Two dynamics of globalization in the context of a sports mega-event: the case of UEFA EURO 2012 in Poland

ABSTRACT

The article uses the theoretical framework of Saskia Sassen’s two dynamics of globalization in order to analyse the relations between a nation-state and a non-state global actor when applying and preparing for a sports mega-event, namely UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland. The first dynamic of globalization is created by global institutions, organizations – such as global sport organizations, regimes, and processes. UEFA used the application process, and preparation, to confirm and consolidate its role as a global governor of an increasingly important area of globalization. The way Polish public institutions accommodated the UEFA requirements illustrates the second dynamic of globalization. The context of sports mega-events – ‘organized’ by global sports organizations and ‘hosted’ by nation-states – merges the two dynamics and makes it possible to emphasize the mechanisms involved in forming the new global order, defined by the complex interplay between the nation-state and non-state actors.     

Social Work Education and the Neo-Liberal Challenge: The US Response to Increasing Global Inequality

During the past several decades, a ‘perfect storm’, resulting from the political–economic changes accompanying globalization, dramatic demographic and cultural transformations in US society and rapid technological advances, has created unprecedented challenges for the social work profession and social work education. These challenges include the widening gap in income and wealth both within the US and between the Global North and South; growing racial and class disparities in health and mental health care, education, employment and housing; a shift within policymaking circles towards fiscal austerity and policies that emphasize market-oriented and individually-focused solutions; and the changing nature of universities, student populations and the educational process itself. Although the formal documents of major social work organizations continue to emphasize social justice themes, the actual practice of social work and the preparation of students for practice, teaching and research have diverged considerably from this rhetorical mission. This is reflected in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, the uncritical adoption of ‘evidence-based practice’ as a cornerstone of social work education and research; the growing stratification of social work faculty; the increased reliance on untested online methods of education; and the emphasis on quantitative ‘outcomes’ as indicators of educational success. At the same time, social work education in the US has been unable to respond effectively to the implications of demographic and cultural diversity, despite the demands of its accrediting body, the Council on Social Work Education. This article will provide an overview of the changing environment of social work and social work education during the past several decades. This will be followed by a discussion of the impact of these changes on social work education and a critique of the response—to date—of social work educators. Finally, it will suggest some potential educational responses to these challenges.     

全球化背景下国家观念的嬗变

国家观念反映着一定时期人们对当时国家和国际体系的认知;不同时代(如奴隶制时代、封建制时代、近代和现代)有着不同的国家观念与内涵。开展国家观念的研究,对理解全球化背景下的国际政治经济体制,具有重要的理论意义和现实意义。     

中东国家经济转型中的风险研究

从国际经济秩序和环境以及中东伊斯兰国家所具备的能力和条件来看,全球化对中东伊斯兰国家更多的是挑战。面对来自国际金融机构的压力和全球金融风暴的威胁,伊斯兰金融究竟该做何抉择尚难确定。国际经济新秩序不可能彻底消除歧视性的贸易政策,实现完全意义上的公正,其中的不利因素无疑会对中东国家构成威胁。此外,全球性经济组织、制度和规则也会给这些国家带来更多的压力。     

Management and leadership: issues for integration in the emergent economy

Globalization is a complex process of worldwide changes that brings a great deal of good but is not without its dark side. With corporations having a significant role in globalization, HRD professionals face tough choices about whether and how to be involved.     

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?     

现代性视域中的和谐文化

和谐文化是人们在对现代性的文化危机及其表现深刻反思的基础上所提出的一种文化构想。当前,和谐文化的存在有其历史必然性。构建和谐文化,就是要加强社会主义核心价值体系建设,以文化整合与文化自觉创新促进文化统筹发展,坚持“以人为本”,促进人的和谐发展。     

民族主义与全球化的矛盾冲突研究

当今世界是一个民族自决、民族自主的时代,又是一个全球化日益铺展的时代。民族主义在受到全球化冲击时,势必会产生一定的矛盾冲突。本文以此为切入点进行研究,从民族主义的本质特征论述民族主义与全球化是当代并行相悖的两大浪潮,对民族国家的生存与发展起到很大的影响作用,并引发深层次的思考——如何使民族主义与全球化共存共赢。     

《甲申文化宣言》的要害是拒斥先进文化——再谈甲申360年前的历史教训

2004年9月3日至5日在北京举行的"2004文化高峰论坛"所通过并有72位境内外著名华人学者签名的<甲申文化宣言>,"向海内外同胞,向国际社会表达"他们的"文化主张",无疑是本世纪初页我国文化界的一件大事.对如此郑重的关于中国文化的宣言,已引起学界的热切关注,并见仁见智地在媒体进行讨论.本文认为<宣言>有拒斥先进文化的倾向,因而不利于中华民族争取民主、公平、人权的进程,不利于我国在融入全球化中与世界接轨.