Lester R. Kurtz

The Web of violence : from interpersonal to global

Explores the interrelationship among personal, collective, national, and global levels of violence.

Performing the Nuclear Ceremony: The Arms Race as a Ritual

This article examines the nuclear arms race as ritualized behavior and evaluates characteristics of ritual to comprehend the dynamics of the arms race. Following a review of the literature and statements of those participating in, conducting, examining, and opposing the arms race, the authors find the analogy of the ritual appropriate. They find that rituals (1) provide solutions to problems, especia1ly those involving difficult situations and uncontrollable forces, (2) are rooted in experience, (3) identify evil and mark boundaries, and (4) reify social processes and reinforce social structure. The authors do not criticize the ritual process per se, but develop a critical perspective on the ritualization of the arms race. They conclude by raising questions stemming from an analysis of ritual and by suggesting areas for further research.

Third world voices redefining peace

A special issue of Peace Review on “Third World Peace Perspectives” presents a profound paradox because the title is both important and problematic. It suggests, on the one hand, that the Third World exists as a category and that people who live there have a distinct perspective on peace. Various questions immediately emerge from the publication of this special issue. What is the “Third World” and is it sufficiently homogeneous to justify this categorical construction? How does the idea of the Third World as an academic construct ignore the diverse historical, cultural, political, and socioeconomic traditions within the non‐Western world? Do we continue to perpetuate the binary opposition between the First World and the Third World as well as the West and the East with the use of this title? Do the perspectives selected here become representative of the whole of the Third World despite its immense diversity? Do we benefit from the double vision of these Third World scholars if they are Western‐educated an...

Hildegard Goss-Mayr

Hildegard Goss-Mayr may have done more than anyone alive to further nonviolence around the world. She was born into a culture of nonviolence despite the war raging throughout her childhood world. At the tender age of 12, she was among a crowd of schoolchildren taken to welcome Hitler on the Ringstrasse when he arrived in Vienna. As the Nazi leader’s convoy approached, she could feel the people around her being gripped by his power and said to herself, “No, I can’t get caught by that. I don’t care if they kill me, I will refuse to put up my arm.”

Gods in the Global Village: The World's Religions in Sociological Perspective.

Chapter 1. Religious Life in the Global Village Chapter 2. A Sociological Tour: Turning East Chapter 3. Indigenous Religions Chapter 4. The Tour: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Chapter 5. The Religious Ethos Chapter 6. Modernism and Multiculturalism Chapter 7. Religious Movements for a New Century Chapter 8. Religion and Social Conflict Notes Glossary/Index

Between Scylla and Charybdis: Sociological Objectivity and Bias

The Greek notion of the tragic flaw refers to a virtue extended to such an extreme that it becomes a vice. Oedipus was so determined to restore his kingdom that he resolved to treat mercilessly the person responsible for its turmoil; it led to his self-destruction. Sociology has its tragic flaw as well. The virtue of the field is the pursuit of objectivity through scientific methods, which forces a researcher to see beyond personal, class, ethnic, national, temporal, and other biases. The sociological flaw is a myopic obsession with objectivity in which scientists too often believe they have become objective because they have tried to do so, following the formulas of positivist science. Personal prejudices are exchanged for abstract ones.