Risks and Challenges Introduction to Social Change Review Special Issue

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The article shows that (a) those who expect new global powers to rise, provoking a clash with the old one seeking to maintain its supremacy (the US), are mistaken. The US will scale back its international role, but no other power will step in to take over its functions in maintaining order. Hence an increase in global disorder. The gap will be filled to some extent by ad hoc coalitions in what is here called ‘the rise of adhocracy’. (b) The reason that various powers will play a more limited international role is that they all suffer from the same domestic crisis, namely, a governing deficit due to a decline in competence and legitimacy - albeit one that takes different forms in different nations.</abstract>

The Domestic Sources of Global Adhocracy

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> This contribution discusses the return of the ‘social question’ to the basically still wealthy and secure societies of the Global North. Referring to the case of German welfare capitalism, a historically new form of discriminating precariousness is being identified. This type of precariousness results from processes of a market driven, capitalist Landnahme. The paper argues that this specific form of precariousness should be the subject matter of a renewed, scientific social critique.</abstract>

Finance Capitalism, Landnahme and Discriminating Precariousness – Relevance for a New Social Critique

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> This article scrutinises the usefulness of Sen’s capability approach and other related theories for understanding poverty and traceability of social-welfare interventions. In addition to the capability approach three macro level approaches are discussed: the welfare regime approach of Esping-Andersen, the social investment approach and a new resource theory. While the strength of the capability approach is the interpretation of worldwide data, and welfare regimes better explain the tangible function of welfare institutions, the social investment approach focuses on the meaning of human capital. Resource theory describes the welfare interventions by analysing their effects on equipping individuals with a broad range of resources. Two further approaches show the mode of operation of micro level interventions. Resource orientation and empowerment are social work techniques which improve the situation of disadvantaged people by emancipation. The article concludes that macro level and micro level considerations must be combined to understand, and then fight poverty</abstract>

Understanding and Fighting Poverty – Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach and Related Theories

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> During the establishment of modern society, luxury consumption played an important role as a symbolic reference for status comparison across class boundaries. But luxury has lost in contemporary sociology the theoretical importance it had in classical sociology. This article develops a historicosociological explanation for this situation. In a first section, it debates on luxury in the 18th century, in which changing evaluations are interpreted in the context of broader semantic changes reflecting the ‘de-traditionalisation’ of social structure. Then selected conceptualisations of luxury in classical sociological approaches, including that of Sombart, Simmel, and Veblen are discussed. These classical accounts are the main reference for common sociological concepts of luxury. They also provide a context for understanding the differences between European and US American social structure and semantics. In the last two sections, the argument that the consumer behaviour of elite members lost the key social function it had in 18th and 19th centuries because of the advent of mass consumption, mass media, and the cultural dominance of middle class consumer habits which were observed first in the US. As a result, then, the attention of sociological research now lies on the more subtle distinctions within the highly differentiated stratum of the middle class. At the same time, material and behavioural patterns of luxury are displayed not by concrete members of a group of the super-rich, but virtually in a mass media based celebrity system, leaving the rich more and more out of the sight of sociological observation.</abstract>

The Domestication of Luxury in Social Theory

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 21 (2023): Issue 1 (December 2023)

Volume 20 (2022): Issue 1 (December 2022)

Volume 19 (2021): Issue 1 (December 2021)

Volume 18 (2020): Issue 1 (December 2020) Special issue: Migration, food and agriculture: Insights into what we eat and how our food is produced at the beginning of the third millennium

Volume 17 (2019): Issue 1 (December 2019)

Volume 16 (2018): Issue 1-2 (December 2018) Special issue: Debating Immigration in a Country of Emigration

Volume 15 (2017): Issue 1-2 (December 2017)

Volume 14 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Volume 14 (2016): Issue 1 (July 2016)

Volume 13 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

Volume 13 (2015): Issue 1 (July 2015)

Volume 12 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014)

Volume 12 (2014): Issue 1 (July 2014)

Volume 11 (2013): Issue 2 (December 2013)

Volume 11 (2013): Issue 1 (July 2013) Risks and Outlooks

Volume 10 (2012): Issue 2 (December 2012)

Volume 10 (2012): Issue 1 (June 2012)

Volume 9 (2011): Issue 2 (December 2011)

Volume 9 (2011): Issue 1 (June 2011)

Volume 8 (2010): Issue 2 (December 2010)

Volume 8 (2010): Issue 1 (July 2010)

Social Change Review

 Publishing House and Owner: Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania  Social Change Review was founded in 2003. Between 2003 and 2009 the journal appeared under the name Revista de Sociologie covering a wide range of issues related to sociology, social work and social policy. The journal was relaunched with a new Editorial Board and a new name in 2010. Currently, the accepted manuscripts are published online first, in a continuous process, being then included in an annual volume, at the end of each calendar year.  Why subscribe and read   covers a wide range of issues related to sociology, social work and social policy;  high quality of papers;   Why submit   fair and constructive peer review by experts in the field  provide high-quality editing  indexed in many international databases   Rejection Rate   35-40%   Subjects  Social Sciences, Sociology, Social Policy, Social Work  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 