U N D E R S T A N D I N G T H E W O R L D T O D A Y f r o m T H E G L O B A L S O C I A L C H A N G E R E S E A R C H P R O J E C T |
There
is a
theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the
Universe
is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced
by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. Back to Main page Haferkamp, Hans, and Neil J. Smelser, editors Social Change
and
Modernity.
Berkeley : University of California Press, 1992. http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft6000078s&brand=ucpress
Available free on line from University of California Press
Scholarship
Editions http://www.escholarship.org/editions/
See our other page
for further listings. Social Change lecture notes, from Russel Long
http://www.delmar.edu/socsci/rlong/intro/change.htm
brief reviews of theories of change, along with some charts and tables.
Comprehensive Theory of Social
Development,
by Garry Jacobs, Robert Macfarlane, and N. Asokan http://www.icpd.org/development_theory/comprehensive_theory_of_social_development.htm
"This paper identifies the central principle of development and traces
its expression in different fields and levels of social advancement." The Science of Economics, by Fred Foldvary http://www.foldvary.net/economics.html
on line text. Especially see chapter 14, with a review of
economic
growth. Tribes, Institutions, Markets, Networks: A Framework About
Societal
Evolution http://rand.org/pubs/papers/P7967/index.html
paper by David F. Ronfeldt on a theory of social evolution. Full
text is available here. Tanner Lectures http://www.tannerlectures.utah.edu/
has lectures at http://www.tannerlectures.utah.edu/lectures/index.html
One lecture is by S.N. Eisenstadt, "Cultural Tradition, Historical
Experience,
and Social Change: The Limits of Convergence." This lecture is about
"the
nature of the relations between, on the one hand, the values, the basic
premises, and the traditions of civilizations and, on the other hand,
some
central aspects of their social and cultural dynamics." This topic is
"closely
related to the challenge of understanding many aspects of the
contemporary
scene, and especially to whether we are witnessing the development of
one
world-wide civilization." (quotes from the paper) CULTURE CHANGE: An Introduction to the Processes and
Consequences
of Culture Change http://anthro.palomar.edu/change/
brief reviews of the process of cultural change, acculturation, and
global
change.
Understanding Change: Strategies for Innovation and Renewal http://www.scottlondon.com/reports/change.html "This paper looks at how change happens and how to make it happen. It surveys a number of change theories in the fields of history, the philosophy of science, anthropology, sociology, and management theory. It concludes by offering some strategies for promoting change in organizations and communities." One, um, alternative view of social change http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Social_change from uncyclopedia. Not entirely serious. Well, maybe a little.
Theories and
approaches to
development,
globalization, economic growth, political change Back to top Guns, Germs and Steel. http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/index.html The pbs overview, gives brief summary of the book, along with nice graphics. See a National Geographic interview here http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0706_050706_diamond.html with the author. Also see this review http://eh.net/bookreviews/library/0095 with a few critical points. Democracy, Social Change, and Economies
in
Transition http://books.nap.edu/html/transform/sec-5.htm
by Charles Tilly. This is a chapter in the on line book, Transforming
Post-Communist Political Economies http://books.nap.edu/html/transform/
edited by Joan M. Nelson, Charles Tilley, and Lee
Walker, for
the
Task Force on Economies in Transition, Commission on Behavioral and
Social
Sciences and Education, National Research Council. "This
...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."
Also see Understanding Economic Change,
Douglass
C. North http://books.nap.edu/html/transform/sec-1.htm
Evolutionary Theories in the Social Sciences http://etss.net/ especially see the working papers, with papers like "In Search of How Societies Work: Tribes—The First and Forever Form" which links to the Rand site for the paper http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR433/ and many other papers. Nonzero http://www.nonzero.org/ This book, by Robert Wright, argues that there is a direction or arrow in human history. "Mostly this book is about how we got where we are today, and what this tells us about where we're heading next." He describes his views of the logic of history. This site has an introduction, excerpts, links to some other articles he wrote. Explaining Large-Scale Historical Change
http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~delittle/
This paper is at Daniel Little's page. Summary of Wallerstein on World System
Theory http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/wallerstein.html
In the Modern History Sourcebook. Evolutionary World Politics homepage http://faculty.washington.edu/modelski/
The subject of this site is "Evolutionary world politics is the
employment
of evolutionary theory in the study of long-term (structural)
transformations
in world-wide political arrangements." Many essays and papers
from
George Modelski, from a World Systems perspective. Globality: historical change in our time
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/hafa3/theory1.htm
chapter 1 in Martin Shaw, Theory of the Global State: Globality as
Unfinished
Revolution. Cambridge University Press 2000 "This book proposes,
therefore, that we should understand our historical transformation
through
three major concepts: globality, the global revolution and the global
state.
In this chapter I attempt to explain the need for these concepts, by
examining
existing models of contemporary change." Cliodynamics http://www.eeb.uconn.edu/people/turchin/Clio.htm "is the new transdisciplinary area of research at the intersection of historical macrosociology, economic history/cliometrics, mathematical modeling of long-term social processes, and the construction and analysis of historical databases." From Peter Turchin. Also see his book here http://books.google.com/books?id=mUoCrTUo-eEC
Back to top Polanyi wrote "The Great Transformation", still, apparently, an influencial work, along with his other work. The basic idea is about the transformation from small scale local socially controlled markets to the large scale market system. Anne Mayhew, "Review of Karl Polanyi The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time" Economic History Services, Jun 1, 2000, URL http://eh.net/bookreviews/library/polanyi Also reviewed here http://www.history.ac.uk/eseminars/sem3.html by Dr A. J. H. Latham, University College of Swansea Excerpt from Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ipe/240s04.htm listed in a political economy page See Peter Evan's paper listed above, in his spring 2001 class.
Economic change Douglas Norths papers are located
at
RePec http://ideas.repec.org/
Dr. North's papers are here http://ideas.repec.org/e/pno11.html
Papers include "The Paradox of the West" http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpeh/9309005.html
and "Where have we been and where are we going?" http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpeh/9612001.html
These are available as pdf files and some as html. For a review
of
North's approach, see our literature
review page. Coming to Terms with Contemporary
Capitalism
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/3/2/6.html
Article in sociological research on line, arguing for the decline
of
global
capitalism. Full reference is Sociological Research Online, vol.
3, no. 2,
<http://www.socresonline.org.uk/socresonline/3/2/6.html> Economic and Structural Change
http://www3.fis.utoronto.ca/research/iprp/ua/neice.html
This part is a section of Information
Technology
and Citizen Participation This is review of the New Economy
Thesis
(e.g., Drucker) and the New Growth Theory (e.g., Romer and
Lipsey).
The author is David C. Neice and his site is http://www.kw.igs.net/~neice/content.htm
Economic History Service http://eh.net
They also have reviews of books that have significant impact on
economic
history. For example, a review by Philip R. P. Coelho on Douglass
C. North and Robert Paul Thomas The Rise of the Western World: A New
Economic
History, at http://eh.net/bookreviews/library/coelho
These are part of their Project 2000 and Project 2001 series. Gregory Clark's lectures on economic
change http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/index.html
These courses Econ 110 A or B have interesting readings but
don't appear to be currently available (Sept 2007). But see his
paper, The Secret History of the Industrial
Revolution in which he argues that "the Industrial
Revolution was most likely the last of a series of localized growth
spurts stretching back to the Middle Ages, as in the Netherlands from
1500 to 1660, and
northern Italy in the fourteenth century." John Monro lectures http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/ see the class lecture notes.
Social change
A neoinstitutional theory of social
change in
Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Classs http://www.elegant-technology.com/TVAtool.html
by Marc R. Tool Anthony Giddens' Runaway world
debate on bbc. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_99/default.htm
This site includes his lectures on the runaway world. Peter Richerson's papers http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Richerson/Richerson.htm
lists a variety of papers, by Richerson, Robert Boyd and others,
on early aspects of the development of society or culture, including
"Institutional
Evolution in the Holocene: The Rise of Complex Societies", "The
Pleistocene
and the Origins of Human Culture: Built for Speed",
"Complex
Societies: The Evolutionary Origins of a Crude Superorganism" and "Was
Agriculture Impossible in the Pleistocene". Political Excerpts
from Three Lectures on Democracy http://www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/extensions/sp98/lipset.html
by Seymour Martin Lipset, lecture at the Carl Albert Center at
the University of Oklahoma. Brief discussions of conditions for
democracy. Regarding
Politics. Essays on Political Theory, Stability, and Change http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft0k40037v&brand=ucpress
by Harry Eckstein, 1992. International Centre for Integrative
Studies http://www.icis.unimaas.nl/projects/nmp4/
studies operationalising ideas about transitions and modern
governance.
See the 'transitions' page and also the publication (abstract in
english
is fairly long) of "Transitions & transitionmanagement".
There
will be more on this site shortly. Social Origins of Democracy http://www.icpd.org/democracy/index.htm
also from ICPD, cited above. Some history of democracy and a
theory
of how it developed. Technological innovation Back to top The Diffusion of Innovations Model and Outreach from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine to Native American Communities http://nnlm.gov/archive/pnr/eval/rogers.html by Everett M. Rogers and Karyn L. Scott. has a section describing the theory and idea of diffusion of innovation. Sagar, Ambuj (Lead Author); Cutler J. Cleveland (Topic Editor). 2006. "Technological innovation." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [Published in the Encyclopedia of Earth September 5, 2006; Retrieved November 2, 2008]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Technological_innovation> Brief review of the process. Bronyn H. Hall, Economics Faculty, University of California, Berkeley http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~bhhall/ see these two papers http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~bhhall/bhpapers.html#diff about diffusion “Innovation and Diffusion,“
October
2003. In Fagerberg, J., D. Mowery, and R. R. Nelson (eds.), Handbook of
Innovation, Oxford University Press, 2004.
“Adoption of New Technology,”
with
Beethika Khan. In Jones, Derek C., New Economy Handbook, Academic
Press, 2003.
Diffusion Theory http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/PA765/diffusion.htm brief review by G. David Garson. Also see the theoretical frameworks section of his class http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/PA765/statnote.htm for summaries of a number of other theories. Enabling change http://www.enablingchange.com.au/ has a summary of the theory of diffusion of innovation OTHER Back to top IR Theory Knowledge Base http://www.irtheory.com/
not exactly change, but very brief reviews (1 or 2 paragraphs) of
theories
of international relations. Back to top This page last updated 3/23/09 Last verified 3/23/09 page copyright 2009 click here to see who we are or to contact us |
|