Basic Demographics, part 1. Population
Asian Metacentre research
papers http://www.populationasia.org/index.htm
has
a
lot
of
papers
about
various
population
topics,
mainly
about
pop
change
in
Asia,
causes
and consequences. Click on publications or on research.
Rand has a section on population http://www.rand.org/topics/demography.html
Some of the reports are free. One example is "How Demographic
Trends Will Change the World Through 2050" from 2011.
Globalization
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top
Overview of
globalization http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/globalization/
Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/
GaWC
was
initially
set
up
as
a
vehicle
for
organising
world
city
research
at
Loughborough
University.
It is in the process of developing and expanding into a teaching
resource and a site of interest for those working in advanced
city services in both the private and public sectors.
Center for
the Study of Globalization and Regionalization Working Paper
Series: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/csgr/
See
research
and
then
working
papers.
Many
papers
about
globalization,
some
on
specific
topics,
some
more general, for example two papers from 2002 are
Democratisation in East Asia, and Explaining systemic change:
The political economy of post-communist transformations.
Two papers from 1999 are Approaching the Global Polity by Morten
Ougaard, and Global Civil Society: Changing the World? by Jan
Aart Scholte.
Global
Transformations http://www.polity.co.uk/global/
"Polity Global Transformations text-site, devised by
David Held and Anthony McGrew. On these pages you
will find a whole host of information on globalization,
including: researching globalization, globalization, interviews,
links to sites of related interest, an executive summary
of the key features of globalization."
Can There be
a Global Society? http://www.gwu.edu/%7Eccps/etzioni/articles2.html
paper
by
Amitai
Etzioni
(#409),
very
brief
review
of
some
issues,
e.g.,
definition
of
society,
will
global society require global state. Other papers of interest
are there too.
Center for global
studies http://www.globalcentres.org/
some interesting on line publications. Click on
publications, then search for the term "globalization"
IMF page on globalization http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/key/global.htm
.
Sites about changes
in political systems, eg, democracy, communism, conflict
Back to
top
Patterns of Diffusion in the Third
Wave of Democracy http://www3.nd.edu/~mcoppedg/crd/papscrd.htm
by Coppedge and Brinks. They trace out
patterns of diffusion of democracy. Among other results,
they find support for a pattern of diffusion in which countries
tend to become more like their immediate geographic
neighbors. Also see his class page as of October 2004 for
this chapter, Defining
and Measuring Democracy
Transforming
Post-Communist Political Economies http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=5852
Published
by
National Academy Press, 1998. Joan M. Nelson, Charles
Tilly, and Lee Walker, Editors; Task Force on Economies in
Transition, National Research Council. 1998. You can
download entire book or chapters. "This ground-breaking
new volume focuses on the interaction between political, social,
and economic change in Central and Eastern Europe and the New
Independent States. It includes a wide selection of analytic
papers, thought-provoking essays by leading scholars in diverse
fields, and an agenda for future research.".
Read our review here. http://gsociology.icaap.org/transforming.html
(and then click back to return to this page)
Center for the study of democracy http://www.democracy.uci.edu/
Their papers are here http://escholarship.org/uc/csd
A search for democracy returns papers like "Can Western
Democracy Models be institutionalized in Africa? Reviewing
Contemporary Problems and Prospects" Ezeanyika, Ezeanyika S.
Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies 36:2, 2011, and
"Democratic Quality in Stable Democracies" Lijphart, Arend,
Society (1936-4725) 48:1, 2011
University of California International and Area Studies
digital collection http://escholarship.org/uc/gaia
couple of on line books about political change, such as Chinese
Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation.Yang,
Mayfair
Mei-hui, 2008
New York Democracy Forum http://www.fpa.org/topics_info2414/topics_info_show.htm?doc_id=271309
these
are
video's
of
talks.
Especially
has
a
talk,
"Do
We
Really
Know
How
to
Promote Democracy?" by Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz
Professor of International Political Economy at the Johns
Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International
Studies. Pdf's of the talks are also available.
The Roots of Democracy http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/6588
By Carles Boix, professor of political science at the
University of Chicago. This article is in Hoover
Institutions Policy Review, Feb/March 2006. "Finally, short of
the path of economic modernization, democracy can be established
only through radical and violent change imposed from abroad. ...
To be sustainable, it needs considerable resources, exceptional
resoluteness, and, therefore, broad consensus at home. Without
generalized support, it ends up in failure."
Heidelberg Institute on International Conflict
Research http://www.hiik.de/index.html
has the Conflict Barometer reports showing conditions and
trends in conflict.
Journal of Democracy
http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/
Some articles are on line for free, varies from time to
time.
“State Building and
Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Forwards, Backwards, or
Together?” Bratton, Michael, and Eric Chang. Also in
Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 39, No. 9, 1059-1083
(2006), http://cps.sagepub.com/content/39/9/1059.abstract
Working paper available here, https://www.msu.edu/~echang/Research/research.htm
at
Dr.
Chang's
home
page.
The
key
idea
is
"the
establishment
of
a
rule
of
law—as experienced through improvements in personal security and
the popular perception that leaders respect the constitution—is
critical to building democracy."
Democracy and Human Development http://www.bu.edu/sthacker/
but
I
get
a
tracker
pop
up
when
I
go
to
this
page.
Past
history
of democracy improves human development. This paper is by
John Gerring, Rodrigo Alfaro and Strom C. Thacker, all of whom
have additional interesting papers on their sites.
Gerardo Munck http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~munck/home/index.html
has a number of papers about democracy. See the
Research and Publications section. One example is “Democratic
Transitions,”
The Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict
Management http://www.berghof-conflictresearch.org/
especially of interest is their Berghof Handbook for
Conflict Transformation http://www.berghof-handbook.net/
with
many
interesting
chapters,
such
as
The
Civilisation
of
Conflict:
Constructive
Pacifism
as
a
Guiding
Notion for Conflict Transformation and Assessing the
State-of-the-Art in Conflict Transformation and many more.
Raising
Growth and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa - What Can be
Done? http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/pdp/2000/pdp04.pdf
The paper is an IMF Policy Discussion Paper, listed here
http://www.imf.org/external/pubind.htm
then search for title.
Finance & Development http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2006/06/index.htm
From IMF. A recent issue (March 2006) has articles about
'rethinking growth', and 'Globalization at Work', an article
about global employment trends.
A lot more papers about many economic topics here http://repub.eur.nl/ some on growth, like
Global
Research Project: Explaining Growth http://www.gdnet.org/
comprehensive research project. Click on 'activities', then on
'global research projects'. Can't read the book here but can
read some key points.
Growth, Income Distribution,
and Poverty: A Review http://swopec.hhs.se/gunwpe/abs/gunwpe0032.htm "This paper
reviews the recent literature dealing with the relationships
between economic growth, income distribution, and poverty. This
generally fails to find any systematic pattern of change in
income distribution during recent decades. Neither does it find
any systematic link from fast growth to increasing
inequality." Paper by Arne Bigsten and Jörgen Levin.
Economic
Growth Resources http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Economics/Growth/
"These pages are designed as a resource for researchers studying
economic growth"
Peterson Institute for
International Economics http://www.piie.com/
is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution
devoted to the study of international economic policy
Center for
Social and Demographic Analysis Working Papers. http://csda.albany.edu/workpapers.asp
see Does Economic Inequality Promote Economic
Growth? A Cross-National Time-Series Analysis by
Lawrence E. Raffalovich, University at Albany, SUNY. Paper
number 2000-6.
Papers on
the Strategy of Reforms http://econ-server.umd.edu/~murrell/
see research / then 'reform strategies'. several papers
analyzing the strategy of reform in transition countries" by
peter murrell, including Evolution in Economics and in the
Economic Reform of the Centrally Planned Economies and
others
Determinants
Of Economic Growth. Panel Data Approach. By:
Edwin Dewan And Shajehan Hussein
http://www.rbf.gov.fj/
see the working papers, it's Working Paper EDWP 2001-04.
from the Reserve Bank of Fiji.
Economic Freedom: The Path to
African Prosperity http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/economic-freedom-the-path-to-african-prosperity
2003 paper by Brett Schaefer.
CREDIT (Centre for Research in Economic Development and
International Trade) http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/credit/index.aspx
see their research page with research such as Urbanization, Urban
Concentration and Economic Growth in Developing Countries,
Why Do Rates of
Convergence Differ? A Meta-Regression Analysis. (About
this question: Do poorer countries grow faster than richer ones
and, if so, at what rate is the disparity in income between rich
and poor countries narrowing over time?), Economic Growth and Income
Inequality and Trade Liberalisation and Poverty: The Empirical
Evidence.
Economic Freedom and
Growth:Decomposing the Effects http://swopec.hhs.se/gunwpe/abs/gunwpe0033.htm These papers
are from Scandinavian Working papers in economics
http://swopec.hhs.se/ from Gotenborg University,
see http://swopec.hhs.se/gunwpe/
Another paper is this: Economic Freedom and
Happiness. By Daniel M. Gropper, Robert A. Lawson and Jere T.
Thorne Jr. http://www.cato.org/cato-journal/springsummer-2011
that concludes that more freedom is related to more happiness.
Some earlier studies include these. Volume 22 Number
3, Winter 2003 for a couple of papers, such as Abdiweli M. Ali
and Hoden Said Isse. "Determinants of Economic Corruption: A
Cross-Country Comparison" and John A. Tures, "Economic Freedom
and Conflict Reduction: Evidence from the 1970s, 1980s, and
1990s." See these issues, Volume 25 Number 3, Fall 2005, Volume
24 Number 3, Fall 2004, with some articles about how development
happens, institutions and development, and other issues.
Romain
Wacziarg's research http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty_pages/romain.wacziarg/papersum.html
includes papers such as How Democracy Affects
Growth, and The Diffusion of Development. Also includes Review
of Easterly's “The Elusive Quest for Growth”.
Site about changes in society
Back to
top
World Values Survey http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/
This
site
describes
world
values
survey.
"This
series
is
designed
to
enable
a
cross
national
comparison of values and norms on a wide variety of topics and
to monitor changes in values and attitudes across the
globe." The survey included questions about topics such as
economy, politics, work, personal finances, confidence in civil
and governmental institutions, and a lot of other
questions. Here is a report about happiness in the
world http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111725
says
happiness
is
related
to
democracy and wealthier countries.
Democracy,
Economy, and Values: Estimating a Recursive System.
by RJ Franzese, R Inglehart, SD Ehrlich, listed at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~franzese/Publications.html
One
of
the
papers
from
the
World
Value
Survey,
describing
some
research
about
Democracy,
Economy
and Values as a dynamic system. A lot of this paper seems
to be about data, but some results as well. This is
included in my review page. The paper is listed near the
bottom of the page. Also see material from Macroeconomic
Policies of Developed Democracies.
Dr. Ed Diener's site http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~ediener/
look at Guidelines for National Indicators of Subjective
Well-Being and Ill-Being (click on "research" and it's listed
there. Also look at his faq page http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~ediener/faq.html
Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: A Summary Review of the
Literature by Pedro Conceição and Romina Bandura, http://web.undp.org/developmentstudies/researchpapers.shtml
May 2008
The Freedom House has a bunch of
reports http://www.freedomhouse.org/reports
like The Press Freedom Survey, Freedom on the Net, etc
International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS). http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/resources/periodicals/diversities/ A recent issue (Feb 2004) was about Multilingualism on the Internet. Another more recent issue is Democracy and Power-sharing in Multi-National States, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2006.
ESRC Centre for Research on
Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) http://www.cresc.ac.uk/
has
some
papers
such
as
"Social
Movements
and
Social
Change"
and
others.
More
to
come.
The purpose of the centre is to "develop a broad, empirically
focused account of cultural change and its economic, social
and political implications".
FAO has two reports of
interest
SOFA: The State of Food and
Agriculture http://www.fao.org/es/esa/en/pubs_sofa.htm
in 2005 this was "Agricultural trade and poverty: Can trade
work for the poor?"
The state of food insecurity in the world http://www.fao.org/SOF/sofi/index_en.htm in 2005 this was "Eradicating world hunger - Key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals". In 2006, it was "Eradicating world hunger - taking stock ten years after the World Food Summit"
WORLD DATABASE OF
HAPPINESS http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/
This
is
"an
ongoing
register
of
scientific
research
on
subjective
appreciation
of
life.
It
brings
together
findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides
a basis for meta-analytical studies." Has a bibliography
by subject of research about happiness. Also links to the
journal Journal of Happiness Studies. In January 2010, I could
see the articles. See the journals page of this
website. For Dr. Veenhoven's research see http://www2.eur.nl/fsw/research/veenhoven/
click on publications
Happiness the World Over http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12147-009-9080-1
article by Rita Simon and Andrew Bennett. Not free
but says happiness is related to many material factors of life.
This paper is listed above in the economics
section. Economic Freedom and Happiness. By Daniel M. Gropper,
Robert A. Lawson and Jere T. Thorne Jr. http://www.cato.org/cato-journal/springsummer-2011
that concludes that more freedom is related to more happiness.
Technology
change
Back to
top
The Global Course of
the Information Revolution: Recurring Themes and Regional
Variations, Richard O. Hundley, Robert H. Anderson, Tora K.
Bikson, C. Richard Neu, MR-1680-NIC, 2003 (Full Text).
Projects the impact of information technology and the
"information revolution" on areas across the globe for the
next 10 to 15 years. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1680.html
The Information Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa,
Grey Burkhart and Susan Older, MR-1653-NIC, 2003 (Full Text).
Explores the future of the information revolution in the
countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1653.html
Computers and Social Change http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/perrolle/
by Judith Perrolle, social impact of computers, etc.
How Was Life?
Global Well-being since 1820: Global Well-being since 1820.
Editors van Zanden Jan Luiten, Baten Joerg,
Mira d’Ercole Marco, Rijpma Auke, Timmer Marcel
OECD Publishing, 2014 http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/how-was-life_9789264214262-en
See chapter summaries here http://www.oecd.org/std/how-was-life-9789264214262-en.htm
Society at a
glance http://www.oecd.org/els/societyataglance.htm
Overviews and indicators of social progress.
NOVA
World in the Balance http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/
interviews, demonstrations, essays, etc., on changing world
topics.
USAID has a whole lot of
reports http://www.usaid.gov/
on a while bunch of topics like those
mentioned above. Go to 'our work' or 'locations'. Some
other reports are "Democracy and Governance: A Conceptual
Framework", "Handbook of Democracy and Governance Program
Indicators", and so many more.
Beyond Economic Growth http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/beyond/beyond.htm "This book is designed to help readers broaden their knowledge of global issues, gain insight into their country's situation in the global context, and understand the problems of sustainable development." There are chapters on development, world population growth, economic development, income inequality, poverty, education, health and longevity, urbanization, globalization, foreign aid, and climate change. Also includes data tables.
global
issues http://www.globalissues.org/
brief summaries of bunches of world change
topics, such as poverty, free trade and globalization, human
rights, population, global warming, geopolitics, along with
links. Kind of like our social change site.
International Labor Organization http://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm
has free on line books, articles, etc.. Some books
include The new offshoring of jobs and global development by
Gary Gereffi and Civil Society, Participatory Governance and
Decent Work Objectives: The case of South Africa by
Konstantinos Papadakis, among others.
Rand's International topics page http://www.rand.org/topics/international-affairs.html
has such reports as From Insurgency to Stability: Volume II:
Insights from Selected Case Studies (September 7, 2011) and
China and India: The Asian Giants are Heading Down Different
Demographic Paths (August 22, 2011).
ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
has this page of reports http://www.unescap.org/publications
some of which may be of interest.
Environment
Back
to top
Global demographic trends and future carbon emissions. Brian
C. O'Neill, Michael Dalton, Regina Fuchs, Leiwen Jiang,
Shonali Pachauri, and Katarina Zigova. PNAS October 12, 2010
vol. 107 no. 41 17521-17526 http://www.pnas.org/content/107/41/17521.full
"We carry out a comprehensive assessment of the implications
of demographic change for global emissions of carbon dioxide.
Using an energy–economic growth model that accounts for a
range of demographic dynamics, we show that slowing population
growth could provide 16–29% of the emissions reductions
suggested to be necessary by 2050 to avoid dangerous climate
change."
Relationship among
health, politics, economy, etc
Structure, (governance) and health: an unsolicited
response. Daniel D Reidpath and Pascale Allotey,
BMC Int Health Hum Rights. 2006; 6: 12. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1584251/
Governance
was
found
to
be
significantly
correlated
with
population
health,
as were GDP per capita, and access to improved water. They
were also found to be significantly correlated with each
other.
Repositories
where you can search other repositories for open access
research about social change topics