The Market and the Oikos analyses from a global perspective the relationships between markets and households, families and states (Vol. I) to towns versus country sides, the focus of this second volume, proceeding from early history to contemporary China.

The Market and the Oikos analyses from a global perspective the relationships between markets and households, families and states (Vol. I) to towns versus country sides, the focus of this second volume, proceeding from early history to contemporary China.

The many elements of the fundamental antagonism of Market versus Oikos (= family, household or State) are analyzed and defined in Western and Chinese historical and present contexts. In this exercise, Max Weber is chosen as our “sparring partner” because of his Chinese and Western writings.

The many elements of the fundamental antagonism of Market versus Oikos (= family, household or State) are analyzed and defined in Western and Chinese historical and present contexts. In this exercise, Max Weber is chosen as our “sparring partner” because of his Chinese and Western writings.

Sociologist Anthony Blasi analyzes early Christianity using multiple social scientific theories, including those of Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Max Scheler, Alfred Schutz, and contemporary theorists. He investigates the canonical New Testament books as representative of early Christianity, a sample based on usage, and he takes the books in the chronological order in which they were written. The result is a series of "stills" that depict the movement at different stages in its development. His approaches, often neglected in New Testament studies, include such sociological subfields as sect theory, the routinization of charisma, conflict, stratification theory, stigma, the sociology of knowledge, new religions, the sociology of secrecy, marginality, liminality, syncretism, the social role of intellectuals, the poor person as a type, the sick role, degradation ceremonies, populism, the sociology of migration, the sociology of time, mergers, the sociology of law, and the sociology of written communication. Needing to treat the New Testament text as social data, Blasi uses his background in biblical studies and a review of a vast literature to establish the chronology of the compositions of the New Testament books and to present the "data" in a new translation that is accessible to non-specialists.

A detailed analysis of oikonomia, an underexplored branch of knowledge in ancient Greek philosophy. In this book, Étienne Helmer offers a comprehensive analysis of oikonomia in ancient Greek philosophy. Despite its similarity to the word “economy,” for the ancients, oikonomia named a branch of knowledge—the science of management—that was aimed at studying the practices we engage in to satisfy our needs. This began with the domestic sphere, but it radiated outward from the oikos (house) to encompass broader issues in the polis (city) as well. Helmer explores topics such as gender roles and marriage, property and the household, the acquisition and preservation of material goods, and how Greek philosophers addressed the issue of slavery in the ancient world. Even if we are not likely to share many of ancient thinkers’ beliefs today, Helmer shows that there was once a way of thinking of “economic life” that went beyond the mere accumulation of wealth, representing a key point of departure for understanding how to inhabit the world with others.

International Security, Peace, Development, and Environment is a component of Encyclopedia of Institutional and Infrastructural Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on International Security, Peace, Development, and Environment deals, in seven parts and two volumes , with a myriad of issues of great relevance to our world such as: human, social, gender and environmental security; the transition in earth history from the holocene to the anthropocene potentially causing disasters and increasing resource scarcity; limits to growth, use of na­tural resources, sustainable livelihood and productive system through technology; rise of conflicts due to scarce and polluted resources and the concentration of humans in limited spaces of big cities; the gender violence; peace education and peace teaching as mechanisms to strengthen citizenship and to improve the understanding of cultural diversity; mechanisms to strengthen the resistance against monopolist interests in the present global world and whistle blowing as a phenomenon to protect social peace and civil resistance. The presentation culminates with a discussion on the means of active nonviolence to reinforce democratic behavior and to reduce tensions and violent outcomes in a complex world. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.