1st Edition

From Globalization to World Society Neo-Institutional and Systems-Theoretical Perspectives

Edited By Boris Holzer, Fatima Kastner, Tobias Werron Copyright 2015
    348 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    348 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Since the 1970s, various sociological approaches have tried to understand and conceptualize "the global," yet few of them have systematically addressed the full spectrum of social relationships. Prominent exponents of the global approach - such as world systems analysis - instead have focused on particular domains such as politics or the economy. Under the label of "world society," however, some authors have suggested alternatives to the predominant equivocation of society and the nation-state. The contributions to this volume share that objective and take their point of departure from the two most ambitious projects of a theory of world society: world polity research and systems theory, mapping out the common ground and assessing their potential to inform empirical analyses of globalization.

    1. Introduction: From Globalization to World Society  Boris Holzer, Fatima Kastner and Tobias Werron  Part I: Differentiation of World Society  2. Comparing Systems Theory and Sociological Neo-Institutionalism: Explaining Functional Differentiation  Rudolf Stichweh  3. The Two Faces of World Society: Formal Structures and Institutionalized Informality  Boris Holzer  4. Embedding Regional Integration in the Fabric of a Differentiated World Society and a Differentiated System of World Politics  Mathias Albert and Stephan Stetter  Part II: Global Fields in World Society  5. What Do Nation-States Compete For?: A World-Societal Perspective on Competition for "Soft" Global Goods  Tobias Werron  6. The Inclusion of Victims and the Globalization of Criminal Law  Thorsten Bonacker  7. The Globalization of Transitional Justice: On the Diffusion of Norms, Standards and Institutions of Post-Conflict Justice in World Society  Fatima Kastner  8. Religious Differentiation and World-Culture: On the Complementary Relationship of Systems Theory and Neo-Institutionalism  Martin Petzke  9. Technical Knowledge and Instrumental Activism  Raf Vanderstraeten  Part III: Organizations in World Society  10. Decoupling and Coupling in Education  Raimund Hasse and Georg Krücken  11. University Rankings Between Organization and Society  Sven Kette and Veronika Tacke  12. Heterogeneity in World Society: How Organizations Handle Contradicting Logics  Cristina Besio and Uli Meyer  13. The Diffusion of Organizations: The Role of Foreign Aid  Stefan Kühl  14. From International to World Organizations  Martin Koch  Part IV: Comments  15. Commentary: Toward Understanding World Society  George M. Thomas  16. Commentary: Theories of World Society  John W. Meyer

    Biography

    Boris Holzer is Professor of Political Sociology at Bielefeld University.
     
    Fatima Kastner is Lecturer at the Institute for Social Sciences, University of Hamburg and co-opted member of the Institute for World Society Studies, Bielefeld University.
     
    Tobias Werron is Lecturer at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland.