| Research and essays about social, political and economic change |
Also from PRB, Beyond Six Billion. click on Population Bulletin and then 1999
Also see a review of Beyond Six Billion at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7322/1193 This review is somewhat critical.Kevin McCarthy's
World Population Shifts.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/documented_briefings/DB308/index.html
study of population shifts in different parts of the world. From 2000
Russia's Demographic "Crisis" http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF124/index.html A collection of articles about the current rapid changes in the Russian population, causes and consequences. From 1996.
Secretary-General's Report --- World Demographic Trends http://www.un-ngls.org/orf/update.htm "the present report provides an overview of demographic trends worldwide, for major areas and selected countries. It covers population size and growth, urbanization and city growth, population ageing, fertility and contraception, mortality and international migration." This report is from 2004, about half way down the page.
Global
Population Profile: 2002. Listed
at http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/wp02.html
"This report is the latest published compendium and
analysis of data on
population, fertility, mortality, contraceptive use and related
demographic topics by the U.S. Census Bureau." Rate of growth is
slowing all over.
Demographic Research http://www.demographic-research.org/default.htm published by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. "Demographic Research publishes demographic research and related material from the full range of disciplines that bear on demography"
sian 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. As of March 2003, click on
publications,
then on research paper series. These papers are free.
Long-Term Global Demographic
Trends: Reshaping the Geopolitical
Landscape
listed at https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/index.html
Global Demographic Change: Economic Impacts and Policy
Challenges http://www.kansascityfed.org/PUBLICAT/SYMPOS/SYMMAIN.HTM
2004 symposium papers sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of
Kansas City. A 2000 symposium was "Global Economic Integration:
Opportunities and Challenges"
The Demographic Transition http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/Demotrans/demtran.htm By Keith Montgomery. Brief overview of world demographic transitions, and some examples.
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 (#380), 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 see Altered States: Globalization, Sovereignty, and Governance,
listed in publications. I think it's completely available on
line.
This book is at least partly about "explore the dynamics of
globalization
and discuss what makes today's globalization distinct."
Jeffery Williamson's papers on the
web http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/williamson/jwilliamworkingpapers
bunch of globalization papers. "Winners and losers over two centuries
of
globalization", "Globalization in Latin America before 1940" and more.
Does Globalization Affect
Growth? http://www.axel-dreher.de/
by Axel Dreher. This site includes data. According to the abstract,
"The
paper presents an index of globalization covering its three main
dimensions:
economic integration, social integration, and political integration.
Using
panel data for 123 countries in 1970-2000 it is analyzed empirically
whether
the overall index of globalization as well as sub-indexes constructed
to
measure the single dimensions affect economic growth. The
results show that globalization promotes growth – but not to an extent
necessary to reduce poverty on a large scale."
This site is also listed on our data page.
Dialogue on
Globalization http://www.fes.de/globalization/
This "site presents a variety of publications (of the
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
as well as its partners) ranging from short briefing papers to
in-depth-studies.
... The project "Dialogue on Globalization" is part of the
international
work of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung - a German non-profit institution
committed to the principles of social democracy and with offices,
programs,
and partners in more than 100 countries." (this is from an email sent
to
me from one of their participants).
The Globalization Web Site http://www.sociology.emory.edu/globalization/ Theories, organizations, issues, people, etc...
Sites about changes in political systems, eg, democracy, communism, conflict
The Spatial and
Temporal Diffusion of
Democracy,
1815-1995 http://www.Colorado.EDU/IBS/GAD/spacetime.html
see especially some of the research, such as: Democratizing
for
Peace. This article shows that reversals from democracy back toward
autoritarian forms of government in newly emerging democracies is
associated
with interstate war. Moverments toward democracy are peace
enhancing.
The paper The diffusion of democracy, 1946-94, is another
paper.
It is also available at Society for Political Methodology working
papers
site http://polmeth.wustl.edu/
in working papers, in the 1997 list.
Patterns of
Diffusion in the Third Wave of
Democracyhttp://www.nd.edu:80/~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://books.nap.edu/html/transform/contents.htm
Published by National Academy Press. 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.democ.uci.edu/
especially see their publications and then papers page with papers such
as " Lessons for the "Third Wave" from the First: An Essay on
Democratization", "Democracy and its Citizens: Patterns of Political
Change" and "The Decline of Political Support in Advanced Industrial
Democracies".
Also some data.
Recent papers are now at http://repositories.cdlib.org/csd/
and include papers like Larry Diamond (April 17, 2003) "Can the Whole
World
Become Democratic? Democracy, Development, and International Policies".
Assessing the Quality of Democracy:
Freedom, Competitiveness, and
Participation
in 18 Latin American Countries http://web.rollins.edu/~dboniface/classes/pol422/research.htm
Research by David Altman and Aníbal
Pérez-Liñán.
The Global
Corruption Report http://www.transparency.org/publications/gcr
This report provides an overview of 'the state of corruption'
around
the globe. This is from Transparency International (TI).
University
of California International
and Area Studies digital
collection http://repositories.cdlib.org/gaia/gaia_research/
couple of on line books about political change, such as Identities
in
Transition: Eastern Europe and Russia After the Collapse of Communism.
Cato
Journal, An Interdisciplinary
Journal of Public Policy Analysis
http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/index.html
see 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.
Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido
University http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/index-e.html
see the Proceedings of International Symposia, some of which are
available on line. The 2001 is http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/sympo/2001summer/2001summer-contents.html
Transformation and Diversification of Rural Societies in
Eastern Europe and Russia, and
the 1999 is "Russian Regions: Economic Growth and Environment". The
2003 is "Democracy and Market Economics in Central and Eastern
Europe."
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/policyreview/2913481.html
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/cgi/content/abstract/39/9/1059
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/polisci/people/faculty/gerring/unpublishedpapers.html
past history of democracy improves human development. Also
here http://www.bu.edu/sthacker/
but I get a tracker pop up when I go to this page. 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-rcf.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-center.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.
Articles
from Annual Review of
Political Science, and Annual
Review
of Sociology. Only abstracts are available, unless you are
using
the internet from universities that subscribe to the Annual
Reviews.
ENDING
REVOLUTIONS AND BUILDING NEW
GOVERNMENTS
by Arthur Stinchcombe
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.polisci.2.1.49
"Revolutions then come to an end to the degree that political
uncertainty
is reduced by building enough bargains into a political structure that
can maintain those bargains. The paper summarizes what we know about
the
structures that can produce such decreases in uncertainty: conservative
authoritarianism, independence, occupation government, totalitarianism,
democracy, and caudillismo." This complete article appears to
be available on line.
WHAT DO WE KNOW
ABOUT DEMOCRATIZATION AFTER
TWENTY
YEARS? by Barbara Geddes
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.polisci.2.1.115
"This essay synthesizes the results of the large number of studies of
late–20th-century
democratization published during the last 20 years. Strong evidence
supports
the claims that democracy is more likely in more developed countries
and
that regime transitions of all kinds are more likely during economic
downturns...."
GLOBALIZATION AND DEMOCRACY http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.159 abstract of article by Kathleen C. Schwartzman. "This review examines numerous renderings of the linkage between globalization and democratization, including: favorable climate for democracy, global economic growth, global crises, foreign intervention, hegemonic shifts, and world-system contraction."
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.polisci.2.1.91 Outlines changes in world trade and how to explain the changes.
Toward a fourth
generation of revolutionary
theory, by Jack Goldstone http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.polisci.4.1.139
from the abstract, "Rather than try to develop a list of the "causes"
of
revolutions, it may be more fruitful for the fourth generation of
revolutionary
theory to treat revolutions as emergent phenomena, and to start by
focusing
on factors that cement regime stability."
WHAT DOES POLITICAL ECONOMY TELL US
ABOUT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTAND VICE VERSA? Philip Keefer http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/toc/polisci/7/1
This essay reviews how three pillars of political economycollective
action, institutions, and political market imperfectionshelp us answer
the following question: Why do some countries develop and not others?
Papers by
Branko Milanovic here
a lot of papers about inequality.
Sources of Growth
http://repub.eur.nl/publications/index/967431701/
Audretsch, David. This link is to the abstract. "The
purpose
of this paper is to suggest that a fundamental shift in Europe, along
with
the other OECD countries, is taking place. This shift is from the
managed
economy to the entrepreneurial economy." Can get copy of paper here.
A lot more papers about many economic topics here http://repub.eur.nl/publications/eco_man/jel
some on growth, like some listed here http://repub.eur.nl/publications/eco_man/jel/p
Altomonte, C., Pennings,
H.P.G. Productivity Growth and the Speed of Convergence of Domestic
Firms, 1/1/08
Krug, B., Hendrischke, H.
Framing China: Transformation and Institutional Change, 6/30/06
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"
Center for Social
and Demographic Analysis
Working
Papers. http://www.albany.edu/csda/workpap.html
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.
The New Economy
Index http://www.neweconomyindex.org/
"In The New Economy Index, we provide a new set of economic indicators,
gathered from existing public and private data, to illustrate
fundamental
structural changes in the U.S. economy, to show what those changes mean
in the lives of working Americans, and to measure the nation's progress
in several key foundation areas for future economic growth." This
site is indicators, as graphs, and explanation of changes.
Professor Jeffrey
G. Williamson's
papers
on the web http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/williamson/jwilliamworkingpapers
see his papers: HIER Paper #1855: Real Wages and Relative Factor
Prices in the Third World Before 1940: What Do they Tell Us about the
sources
of Growth?. and NBER Paper #9161, Winners and Losers over two centuries
of globalization..
Social Science
Research Network
Economic
Growth papers http://www.ssrn.com/link/economic-growth.html
papers about econ growth. For example, How Robust Is The
Relationship
Between Economic Freedom And Economic Growth, JAN-EGBERT STURM and
JAKOB
DE HAAN. and Structural Change and Economic Growth, JOHN
LAITNER.
The working papers can be downloaded. For accepted papers, you
can
only see the abstract. But authors email addresses are
listed.
Specific papers listed on this page are continuously updated.
Population and
Economic Development http://www.econ.duke.edu/Papers/Abstracts00/abstract.00.06.html
working paper by Allen C. Kelley. This is a systematic review of
the major studies about population and economic development.
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.
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.
Recent papers by Dani
Rodrik http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~drodrik/papers.html
papers on a variety of topics, such as "Four Simple Principles for
Democratic
Governance of Globalization", "Growth and Poverty Reduction: What Are
the
Real Questions?" and "Development Strategies for the Next
Century".
Some of these papers are at http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~drodrik/shortpieces.html
Chad Jones paper Was
an Industrial Revolution
Inevitable? Economic Growth Over the Very Long Run
listed on
his CV page http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/chad/cv.html
along with other papers.
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”.
USAID Forum Series on the Role of
Institutions in Promoting Economic
Growth, Forum Papers, http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/economic_growth_and_trade/eg/forum_series/index.html
These papers are from US AID. Papers
include Comparative Political Economy and its Relevance for Development
Policy, and New Institutional Economics and Development.
Jamus Jerome Lim's research
page http://www.jamus.name/
especially see a couple of papers, Role of State and East
Asia
in the New Economy
The Demographic Dividend: A New Perspective on the Economic
Consequences of Population Change, David E. Bloom, David Canning,
Jaypee Sevilla, MR-1274-WFHF/DLPF/RF/UNPF, 2002. This report from
Population Matters examines the debate on how population growth affects
national economies and synthesizes current research on the
topic. http://rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1274/index.html
Fault Lines in China's Economic Terrain, Charles Wolf, Jr., K. C. Yeh,
Benjamin Zycher, Nicholas Eberstadt, Sung-Ho Lee, MR-1686-NA/SRF, 2003
(Full Text). The authors consider how and by how much China's stellar
economic performance might be impaired by eight potential adversities
that China may face in the next decade. http://rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1686/index.html
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/Africa/hl778.cfm
paper by Brett Schaefer.
CREDIT (Centre for Research in Economic Development and International
Trade) http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/economics/credit/
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.
David Skidmore's
home page http://www.drake.edu/artsci/PolSci/personalwebpage/Skidpage.html
has an article of interest, " "Civil Society, Social Capital and
Economic Development." There is other stuff of interest on
the site too.
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.
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.
WZB discussion papers in Institutions
and Social Change http://www.wzb.eu/publikation/discussion_papers/discussion_papers_siv.en.htm
which lists papers such as Christian Welzel, Ronald Inglehart,
Hans-Dieter
Klingemann, Human Development as a General Theory of Social Change:
A Multi-Level and Cross-Cultural Perspective The
publications
page is http://www.wzb.eu/alt/iw/default.en.htm
Also see the page for the completed project
Institutions
and Social Change, at http://www.wzb.eu/alt/iw/default.en.htm
for a final report (in German)
National Pride: A
Cross-national Analysis http://www.issp.org/public.shtml
by Tom Smith and Lars Jarkko. "This paper examines the factors
that
contribute to national pride ... Specifically, it discusses 1) the
ranking
of countries on national pride, 2) the ranking of pride in 10
specific
domains, 3) the ranking of countries on each of the 10 specific domains
and how these rankings relate to a) objective measures of achievements
and b) how the ranking of specific domains deviate from a country's
overall
or average ranking across domains, 4) changes over time in national
pride,
and 5) within country difference by gender, ethnicity, and
age/cohorts."
This is a paper from the International Social Survey Programme, at http://www.issp.org/
The above is in word.
Relatedly, see Dr. Ed Diener's site
http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~ediener/
and look at one paper on line, Diener, E., & Oishi, S.
(2003). Are Scandinavians happier than Asians? Issues in comparing
nations on subjective well-being. Other papers about wellbeing
are there too.
The Press Freedom Survey http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=16
from the freedom house. Annual survey from 1994.
Also includes reports on changes in freedoms.
"From Oshin to Beautiful Life : A Study of Japanese Television
Dramas in Singapore," listed at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/jas/staff/benng/publications.html
shows the growth of japanese tv shows in singapore. By Ng Wai Ming.
Many other publications available as well.
International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS). http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2547&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
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"
The
World Social
Situation, http://www.sp2.upenn.edu/~restes/world.html
"This paper assesses the extent to which the world's
governments are
succeeding
in advancing the planet's far-reaching social agenda. In particular,
the
paper reports the results of a comprehensive survey of worldwide social
development trends for the 25-year period spanning 1970-1995."
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. (not free on line)
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://rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1680/
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://rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1653/index.html
Computers and Social Change http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/perrolle/
by Judith Perrolle, social impact of computers, etc.
IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/emission/index.htm
One main interest in this book is Chapter 3: Scenario Driving
Forces, http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/emission/049.htm
because this has tables on world and regional change in population, GDP
growth, energy use, and other data, and reviews of growth.
Creating Social Change, 10 Innovative Technologies http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Document.Doc?id=160
Some interesting technologies that change local
societies. Some examples are Treating Human Waste, Cleaning the
Air, and solar power.
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/index.html
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.
Economic History Congress XII,
2002. http://eh.net/XIIICongress/cd/home.htm
has a lot of papers on line. For example this session, Historical
views
on the recent structural changes in the world economy, 1980-2000,
at
http://eh.net/XIIICongress/cd/programme-sessions-detail1.htm
includes papers such as "Changes in Central and Eastern Europe in the
last
quarter of the 20th century", and "The Middle East and North Africa in
the era of globalization, 1980-2000." All the sessions are listed
here http://eh.net/XIIICongress/cd/programme-sessions.htm
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.
World Global Trends http://t21.ca/
has summaries of a variety of topics, such as human rights, wars and
conflicts,
education, etc. This is an experimental site, not yet fully developed.
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