The globalisation of vernacular variation

Work on variation and change in New Zealand English has identified a shift from older, more British-like norms to newer, more American-like ones in the last half century. The shift seems to affect lexical items, and phonological variables. This paper considers some general principles found, in the social sciences, to be associated with globalisation and considers what the theoretical and methodological implications are for the study of language variation if we talk about changes like those taking place in New Zealand English as being the effects of globalisation (or, more specifically, Americanisation). A study showing that New Zealanders have very different attitudes to variants that sociolinguists have lumped together in the past, suggests that globalisation with localisation is an important principle for variationists to take into account. It is suggested that variables hitherto analysed as being the consequence of globalisation might be better thought of as reflecting a 'broadening of the vernacular base'.     

Gender,globalisation, and democracy

This article discusses the link between gender, globalization and democracy in relation to women?s empowerment. Analyzing gender relations within the processes of development planning involves five approaches: 1) welfare, 2) equity, 3) anti-poverty, 4) efficiency, and 5) empowerment. In addition, a new approach, which combines efficiency and empowerment, must be added to highlight the problematic nature of the direction of causality assumed by traditional theory of development. The rise on women's representation in national parliament can be attributed to the increase of women's economic power and women's political struggles. However, promotion of globalization produces new opportunities for feminist politics, as well as difficulties, which include: the emergent position of productive engagement in which an efficient economy and democratic society are seen as interdependent; and increase in parliamentary representation correlates with increased paid employment for women. In conclusion, the author underscores that globalization is a gendered process which is restructuring social relations on a large scale and the challenges it bring provide opportunities for women in development.     

Work hours,social value of leisure and globalisation

We examine how openness interacts with the coordination of consumption–leisure decisions in determining the equilibrium working hours and wage rate when there are leisure externalities (e.g., due to social interactions). The latter are modelled by allowing a worker's marginal utility of leisure to be increasing in the leisure time taken by other workers. Coordination takes the form of internalising the leisure externality and other relevant constraints (e.g., labour demand). The extent of openness is measured by the degree of capital mobility. We find that: coordination lowers equilibrium work hours and raises the wage rate; there is a U-shaped (inverse-U-shaped) relationship between work hours (wages) and the degree of coordination; coordination is welfare improving; and, the gap between the coordinated and uncoordinated work hours (and the corresponding wage rates) is affected by the extent and nature of openness.     

We Have Choices: globalisation and welfare user movements

This article connects and juxtaposes two important contemporary discourses in social policy: those of globalisation and of the 'welfare users' movements, particularly the movements of disabled people. It questions the widespread use of the globalisation process as a rationale for accepting that social policies should be subordinated to narrow economic constraints. It discusses the implications of social policies associated with globalisation for disabled people and other welfare service users, and their response to these. In particular the movements' emphasis on asserting choice in policy and their ability to influence the policy process is noted. The article concludes that there is much to be gained from a closer dialogue between the users' movements and social policy as a discipline, although there still seems to be some resistance to this from the latter.     

Korea''s spatial development strategies for an era of globalisation

The impact of globalisation upon the Korean economy is an important issue to Korean researchers. This paper is concerned with the current spatial policy and planning in Korea which is designed to facilitate the benefit from globalisation. As such, the paper discusses the meaning of globalisation in order to provide a framework for the review of policies and strategies. There follows a review of Korean policies within the area which have been adopted, as well as those which are expected to be followed in the future. The paper concludes with some critical comments about the approach which has been followed.     

Preliminary observations on globalisation and the migration of sport labour

Focusing on sport labour migration, several broader issues regarding labour migration and globalisation are highlighted. The observations made, and the connections drawn, will be somewhat preliminary in nature. Several dimensions and issues of sport labour migration and globalisation are examined. A range of sports in different societies and across continents are also considered. This migration must be viewed as part of other global cultural flows. Discussion of these flows precedes the case study that focuses on the role of, and the resistance to, American sport labour migrants in the commodification of English basketball over the past two decades, the paper concludes by drawing together the strands of sport migration and global sport development.     

Moving the goalposts: gender and globalisation in the twenty-first century

This article posits the argument that the 21st century will witness an assertion of the global relevance of gender in development. It looks at globalization from a gender perspective by mapping out the different aspects of the globalization processes, and viewing each of these aspects through the lens of gender analysis. The economic implications of globalization for women are traced in terms of the employment generated by the expansion of global trade and production. In addition, this article considers the response of the international women's movement to the increasing level of economic globalization, as well as the challenges for the global incorporation of gender issues. It concludes by citing a project initiated in Norwich called ?Moving the Goalposts,? a project which aims to promote girls? football in an area around Mombasa in Kenya.     

The second wave of globalisation and agrarian change in the Pacific Islands

The global agro-food complex is penetrating the most ‘isolated’ and ‘peripheral’ localities of the world. In the Pacific Islands, a second wave of globalisation is pulling a number of small island nations into the increasingly globalised neoliberal agricultural sector. Conscious of the under-analysis of globalisation in Southern agriculture in general, this article has three broad aims. Firstly, it contextualises and traces the evolution of the second wave of globalisation, compares it to the first, and discusses its impacts on the agricultural sector of the Pacific Islands. Secondly, it explores the local socio-economic and environmental impacts of the second wave through two primary research-based case studies in Tonga and Niue. Finally, it calls for a concerted critical research effort designed to uncover the workings of neoliberal agricultural globalisation in the region and suggests means of resisting its worst implications.     

The most critical issue facing the ASA

The ASA worries that it may be allowing organizational fragmentation to contribute to intellectual disarray in the discipline. ASA should recognize that the increase in the number of sociologists has made it easier to start new, economically viable organizations, with their own journals, prizes, and meetings. A serious problem facing ASA is that the American Sociological Review shows an editorial bias toward quantitative research. Sociologists need to strengthen alternative organizations-regional and specialty-especially among groups which differ politically from ASA, so that it will not try to speak for all of us. He is co-editor (wih Michal M. McCall) ofSymbolic Interaction and Cultural Studies (1990, Chicago: University of Chicago Press).     

Assessment of issues facing immigrant and refugee families

This article identifies the different problems immigrants and refugees face in the United States, especially socioeconomic and psychosocial concerns that often relate to the experience of migration. Traditional familial roles and responsibilities are frequently challenged, exacerbated by sociocultural differences and inadequate understandings between the new arrivals and the host country. Essential in assessments of immigrant and refugee families is evaluating resources for social, economic, and cultural integration; discriminating between realistic and unrealistic expectations; evaluating families' problem-solving abilities; exploring family functioning within the context of heritage; identifying the transferability of work skills; and gauging families' learning capabilities and motivation for adaptation.     

Romanian social workers facing the challenges of neo-liberalism

ABSTRACT

With a history of almost 90 years, professional social work in Romania once flourished up until World War II. The Communist Party disbanded the profession in 1968 and it was reinstated after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Within the context of the socio-economic transition from a centralised to a free-market economy, Romanian social policy and social work have evolved from a Marxist/socialist-type ideology, one that advocates for state intervention, to a libertarian/neo-liberal-type ideology, which promotes both state withdrawal from welfare provision and individuals taking responsibility for their own welfare. These two trends continue to co-exist subject to sometimes divergent forces such as international institutions and internal Romanian social pressures. Using a qualitative approach, we explore how Romanian social workers are adapting to the neo-liberal realities and identify three types of perceived challenges: 1. those related to regulation, 2. linked with collaboration in social work activity and 3. those related to the social worker-client relationship. Under neo-liberal pressures, the social worker's role of agent of social change becomes marginalised in daily practice, leaving little power to influence agency policies that negatively impact clients.     

New frontiers facing urban sociology at the Millennium

The article examines some of the major challenges facing urban sociology at century's end given its traditions and lineages. These challenges arise out of the intersection of major macrosocial trends and their particular spatial patterns. The city and the metropolitan region emerge as one of the strategic sites where these macrosocial trends materialize and hence can be constituted as an object of study. Among these trends are globalization and the rise of the new information technologies, the intensifying of transnational and translocal dynamics, and the strengthening presence and voice of specific types of socio‐cultural diversity. Each one of these trends has its own specific conditionalities, contents and consequences for cities, and for theory and research. Cities are also sites where each of these trends interacts with the others in distinct, often complex manners, in a way they do not in just about any other setting. The city emerges once again as a strategic lens for the study of major macrosocial transformations as it was in the origins of sociology. Can urban sociology address these challenges and in so doing once again produce some of the analytic tools for understanding the broader transformation?     

Worlds of (in)difference: a visual essay on globalisation and sustainability

The ubiquitously used term ‘globalisation’ seems inadequate to designate a group of interrelated but often conflicting processes of interconnectedness of such an unseen complexity and magnitude.

Unsurprisingly scholars, as well as political actors, and communities are at odds with respect to gauging the nature and impact of globalisation and its effects on national and ethnic cultures and on humanity as a whole. Closely connected to the problematic of the global is the equally overwhelming concept of sustainability. Both phenomena can be visualised in numerous ways: through documenting current problematic situations or processes, by depicting possible solutions or promising developments. Alternatively – or in addition – these potential threats or encouraging signs can be expressed in a more metaphorical manner. Photography may help to empirically investigate and lay bare the presumed homogenisation, hybridisation or differentiation of space as a result of cultural, political, economic and technologically spurred forms of globalisation. Photography may help to detect the local articulations of both globalisation and sustainability.

The photographic part of this visual essay is a personal account of some of the challenges of globalisation and sustainability as observed (and projected) in the everyday of cities around the globe as inspired by current debates and theorisations of this phenomenon. The paired photographs address only a few of the many distinct but often interrelated domains of globalisation and aspects of sustainable development that merit our attention. They almost all hint at the more problematic aspects of events and situations that seem to contradict rather than support the widely acclaimed strive towards a more balanced contemporary and future society.