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Religion in Global Civil Society
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0195188357 |
Book Description
The worlds religions are becoming increasingly globalized. One can no longer equate particular faiths with corresponding geographic locations. Islam is as much a south or southeast Asian religion as it is a middle eastern one. And Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, while it declines in Europe. In addition to these major population shifts, small communities of adherents of every religion are scattered across the globe, where they mingle with and adapt to local cultures. What are we to make of this new religious world? The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions offers a comprehensive look at world religious societies in their contemporary global diversity. Comprising 60 essays, each by a leading scholar, the volume focuses on communities rather than beliefs, symbols, or rites. Communities in the diaspora and at the periphery are covered, as well as the central geographic regions of all the major living religious traditions. It is organized into six sections: the Indic cultural region, the Buddhist/Confucian, the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim regions, and the African cultural region. In each section an introductory essay discusses the social development of that religious tradition historically. The other essays cover the basic social factsthe communitys size, location, organizational and pilgrimage centers, authority figures, patterns of governance, major subgroups and schismsas well as issues regarding boundary maintenance, political involvement, role in providing cultural identity, and encounters with modernity. The worlds religious communities are more diverse than ever before, and there is no other volume that covers the tremendous variety of faith communities discussed in this Handbook. This volume will be indispensable to anyone interested in contemporary religion.
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Transnational Religion, the State, and Global Civil Society
Manufacturer: Westview Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0813327687 |
Book Description
Focusing on the dilution of state sovereignty, this book examines how the crossing of state boundaries by religious movements leads to the formation of transnational civil society. Challenging the notion of a "clash of civilizations," it looks to the micro-origins of conflicts and the dual potential of religious movements as sources of peace and security as well as of violent conflict. Contributors draw examples from a variety of regions and world religions and consider self-generated movements from "below" as well as centralized forms of organization and patterns of diffusion from above. Together they illustrate how religion as bearer of the politics of meaning has filled the space left by the decline of ideology, which has created a novel transnational space for world politics.
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Civil Society, Religion and Global Governance: Paradigms of Power and Persuasion (Civil Society, Religion and Global Governance)
Helen James Manufacturer: Routledge ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0415420148 |
Book Description
This is one of the first books to explore the nexus between civil society, religion, and global governance, their impact on human security and well-being, and significance for current debates in international politics.
The contributors examine salient aspects of the secular state whose monopoly on, and control of, institutional violence has reified its use of power to such an extent that the modernistic separation of church and state is being called into question, as institutional limits are sought to the abuse of that power. The volume is clearly divided into six key sections:
Within these sections the illuminating case studies span a wide geographical extent from Central and Eastern Europe to Egypt, to Latin America, Iran, Bangladesh, Australia, the Pacific and East and Southeast Asia.
Civil Society, Religion and Global Governance will be of strong interest to students, policy makers and researchers in the fields of human rights, religion, political science and sociology.
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Global Empowerment of Women: Responses to Globalization and Politicized Religions (Routledge Research in Gender & Society)
Manufacturer: Routledge ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0415955459 |
Book Description
The empowerment of women is a broadly endorsed strategy for solving a host of difficult problems, from child poverty to gender violence to international development. The seventeen international scholars in this multi-disciplinary volume offer thoughtful critiques of the notion of empowerment based on their studies in twenty countries in all regions of the world. The comparative introduction places concepts of empowerment in the context of models of the market and of community, showing how contradictions in these models as they are enacted on the ground provide both spaces and constraints for women. The chapters consider opportunities for women in the context of globalization, resurgent nationalism and politicized religion, cultures of masculinity, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. They show how initiatives at national or global levels are transformed by local cultures and power structures, and demonstrate the fruitfulness of tensions between universal values of human rights and contextualized understandings. This landmark, multi-disciplinary collection of original studies by distinguished international feminist scholars will be an essential addition to the fields of Political Science, Women's Studies, Economics, Sociology, International Development, and Environmental Studies.
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Religion in Global Civil Society
Mark Juergensmeyer Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000OKRIY2 |
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Religion in Global Civil Society.
ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000ICO830 |
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Encyclopedia of Islamic Law: A Compendium of the Major Schools
Laleh Bakhtiar , and Kevin Reinhart Manufacturer: Kazi Publications ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1567444989 |
Book Description
The various schools of law are compared and contrasted on all issues of the Shariah including individual worship (purification, prescribed prayer, prescribed fasting, prescribed charity and prescribed pilgrimage), economic issues including inheritance, endowments, wills and bequests, legal disability and social issues of marriage and divorce.Customer Reviews:
Informative... But intellectually useless........2002-08-07
The work rarely mention the reasoning behind any legal rule and the information is very brief. For practicing Muslims, the book can be a great source of information; for non-practicing Muslims, it is useless.
The translation is not the best I have seen either, I have read better translations of the same work and this one is the worst.
For the kind of information that is contained in the book, any online resource of Islamic law (of the same calible) will be more useful and save more time.
Encyclopedia of Islamic Law.......2001-07-27
For the informed Muslim, the Encyclopedia serves as a handy reference guide to the four Sunni schools (madhhabs) and the one Shi`i (the Ja`fari). To other readers, it provides a fascinating immersion into the world of Islamic jurisprudence in all its complexities, common-sensical variation, and stunning dissimilarity from modern Western life. The titles of sections give their flavor: "a disobedient wife," "taking an oath to refrain from sex with one's wife," and "the inheritance of a fetus, disowned and illegitimate children." The five schools usually agree on essentials and disagree on details. All schools concur on forbidding silk to men during prayer, Ja`faris alone permit it during illness or war. All concur that a traveler need not fast during Ramadan, but Shafi`is limit this exception to the occasional traveler, and not to someone who travels continuously for a living.
Middle East Quarterly, December 1996
A most needed reference book.......2001-05-28
Makes Complex Jurisprudence Accessible to Laypeople.......2000-10-24
This works focuses merely on the presentation of opinions and civil matters and religious ritual (e.g., marriage, inheritance, salaat, zakat, etc.), so anyone seeking to gain any knowledge about usul al-fiqh (legal theory/methodology) and the continuing relevance of Islamic law to modern ecomnies and states should look elsewhere. Muslims will find it practical in their daily acts of faith. Non-muslims will find it fascinating and a good reference for answering question regarding religious duties of Muslims (e.g., who is qualified to recieve the alms-tax?).
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The Weakness of Civil Society in Post-Communist Europe
Marc Morjé Howard Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0521011523 |
Book Description
Over a decade has passed since the collapse of communism, yet citizens of post-communist countries are still far less likely to join voluntary organizations than people from other countries and regions of the world. Why do post-communist citizens mistrust and avoid public organizations? What explains this distinctive pattern of weak civil society? And what does it mean for the future of democracy in post-communist Europe? In this engaging study, Marc Morjé Howard addresses these questions by developing a provocative argument about the powerful and enduring impact of the communist experience on its countries and citizens. Howard argues that the legacy of the communist experience of mandatory participation in state-controlled organizations, the development and persistence of vibrant private networks, and the tremendous disappointment with developments since the collapse of communism have left most post-communist citizens with a lasting aversion to public activities. In addition to analyzing data from over 30 democratic and democratizing countries in the World Values Survey, Howard presents extensive and original evidence from his own research in Eastern Germany and Russia, including in-depth interviews with ordinary citizens and an original representative survey.
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Lending Credibility: The International Monetary Fund and the Post-Communist Transition (Princeton Studies in International History and Politics)
Randall W. Stone Manufacturer: Princeton University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0691095299 |
Book Description
With the end of the Cold War, the International Monetary Fund emerged as the most powerful international institution in history. But how much influence can the IMF exert over fiercely contested issues in domestic politics that affect the lives of millions? In Lending Credibility, Randall Stone develops the first systematic approach to answering this question. Deploying an arsenal of methods from a range of social sciences rarely combined, he mounts a forceful challenge to conventional wisdom. Focusing on the former Soviet bloc, Stone finds that the IMF is neither as powerful as some critics fear, nor as weak as others believe, but that the answer hinges on the complex factor of how much credibility it can muster from country to country.
Stone begins by building a formal, game-theoretic model of lending credibility, which he then subjects to sophisticated quantitative testing on original data from twenty-six countries over the 1990s. Next come detailed, interview-based case studies on negotiations between the IMF and Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Bulgaria. Stone asserts that the IMF has exerted startling influence over economic policy in smaller countries, such as Poland and Bulgaria. However, where U.S. foreign policy interests come more heavily into play, as in Russia, the IMF cannot credibly commit to enforcing the loans-for-policy contract. This erodes its ability to facilitate enduring market reforms. Stone's context is the postcommunist transition in Europe and Asia, but his findings carry implications for IMF activities the world over.
Customer Reviews:
Book Prize Winner.......2004-11-20
An astonishing read.......2003-11-29
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De-Monopolization and Competition Policy in Post-Communist Economies
Manufacturer: Westview Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0813388643 |
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Economic Thought in Communist and Post-Communist Europe (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics, 18)
Wagener-Jurgen Manufacturer: Routledge ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0415179424 |
Book Description
Written by leading east European scholars, this book provides a wide-ranging overview of fifty years of economic thinking udner communist rule in Europe and during the first phase of post-communist economic transformation.
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Hegemony, International Political Economy And Post-communist Russia (Post-Soviet Politics)
Owen Worth Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0754637573 |
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How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia
Anders Aslund Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0521683823 |
Book Description
How Capitalism Was Built tells the story of how the former communist countries in East and Central Europe, Russia, and Central Asia became market economies from 1989 to 2006. It discusses preconditions, political breakthroughs, and alternative reform programs. Three major chapters deal with the deregulation of prices and trade, price stabilization, and privatization. Early radical reform made output decline the least. Social developments have been perplexing but mixed. The building of democracy and the establishment of the rule of law have been far less successful. International assistance has been limited but helpful. This region has now become highly dynamic, but corruption remains problematic.Customer Reviews:
huge social changes.......2007-10-07
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Promises, Promises: Contracts in Russia and Other Post-Communist Economies (Shaftesbury Papers, 11)
Paul H. Rubin Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1858985587 |
Book Description
Promises, Promises examines from a libertarian perspective, the differing methods and levels of success of adapting contract law in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and especially Russia in the wake of political change. The author analyses the roles of government power and policy, opportunism and private regulatory mechanisms within the pattern of change.
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The Return of the Left in Post-Communist States: Current Trends and Future Prospects (Studies of Communism in Transition)
Manufacturer: Edward Elgaar Pub. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 1858988152 |
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Russia's Post-Communist Economy
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 019829526X |
Book Description
This volume offers a multi-author survey and analysis of economic developments in the Russian Federation since the collapse of Communism and the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1989-91. It covers the period 1991--98 and in some areas extends to 1999-2000. Russia, the core of the former Soviet Union, is at once the largest transition economy of Eastern Europe and also, arguably, the one most burdened by its own past---not only of Communism, but of Tsarist absolutism and territorial aggrandizement in earlier centuries. Its present-day assets of natural-resource wealth and a well-educated labour force are offset by hypertrophied defence industries, unhelpful location of manufacturing capacity, and excessive preponderance of large enterprises. Russia has shared with other transition economies the problems of macro-economic stabilization and reconstruction of economic institutions following the disappearance of the command-administrative system which set guidelines for production under Communism. Economic progress has been held back by misappropriation of business funds and massive associated export of capital to western financial markets. Stabilization and welfare services alike have been handicapped by the difficulty of raising adequate tax revenue - or alternatively of cutting public expenditure commitments sufficiently. Arrears and offset arrangements have proliferated, providing disorderly sources of flexibility in the face of immobile resources and inadequate financial mechanisms, including total failure hitherto to establish a viable commercial banking system. In the consumer sector, income distribution has become (as in other transition economies) markedly more unequal, with regional disparities playing a significant role. State assistance to the worse off has been patchy at best. Mortality and morbidity statistics have deteriorated. But, at the same time, living standards have been supported by continuing non-payment of housing costs and subsidization of household utilities, and have benefitted from external economic liberalization, which has given households access to foreign consumption goods and to dollar bills as a key savings medium and liquidity reserve. Altogether, average living standards have changed little in Russia's first post-Communist decade, despite the massive drop in industrial production and consequential underutilization of capacity. These and other features of Russia's economy are explained by an international team of expert authors in the most comprehensive and objective overview of the subject to date.
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Systemic Change in Post-Communist Economies: Selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East European Studies, Warsaw, 1995
pol World Congress for Central and East European Studies 1995 Warsaw , and P. G. Hare Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 031222642X |
Book Description
Since the collapse of communism in central Europe and the former USSR, different countries in the region have adopted quite diverse approaches to transition. Some were quick to commit to rapid reforms, while others encountered severe political and economic obstacles. This book analyzes the issues which characterize the early transition phase. A selection of country studies explore the implications of the old system for the course of postcommunist reform, the nature of the former USSR, and shock therapy versus gradualism as alternative reform strategies.Books:
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