2,331 research outputs found
Globalization and the sociology of Immanuel Wallerstein: A critical appraisal
By the turn of the 21st century the concept of globalization had earned its place in the social sciences and debate turned more squarely to the theoretical significance of globalization. Yet not all scholars were happy with the notion of globalization. Some claim that is merely a new name for earlier theories and concepts. Among those who reject new paradigmatic thinking on the current age is Immanuel Wallerstein, the world-renowned sociologist and âfatherâ of the worldsystem paradigm. This article is intended as an appraisal of Wallersteinâs oeuvre in the context of the debate on global transformations in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and from the vantage point of the present authorâs own critical globalization perspective. The first three parts summarize and assess Wallersteinâs theoretical system and his many contributions to macro, historical and comparative sociology, to development studies and international political economy. The fourth discusses Wallersteinâs assessment of the evolution of the world capitalist system in recent decades, including his views on the concept of globalization, and the fifth focuses on earlier and more recent critical appraisals of his work, including the present authorâs own, in light of the recent transformations in world capitalism identified with globalization
The roots of "Western European societal evolution". A concept of Europe by JenĆ SzƱcs
JenĆ SzƱcs wrote his essay entitled Sketch on the three regions of Europe in the early 1980s in Hungary. During these years, a historically well-argued opinion emphasising a substantial difference between Central European and Eastern European societies was warmly received in various circles of the political opposition. In a wider European perspective SzƱcs used the old âliberty toposâ which claims that the history of Europe is no other than the fulfillment of liberty. In his Sketch, SzƱcs does not only concentrate on questions concerning the Middle Ages in Western Europe. Yet it is this stream of thought which brought a new perspective to explaining European history. His picture of the Middle Ages represents well that there is a way to integrate all typical Western motifs of post-war self-definition into a single theory. Mainly, the âliberty motifâ, as a sign of âEuropeanismâ â in the interpretation of BibĂłâs concept, Anglo-saxon Marxists and Weberâs social theory â, developed from medieval concepts of state and society and from an analysis of economic and social structures. SzƱcsâs historical aspect was a typical intellectual product of the 1980s: this was the time when a few Central European historians started to outline non-Marxist aspects of social theory and categories of modernisation theories, but concealing them with Marxist terminology
The evolutionary status of the semiregular variable QYSge
Repeated spectroscopic observations made with the 6m telescope of yielded new
data on the radial-velocity variability of the anomalous yellow supergiant
QYSge. The strongest and most peculiar feature in its spectrum is the complex
profile of NaI D lines, which contains a narrow and a very wide emission
components. The wide emission component can be seen to extend from -170 to +120
km/s, and at its central part it is cut by an absorption feature, which, in
turn, is split into two subcomponents by a narrow (16km/s at r=2.5) emission
peak. An analysis of all the Vr values leads us to adopt for the star a
systemic velocity of Vr=-21.1 km/s, which corresponds to the position of the
narrow emission component of NaI. The locations of emission-line features of
NaI D lines are invariable, which point to their formation in regions that are
external to the supergiant's photosphere. Differential line shifts of about
10km/s are revealed. The absorption lines in the spectrum of QYSge have a
substantial width of FWHM~45 km/s. The method of model atmospheres is used to
determine the following parameters: Teff=6250K, lg g=2.0, and microturbulence
Vt=4.5km/s. The metallicity of the star is found to be somewhat higher than the
solar one with an average overabundance of iron-peak elements of [Met/H]=+0.20.
The star is found to be slightly overabundant in carbon and nitrogen,
[C/Fe]=+0.25, [N/Fe]=+0.27. The alpha-process elements Mg, Si, and Ca are
slightly overabundant [alpha/H]=+0.12. The strong sodium excess, [Na/Fe]=+0.75,
is likely to be due to the dredge-up of the matter processed in the NeNa cycle.
Heavy elements of the s-process are underabundant relative to the Sun. On the
whole, the observed properties of QYSge do not give grounds for including this
star into the group of RCrB or RVTau-type type objects.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables; accepted by Astrophys. Bulleti
The mass of the neutron star in Vela X-1 and tidally induced non-radial oscillations in GP Vel
We report new radial velocity observations of GP Vel/HD77581, the optical
companion to the eclipsing X-ray pulsar Vela X-1. Using data spanning more than
two complete orbits of the system, we detect evidence for tidally induced
non-radial oscillations on the surface of GP Vel, apparent as peaks in the
power spectrum of the residuals to the radial velocity curve fit. By removing
the effect of these oscillations (to first order) and binning the radial
velocities, we have determined the semi-amplitude of the radial velocity curve
of GP Vel to be K_o=22.6+/-1.5 km/s. Given the accurately measured
semi-amplitude of the pulsar's orbit, the mass ratio of the system is
0.081+/-0.005. We are able to set upper and lower limits on the masses of the
component stars as follows. Assuming GP Vel fills its Roche lobe then the
inclination angle of the system, i=70.1+/-2.6 deg. In this case we obtain the
masses of the two stars as M_x=2.27 +/-0.17 M_sun for the neutron star and
M_o=27.9+/-1.3 M_sun for GP Vel. Conversely, assuming the inclination angle is
i=90 deg, the ratio of the radius of GP Vel to the radius of its Roche lobe is
beta=0.89+/-0.03 and the masses of the two stars are M_x=1.88+/-0.13 M_sun and
M_o=23.1+/-0.2 M_sun. A range of solutions between these two sets of limits is
also possible, corresponding to other combinations of i and beta. In addition,
we note that if the zero phase of the radial velocity curve is allowed as a
free parameter, rather than constrained by the X-ray ephemeris, a significantly
improved fit is obtained with an amplitude of 21.2+/-0.7 km/s and a phase shift
of 0.033+/-0.007 in true anomaly. The apparent shift in the zero phase of the
radial velocity curve may indicate the presence of an additional radial
velocity component at the orbital period.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Interstellar and Circumstellar Optical & Ultraviolet Lines Towards SN1998S
We have observed SN1998S which exploded in NGC3877, with the UES at the WHT
and with the E230M echelle of STIS aboard HST. Both data sets were obtained at
two seperate epochs. From our own Galaxy we detect interstellar absorption
lines of CaII, FeII, MgI, and probably MnII from the edge of the HVC Complex M.
We derive gas-phase abundances which are very similar to warm disk clouds in
the local ISM, which we believe argues against the HVC material having an
extragalactic origin. At the velocity of NGC3877 we detect interstellar MgI,
MgII, MnII, CaII, & NaI. Surprisingly, one component is seen to increase by a
factor of ~1 dex in N(NaI) and N(MgI) between the two epochs over which the
data were taken. Unusually, our data also show narrow Balmer, HeI, and
metastable FeII P-Cygni profiles, with a narrow absorption component
superimposed on the bottom of the profile's absorption trough. Both the broad
and narrow components of the optical lines are seen to increase substantially
in strength between the two epochs. Most of the low-ionization absorption can
be understood in terms of gas co-rotating with the disk of NGC 3877, providing
the SN is at the back of an HI disk with a similar thickness to that of our own
Galaxy. However, the variable absorption components, and the classic P-Cygni
emission profiles, most likely arise in slow-moving circumstellar outflows
originating from the red supergiant progenitor of SN1998S. [Abridged.]Comment: Accepted by ApJ, 26 pages including 9 figure
Avatars of Eurocentrism in the critique of the liberal peace
Recent scholarly critiques of the so-called liberal peace raise important political and ethical challenges to practices of postwar intervention in the global South. However, their conceptual and analytic approaches have tended to reproduce rather than challenge the intellectual Eurocentrism underpinning the liberal peace. Eurocentric features of the critiques include the methodological bypassing of target subjects in research, the analytic bypassing of subjects through frameworks of governmentality, the assumed ontological split between the âliberalâ and the âlocalâ, and a nostalgia for the liberal subject and the liberal social contract as alternative bases for politics. These collectively produce a âparadox of liberalismâ that sees the liberal peace as oppressive but also the only true source of emancipation. However, the article suggests that a repoliticization of colonial difference offers an alternative âdecolonizingâ approach to critical analysis through repositioning the analytic gaze. Three alternative research strategies for critical analysis are briefly developed
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