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In the current attempt to develop a Global Political Sociology, the concept of functional differentiation increasingly attracts attention. Functional differentiation seems to promise an avenue to describe global processes beyond a methodological nationalism. In this contribution I argue that while we have already made some progress in describing the spatial implications of functional differentiation, less effort has been spent on the temporal side of the story. This contribution highlights this aspect and points to shifting temporalities in the context of finance and international law. This perspective suggests that many "governance problems" might be due to the clash of different temporalities co-existing in world society. Adapted from the source document.

Modern social sciences in imply rather than apply functional differentiation and remain preoccupied with the cross-tabling of variables associated with earlier forms of differentiation. The key variables of modernity hence remain blind spots or theoretically motivated constants of most sociology. The problem with this conceptual gap is that social theories and sciences have always featured a trend toward the observation of trends in functional differentiation such as the secularization, politicization, mediatization, aestheticization, juridification, or, most popularly, the economization of society. These trend statements, however, inevitably call for a systematic reflection not only on the individual trends, but also on the full concept of functional differentiation. Yet, in predominantly zooming in on political and economical issues, most social theories and sciences perform rather than study an assumed political and economic bias of modern societies, thus projecting it to the future. The challenge is hence to create a broader vision of sometimes changing trends in functional differentiation, and the contributions to this special issue of Cybernetics and Human Knowing may be read as pioneers in this venture.

The historical process of modernisation of western European countries culminates in a specific form of relationship between collective identity and political legitimacy. This article is an attempt to analyse the particularities of the Spanish case. The author uses the analytical instruments provided by the social differentiation theory and historical sociology, which allows removing any teleological pretence from the secularisation theory. In relation to the Spanish case, the author shows: the late but swift character of the population's subjective secularisation; the unfinished character of the separation between Church and State; and finally, the contemporary coincidence of the last process with the loss of the cultural religious roots of the autochthonous population and with the arrival of population whose religion is not so differentiated from their culture.

L'analyse des confets de rô1es du professionnel et de l'homme d'affaires est faite du point de vue des valeurs auxquelles souscrivent les pharmaciens. La valorisation que les pharmaciens font de leur occupation influence la satisfaction qu'ils en derivent et le reerutment du personnel. L'intérêt suscité chez les pharmaciens par des questions politiques et idéologiques ayant trait à la profession représente un substitut institutionnel aux valeurs d'ordre professional. L'auteur suggère d'autres utilisations possibles du modèle analytique qu'il a développé.