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The international sociological community has engaged recently in a controversial discussion on social inequality. There is a vigourous debate on whether the traditional concepts of social class and social stratification are still useful. Some researchers argue that social classes still offer a key explanation to social inequalities while others challenge the long-standing tradition of class analysis. New approaches have been proposed to describe recent social changes in the stratification system: vanishing middle class, two-thirds societies, cosmographic inequality, and classless society, among others.
This bibliography lists the most important works published in sociology in 1993. Renowned for its international coverage and rigorous selection procedures, the IBSS provides researchers and librarians with the most comprehensive and scholarly bibliographic service available in the social sciences. The IBSS is compiled by the British Library of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics, one of the world's leading social science institutions. Published annually, the IBSS is available in four subject areas: anthropology, economics, political science and sociology.
The introduction, by Nikolai Genov, looks at the challenges posed by two transformations: the experiment with communism, which ended in failure, and the current transition to a market economy and pluralist politics. Genov concludes that the major reason for Bulgaria's critical situation is the powerlessness of its state institutions. Considering life-style, fertility, leisure and consumption, inequality, religion, economic institutions, ethnicity, norms of conduct, and family, as well as other trends, Recent Social Trends in Bulgaria, 1960B1995 is the first comprehensive presentation of the major transformations that characterize Bulgaria at the turn of the century. The contributors not only consider a broad range of social phenomena but provide an in-depth analysis of social change. This national profile provides more data supporting the hypothesis of diversification, rather than convergence, in modern societies, a hypothesis proposed by the Comparative Charting of Social Change group after documenting social change in many countries.
The third volume in the invaluable reference series Comparative Charting of Social Change examines social trends in West Germany during the period between 1960 and 1990. This was a special phase of German history: the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949, and by 1960 the main disturbances of the Second World War had been overcome. The next thirty years saw relatively stable development in democratic institutions, economic wealth, and the welfare state. This process, however, was not entirely without difficulties. Environmental conditions deteriorated and unemployment grew, especially in the 1980s. A new, reunified Germany replaced the "old" FRG in 1990, ushering in a fundamentally different social structure.
On Rachel Carson and her work and on current environmental challenges. The four authors present information on various American trends: demographic, macroeconomic, and macro-technological. Descriptions, tables, and graphs trace the dynamics of population, specifically in relation to the expansion which followed the 1982-83 recession, and analyze achievements in intelligence, genetic engineering, and space travel. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Over the three decades from 1960 to 1990, French society underwent a spectacular transformation due to the baby boom, which was particularly broad-based and prolonged in France and caused the population to climb by a full one-third. At the same time, the French economy expanded and the pace of modernization picked up, with the result that the wealth of the French quadrupled in a single generation. The turning point between the reconstruction and development period and the period of profound social change appears to have been 1965. The baby boom was over by then, and the production system was shifting in orientation. No longer dominated by the growth of basic industries, production was now starting to focus on consumer goods and services.
This handbook informs the reader about how much progress we, the human race, have made in enhancing the quality of life on this planet. Many skeptics focus on how the quality of life has deteriorated over the course of human history, particularly given World War II and its aftermath. This handbook provides a positive perspective on the history of well-being. Quality of life, as documented by scientists worldwide, has significantly improved. Nevertheless, one sees more improvements in well-being in some regions of the world than in others. Why? This handbook documents the progress of well-being in the various world regions as well as the differences in those regions. The broad questions that ...
The pursuit of knowledge is of necessity both a comparative and an interdisciplinary enterprise. The authors of this volume, drawn from divers areas of social studies, present a unique position on the continuum of comparative science from the pursuit of qualitative to quantitative knowledge. Taking values and attitudes separately, and in combination, and comparing them across nations and time, the works contained in this study identify a matrix of nine possible themes. And while no single article addresses all nine of the themes, taken as a whole they have covered all of them and even suggested new and interesting avenues for further research. In developing their thoughts on cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons, the comparative scientific continuum has come full circle in the contributions of the authors presented here.
The authors, using these goals as a checklist, found that each of the seven states performs well in some areas and badly in others. They discovered that all states approached these goals in a style shaped by their own history and, in particular, by how they have been affected by the troubles of the twentieth century. Their investigations offer a new, informative way of looking at these nation states and detail the social and political conditions in each state. Contributors include Theodore Caplow, Salustiano Del Campo (Royal Academy of Political and Social Science, Madrid), Nikolai Genov (Bulgaria Academy of Sciences), Karl-Otto Hondrich (Goethe University), Simon Langlois (Université de Laval), Alberto Martinelli (University of Milan), and Henri Mendras (OFCE, Paris).
This book is concerned with the question of inequality - which points to a major structural problem in intra-national and inter-national respect. It covers the tension between the rich and poor in less developed countries as well as within richer countries in the process of globalisation. The main topics are the scope of disparities between the rich and poor, people's perception of wealth and poverty, and the concomitants of inequality which shape this relationship and influence its socio-economic consequences. In the tradition of social reporting, the book brings together authors from 15 countries, documenting a broad range of the international inequality debate. The results are related to the trends of socio-economic development, to statistical problems of measuring inequality, and to socio-political problems of integrating society in the facing the challenge of dividing forces. The book is of interest for everybody who wants to understand the tensions of modern world.