'At last, a volume on civilization that truly reflects the complexity of multiple civilizations. The wealth of contributions Arjomand and Tiryakian have assembled demonstrates the value of an old concept for understanding the awful dilemmas confronting human kind in the global age. Its thoroughgoing renewal here establishes this book as the essential benchmark for future scholars of civilization' - Martin Albrow, Founding Editor of International Sociology and author of The Global Age - winner of the European Amalfi Prize, 1997

'In our tension filled world, many are heralding, and others fearing, a"clash of civilizations." The contributors to this volume provides a healthy and persuasive argument about why this clash need not, and certainly should not, take place. They do so, moreover, not by rejecting the concept of civilization, but by developing a less primordial, homogenous, and essentialist concept of it. An important collection that provides illumination in this sometimes frighteningly dark time' - Jeffrey Alexander, Professor and Chair of Sociology at Yale University

'The concept of civilization may well replace the notions of globalization and identity as the core component in the vocabulary of 21st century sociology. The authors contribute a great deal to the clarification of fashionable controversies around the "clash of civilizations" and "multiculturalism". They go a long way toward purging the concept of civilization of its ideological overtones, and they suceed admirably in turning it into powerful analytic tool of an emerging fleld of macrosociology, known already as civilizational analysis' - Piotr Sztompka, President, International Sociological Association

Although the concept of 'civilization' has deep roots in the social sciences, there is an urgent need to re-think it for contemporary times. This book points to an exhaustion in using 'the nation state' and 'world system' as the basic macro-units of social analysis because they do not get to grips with the 'soft power' variable of cultural factors involved in global aspects of development. Also, globalization requires us to reconsider the link between civilization and a fixed or given territory.

This book focuses upon the dynamic aspect of civilizations. Among the topics covered are:

· Civilizational analysis and social theory

· Global civilization and local cultures

· Civilizational forms

· Rationalization and Civilization

· Civilizations as zones of prestige

· Historical and comparative dimensions of civilization

· The clash of civilizations.

Introduction - Sa[um]id Amir Arjomand and Edward A Tiryakian
PART ONE: THE INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND
Civilization in an Historical and Global Perspective - Bruce Mazlish
Civilizational Forms - Marcel Mauss (edited and translated by Diane Barthel-Bouchier)
PART TWO: THEORETICAL ESSAYS
Civilizational Analysis - Edward A Tiryakian
The Civilizational Dimensions of Modernity - Shmuel N Eisenstadt
Notes on the Concept of an Axial Turning in Human History - Donald N Levine
Global Civilization and Local Cultures - Wolf Sch[um]afer
Civilization and Its Sources - Arpad Szakolczai
Civilizational Patterns and Civilizing Processes - Johann P Arnason
Rationalization, Transformations of Consciousness and Intercivilizational Encounters - Donald A Nielsen
Civilizations as Zones of Prestige and Social Contact - Randall Collins
PART THREE: HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE ESSAYS
Chinese Encounters with Other Civilizations - Cho-Yun Hsu
Perso-Indian Statecraft, Greek Political Science and the Muslim Idea of Government - Sa[um]id Amir Arjomand
The Comparison of Civilizations - T N Madan
Confessions of a Eurocentric - John A Hall
PART FOUR: CRITICAL ESSAYS
From Indigenous Civilization to Indigenous Modernities - John Rundell
A Clash of Civilizations or of Paradigms? - Daniel Chirot
The Clash of Civilizations - Gregory Melleuish
A Model of Development?
For the Last Time - Hamid Dabashi