The proliferation of policy think tanks and more broadly the rise of "policy networks" can be viewed as indicative of important global transformations in the nature of the state. That is, the emergence of new state modalities, with a shift away from government towards forms of polycentric governance, where policy is produced through…

Knowledge construction is regarded as an effective learning model in practice. When more and more learning communities are organized to promote knowledge construction, it is necessary to know how to use different tools to support knowledge construction in the learning community context. In the literature, few researchers discuss how to construct…

This study uses survey data for 2004 on the general public (N = 788) and public officials (N = 791) in the young post-communist democracy of Estonia to examine individual-level determinants of corruption. The results indicate that both public officials and citizens are more likely to engage in corruption when they do not define corruption as…

The process of the formation and functioning of youth associations and organizations in today's Russia (whether on the basis of their formal registration or without it) can be looked at as a manifestation of personally and socially important active involvement. Participation in their activity is based on freedom of choice, value preferences, and…

This article considers the rise of therapeutic education in Finland, a phenomenon already acknowledged in Europe, Canada and the United States. In Finland, the therapeutic ethos has been assimilated into educational policies and practices, but the shift to therapisation and especially its consequences have attracted little interest in critical…

Society is more and more interconnected and interdependent. This results in a plethora of complex social problems and thereby creates the need for individuals with strong decision-making skills. This quantitative study examined the relationship between undergraduate students' participation in academic service-learning and their levels of…

The importance of International social work education these days cannot be overstated as social work has been established in nearly every part of the world. Also, globalization has been pivotal as it has facilitated the movement of people, improved technology and other social problems as well. American higher education is challenged to expand and…

Illuminating hip-hop as an important cultural practice and a global social movement, this collaborative project highlights the emancipatory messages and cultural work generated by the organic intellectuals of global hip-hop. Contributors describe the social realities--globalization, migration, poverty, criminalization, and racism--youth are…

The emergence of user-friendly technologies has made podcasting an accessible learning tool in undergraduate teaching. In a geomorphology course, student-produced podcasts were used as part of the assessment in 2008-2010. Student groups constructed radio shows aimed at a general audience to interpret and communicate geomorphological data within…

This is the dramatic story behind the transformation of Duke University from an isolated, exclusive institution to the dynamic, civically engaged campus that exists today. "Better Together" examines the first decade of the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership (DDNP) and its involvement with Project HOPE, six quality community-based…

The racial achievement gap in education is an important social problem to which decades of research have yielded no scalable solutions. Recent evidence from "No Excuses" charter schools--which demonstrates that some combination of school inputs can educate the poorest minority children--offers a guiding light. In the 2010-2011 school…

Bullying is a serious social problem that can have deleterious effects for school children. A variety of interventions have been implemented, and research shows that the majority, which are monological in nature, have demonstrated minimal, if any, impact on counteracting occurrences of bullying in schools. This study examines the impact of an…

This paper seeks to (1) provide an overview, from a macroanalytical perspective, of the characteristics of unequal educational opportunities within an international perspective, (2) set out problems related to social selectivity, in particular within the vocational educational system in Germany and (3) describe examples of the interaction between…

In this paper, we maintain that sociologists should deliberately teach social responsibility as a means of fulfilling the promise that C. Wright Mills envisioned. A key aspect of the sociological imagination includes a sense of social responsibility, but that aspect is best learned through a combination of experience and academic knowledge.…

The characteristics of the Russian intelligentsia, and even its definition, have been debated since the nineteenth century and continue to be a source of disagreement in Putin's Russia. The array of problems relating to the intelligentsia continues to be an inseparable element of ideas about historical experience and its fate that, in conjunction…