On the cutting edge of world-systems theory comes The Wintu and Their Neighbors, the first case study to compare and contrast systematically an indigenous Native American society with the modern world at large. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines sociology, anthropology, political science, geography, and history, Christopher Chase-Dunn and Kelly M. Mann have scoured the archaeological record of the Wintu, an aboriginal people without agriculture, metallurgy, or class structure who lived in the wooded valleys and hills of northern California. By studying the household composition, kinship, and trade relations of the Wintu, they call into question some of the basic assumptions of prior sociological theory and analysis. Chase-Dunn and Mann argue that Immanuel Wallerstein's world-systems perspective, originally applied only to the study of modern capitalistic societies, can also be applied to the study of the social, economic, and political relationships in small stateless societies. They contend that, despite the fact that the Wintu appear on the surface to have been a household-based society, this indigenous group was in fact involved in a myriad of networks of interaction, which resulted in intermarriage and which extended for many miles around the region. These networks, which were not based on the economic dominance of one society over another—a concept fundamental to Wallerstein's world-systems theory—led to the eventual expansion of the Wintu as a cultural group. Thus, despite the fact that the Wintu did not behave like a modern society—lacking wealth accumulation, class distinctions, and cultural dominance—Chase-Dunn and Mann insist that the Wintu were involved in a world-system and argue, therefore, that the concept of the "minisystem" should be discarded. They urge other scholars to employ this comparative world-systems perspective in their research on stateless societies.

A Companion to World History presents over 30 essays from an international group of historians that both identify continuing areas of contention, disagreement, and divergence in world and global history, and point to directions for further debate. Features a diverse cast of contributors that include established world historians and emerging scholars Explores a wide range of topics and themes, including and the practice of world history, key ideas of world historians, the teaching of world history and how it has drawn upon and challenged "traditional" teaching approaches, and global approaches to writing world history Places an emphasis on non-Anglophone approaches to the topic Considers issues of both scholarship and pedagogy on a transnational, interregional, and world/global scale

This wide-ranging handbook presents in-depth discussions on the array of subspecialties that comprise the field of sociological theory. Prominent theorists working in a variety of traditions discuss methodologies and strategies; the cultural turn in sociological theorizing; interaction processes; theorizing from the systemic and macro level; new directions in evolutionary theorizing; power, conflict, and change; and theorizing from assumptions of rationality.

Scholars of different schools have extensively analyzed world systems as networks of communication under the fashionable heading `globalization.' Our collected new research pushes the argument one step further. Globalization is not a homogenization of all social life on earth. It is a heterogeneous process that connects the global and the local on different levels. To understand these contemporary developments this book employs innovative concepts, strategies of research, and explanations. Globalization is a metaphor for different borderstructures, new borderlines, and conditions of membership, which emerge in a global world-system. As a world-system expands it incorporates new territories and new peoples. The process of incorporation creates frontiers or boundaries of the world-system. These frontiers or boundary zones are the locus of resistance to incorporation, ethnogenesis, ethnic transformation, and ethnocide.

This book by Jonathan Turner and Anthony Roberts proposes a new theoretical approach for explaining the dynamics of inter-societal systems. The authors argue that inter-societal systems have existed since the beginning of human societies and the dynamics of these systems are a fundamental property of the social universe. However, while world-systems analysis has emphasized this latter point, the authors argue the reluctance to theorize complex abstract models and systems of explanatory propositions on the dynamics driving inter-societal systems hinders scientific explanation of inter-societal dynamics. In this context, the authors critically look at contemporary theorizing and review key theories that have been developed to explain geo-economic, geo-political, and geo-cultural dynamics, from the classic period through present-day world-systems analysis and cliometrics. The book summarizes these theories clearly, emphasizing their strengths and weakness, finally developing a theoretical synthesis through new models and propositions on the dynamics of premodern and modern inter-societal systems. Professor Turner’s decades of experience writing theory books for undergraduates have ensured that this book presents abstract ideas clearly and with examples so that students can understand the arguments. This book is a must-read for all social theory researchers, academics, serious undergraduate students, graduate students, and interested laypersons.

Globalization and Global History argues that globalization is not an exotic and new phenomenon. Instead it emphasizes that globalization is something that has been with us as long as there have been people who are both interdependent and aware of that fact. Studying globalization from the vantage point of long-term global history permits theoretical and empirical investigation, allowing the authors collected to assess the extent of ongoing transformations and to compare them to earlier iterations. With this historical advantage, the extent of ongoing changes - which previously appeared unprecedented - can be contrasted to similar episodes in the past. The book is divided into three sections. The first focuses on how globalization has been written about from a historical perspective. The second part advances three different takes on how best to view globalization from a very long-term stance. The final section continues this interpretative thread by examining more narrow aspects of globalization processes, ranging from incorporation processes to systemic disruptions.

The Concise Encyclopedia of Comparative Sociology presents the current state of knowledge in comparative sociology for students, scholars, and the educated lay public. The major aim of comparative sociological research is to identify similarities and differences among societies, studying variation across both geographical regions and historical periods. This volume is divided into six broad categories: Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Comparing Societies, Comparative Historical Sociology, Comparing Institutions and Social Structures, Comparing Social Processes, Comparing Nation States and World Regions, and Biographies of Exemplary Comparative Sociologists. Nearly 60 essays written by distinguished experts in their fields focus on the first five categories, while the biographical section contains forty biographies of both classical and contemporary sociologists who have made major contributions to comparative sociology. Contributors include: David Baker, Wenda Bauchspies, Hans-Peter Blossfield, Harriet Bradley, Sandra Buchholz, Miguel Centeno, Karen Cerulo, Brett Clark, Amy Corming, William D'Antonio, Mario Diani, Mattei Dogan, Riley Dunlap, Shmuel Eisenstadt, Mike Featherstone, Claude Fischer, Joshua Fishman, William Gamson, Julian Go, Jack Goldstone, Ralph Grillo, John Hall, Steve Hall, Robert Heiner, Joseph Hermanowicz, Margret Hornsteiner, David Johnson, Andrew Jorgenson, Jack Levy, Robert Marsh, Bill McCarthy, David Johnson, James Midgley, Peter Mohler, Linda Molm, Benjamin Moodie, Victor Nee, Anthony Orum, William Outhwaite, Anthony Pogorelc, Harland Prechel, Danielle Resnick, Glenn Robinson, Luis Roniger, Thomas Saalfeld, Stephen Sanderson, Michelle Sandhoff, Masamichi Sasaki, Saskia Sassen, Andrew Savchenko, Harald Schoen, Howard Schuman, David Segal, Michael Siemon, Tom Smith, Joonmo Son, Hendrik Spruyt, Robert Stebbins, George Steinmetz, Piotr Sztompka, Henry Teune, Arland Thornton, Kathleen Tierney, Jonathan Turner, Nicholas van de Walle, Henk Vinken, Veljko Vujačić, Erich Weede, Michel Wieviorka, Ekkart Zimmermann.