Europe'
Author: Grazyna Skapska
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2011-05-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004203915

In East Central Europe, constitutionalism comprises an effort by postcommunist societies to consolidate around certain values, principles, and rules that would facilitate the formation of a new political architecture as well as a new political identity for their countries. Based primarily on the experience of Poland - in comparison with other East Central European countries - this book debates the specific features of postcommunist constitutionalism. The result is a theory of reflexive constitutionalism (informed by the sociological theory of reflexive modernization) which assesses critically the intellectual resources as well as the consolidating potential of the classic foundations of liberal democracy within the reality of postcommunist transformation.

Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity

Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity
Author: Margaret S. Archer
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2016-05-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319284398

This volume explores the development and consequences of morphogenesis on normative regulation. It starts out by describing the great normative transformations from morphostasis, as the precondition of a harmonious relationship between legal validity and normative consensus in society, to morphogenesis, which tends to strongly undermine existing laws, norms, rules, rights and obligations because of the new variety it introduces. Next, it studies the decline of normative consensus resulting from the changes in the social contexts that made previous forms of normativity, based upon ‘habits, ‘habitus’ and ‘routine action’, unhelpfully misleading because they no longer constituted relevant guidelines to action. It shows how this led to the ‘Reflexive Imperative’ with subjects having to work out their own purposeful actions in relation to their objective social circumstances and their personal concerns, if they were to be active rather than passive agents. Finally, the book analyses what makes for chance in normativity, and what will underwrite future social regulation. It discusses whether it is possible to establish a new corpus of laws, norms and rules, given that intense morphogenesis denies the durability of any new stable context.

Liquid Society and Its Law

Liquid Society and Its Law
Author: Jiří Přibáň
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2016-05-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317104749

This collection of essays brings together Zygmunt Bauman and a number of internationally distinguished legal scholars who examine the influence of Bauman's recent works on social theory of law and socio-legal studies. Contributors focus on the concept of 'liquid society' and its adoption by legal scholars. The volume opens with Bauman's analysis of fears and policing in 'liquid society' and continues by examining the social and legal theoretical context and implications of Bauman's theory.

Moral Markets

Moral Markets
Author: Nico Stehr
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2015-12-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317255925

Nothing affects modern society more than the decisions made in the marketplace, especially (but not only) the judgments of consumers. Stehr's designation of a new stage in modern societies with the term "moral markets" signals a further development in the social evolution of markets. Market theories still widely in use today emerged in a society that no longer exists. Consumers were hardly in evidence at all in early theories of the market. Today, growing affluence, greater knowledge, and high-speed communication among consumers builds into the marketplace notions of fairness, solidarity, environment, health, and political considerations imbued with a long-term perspective that can disrupt short-term pursuits of the best buy. Importantly, such social goals, individual apprehensions, and modes of consumer conduct become inscribed today in products and services offered in the marketplace, as well as in the rules and regulations that govern market relations. Stehr uses examples to illustrate these trends and build new theory fitting today's changing consumerism.

Marking Evil

Marking Evil
Author: Amos Goldberg
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2015-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782386203

Talking about the Holocaust has provided an international language for ethics, victimization, political claims, and constructions of collective identity. As part of a worldwide vocabulary, that language helps set the tenor of the era of globalization. This volume addresses manifestations of Holocaust-engendered global discourse by critically examining their function and inherent dilemmas, and the ways in which Holocaust-related matters still instigate public debate and academic deliberation. It contends that the contradiction between the totalizing logic of globalization and the assumed uniqueness of the Holocaust generates continued intellectual and practical discontent.

Deep Change and Emergent Structures in Global Society

Deep Change and Emergent Structures in Global Society
Author: Andrea M. Maccarini
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2019-03-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030136248

This book addresses the problem of the transition to new forms of social order in the global world. As a haunting sense of historical discontinuity pervades Western societies, it offers a fresh perspective on the issue, focusing on two basic coordinates to pinpoint the developmental path of rapidly changing societies: one is the mechanism of unfettered social morphogenesis and the other is the specific kind of societal unification brought about by globalization, with the related closure of the world. The book draws on the theoretical work produced in the five volumes of the Springer series ‘’Social Morphogenesis’’ and applies it in a sustained and concerted approach to the empirical examination of macro-social change. The first part of the book presents the social ontology of the morphogenetic approach, and discusses its capacity to interpret macrosocial transitions. The second part then draws a prospective outline of the social formation known as the ‘morphogenic society,’ showing how unbound morphogenesis in a globalized world shapes such crucial phenomena as social norms, war and violence, openness and closure as adaptive responses from social organizations. Lastly, the third part examines the anthropological consequences of these societal trends, focusing on self and character as well as on human fulfillment and the ‘good life’.

Corruption, Social Sciences and the Law

Corruption, Social Sciences and the Law
Author: Jane Ellis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2019-04-25
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0429589018

The problem of corruption, however described, dates back thousands of years. Professionals working in areas such as development studies, economics and political studies, were the first to most actively analyse and publish on the topic of corruption and its negative impacts on economies, societies and politics. There was, at that time, minimal literature available on corruption and the law. The literature and discussion on bribery and corruption, as well as on the negative impact of each and what is required to address them, particularly in the legal context, are now considerable. Corruption and anti-corruption are multifaceted and multi-disciplinary. The focus now on the law and compliance, and perhaps commercial incentives, is relatively easy. However, corruption, anti-corruption and the motivations for them are complex. If we continue to discuss, debate, engage, address corruption and anti-corruption in our own disciplinary silos, we are unlikely to significantly progress the fight against corruption. What do terms such as 'culture of integrity', 'demand accountability', ‘transparency and accountability’ and ‘ethical corporate culture’ dominating the anti-corruption discourse mean, if anything, in other disciplines? If they are meaningless, what approach would practitioners in those other disciplines suggest be adopted to address corruption. What has their experience been in the field? How can the work of each discipline contribute to the work of whole and, as such, improve our work in and understanding of anti-corruption? This book seeks to answer these questions and to understand the phenomenon more comprehensively. It will be of value to researchers, academics, lawyers, legislators and students in the fields of law, anthropology, sociology, international affairs, and business.

The Axial Age and Its Consequences

The Axial Age and Its Consequences
Author: Robert N. Bellah
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 561
Release: 2012-10-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0674067401

This book makes the bold claim that intellectual sophistication was born worldwide during the middle centuries of the first millennium bce. From Axial Age thinkers we inherited a sense of the world as a place not just to experience but to investigate, envision, and alter. A variety of utopian visions emerged and led to both reform and repression.

Work, Family and Religion in Contemporary Society

Work, Family and Religion in Contemporary Society
Author: Nancy Tatom Ammerman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2014-02-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1136658823

Until recently, religious institutions have been organized to suit the traditional American family, where the wife stayed at home, caring for children. Today, churches and synagogues are beginning to adapt to the reality of the American family: dual-career marriages, high levels of divorce, interfaith marriages, partnerships that may not be marriages. Religious organizations must serve families that don't fall into the Ozzie and Harriet mold. The first group of papers in this edited volume documents changing trends in the connection between religion, work, and the family. In the second part of the book, we see how changing families and flexible congregations are experimenting with new forms of religious life.