This innovative volume offers analytical and comparative insights into current socio-economic practices as well as an assessment of the overall economic globalization phenomenon. By looking at empirical case studies of different civilations and cultures, this volume assesses of intertwining of local socio-economic practices and global economic modernity.

1. Transformations of Local Socio-Economic Practices in a Global World: A Theoretical Approach and Some Empirical Evidence from Different World Regions 2. Contradictions of Social Responsibility: (German) Business Elites and Globalization 3. Negotiating Neo-Liberalism: Free-Market Reform in Central and Eastern Europe 4. Mobilizing International Auditing Standards in Arenas of Political and Economic Change in Post-Soviet Russia 5. China's Response to Globalization: Manufacturing Confucian Values 6. The Export of Cultural Commodities as Impression Management: The Case of Thailand 7. Informal and Formal Economy in Caracas: Street Vending and Globalization 8. Common Roots, Shared Traits, Joint Prospects?: On the Articulation of Multiple Modernities in Benin and Haiti 9. Rethinking 'Free-Trade' Practices in Contemporary Togo: Women Entrepreneurs in the Global Textile Trade 10. Outcomes and Perspectives

Schuerkens is a Lecturer at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (France)