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In July 1999, a mere seven years after the founding of the spiritual movement known as Falun Gong, the Chinese government banned it. Falun Gong is still active in other countries, and its suppression has become a primary concern of human rights activists and is regularly discussed in dealings between the Chinese government and its Western counterparts. But while much has been written on Falun Gong's relation to political issues, no one has analyzed in depth what its practitioners actually believe and do. The Religion of Falun Gong remedies that omission, providing the first serious examination of Falun Gong teachings and how those teachings relate to earlier Chinese religious ideas and contemporary society.

In July 1999, a mere seven years after the founding of the spiritual movement known as Falun Gong, the Chinese government banned it. Falun Gong is still active in other countries, and its suppression has become a primary concern of human rights activists and is regularly discussed in dealings between the Chinese government and its Western counterparts. But while much has been written on Falun Gong's relation to political issues, no one has analyzed in depth what its practitioners actually believe and do. The Religion of Falun Gong remedies that omission, providing the first serious examination of Falun Gong teachings and how those teachings relate to earlier Chinese religious ideas and contemporary society.

Despite the demonstrable importance of small scale capitalism in contemporary industrial societies, sociologists still generally ignore its economic, social and ideological significance. However, it is now possible to bring together the main elements of a sociology of petit capitalism. Four areas are examined: the class analysis of the owners of small capital; the sociology of entrepreneurship; social relations in the enterprise; and the links between small capital and the wider society.

In this article the use of old photograph techniques is considered as a way of 'slowing sociology down' in order to have more thoughtful and immersive engagement within the field. This is contrasted with contemporary methods and their emphasis on speed, efficiency and perfection.

Zwar hat Max Weber den Askesebegriff an prominenter Stelle in seinen religionssoziologischen Werken platziert – die wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit diesem Begriff ist hingegen bislang spärlich geblieben. Um diese Lücke zu schließen, werden in der Arbeit das Verständnis Webers von Askese und der Stellenwert des Begriffes in den Schriften »Die protestantische Ethik und der ›Geist‹ des Kapitalismus«, »Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft« sowie »Die Wirtschaftsethik der Weltreligionen« systematisch untersucht. Dabei werden auch seine theoretischen sowie methodischen Schriften mit in die Untersuchung einbezogen. Es wird überzeugend dargelegt, dass Webers Begriff der Askese im Zusammenhang mit zentralen Themen seines soziologischen Schaffens steht: Einerseits vermag es Weber anhand des Askesebegriffes seine Theorien zur kulturwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis darzulegen, andererseits finden anhand dessen seine Auseinandersetzungen mit den Themen Lebensführung, Rationalisierung und der ›Entzauberung der Welt‹ statt. / »The Concept of Asceticism in Max Weber's Sociology of Religion«: This work is a research on Max Weber's concept of asceticism and its significance in his sociology of religion. The study elaborates that asceticism is not only a central concept in his studies on religion but also relates to key topics in his whole work as for example conduct and ethics, rationalism, his theory of interpretive sociology, the ideal type, and the so-called disenchantment of the world.

The process of translation has both an excluding and including character. The analysis of actor networks, the process of mobilizing alliances, and constructing networks is a common and worthwhile focus. However, the simultaneous betrayals, dissidences, and controversies are often only implied in network construction stories. We aim to nuance the construc- tion aspect of actor–network theory (ANT) by shining the analytical searchlight elsewhere, where the theoretical tools of ANT have not yet systematically ventured. We argue that we need to understand every process of translation in relation to its simultaneous process of treason, and to add antonyms for Callon's problematization, intressement, enrollment, and mobilization. This enables us to describe powerlessness not as a state but as a process. Our case focuses on the network building around mea- sures for disabled people in the construction of the Athens Metro, during the period 1991-1993. The discussion highlights the efforts of disability organizations to intervene in the initial construction works of the metro project and the simultaneous actions of the Greek government to exclude disability organizations from the design process and to disrupt the accessibility-metro actor network.

The process of translation has both an excluding and including character. The analysis of actor networks, the process of mobilizing alliances, and constructing networks is a common and worthwhile focus. However, the simultaneous betrayals, dissidences, and controversies are often only implied in network construction stories. We aim to nuance the construction aspect of actor–network theory (ANT) by shining the analytical searchlight elsewhere, where the theoretical tools of ANT have not yet systematically ventured. We argue that we need to understand every process of translation in relation to its simultaneous process of treason, and to add antonyms for Callon's problematization, intressement, enrollment, and mobilization. This enables us to describe powerlessness not as a state but as a process. Our case focuses on the network building around measures for disabled people in the construction of the Athens Metro, during the period 1991-1993. The discussion highlights the efforts of disability organizations to intervene in the initial construction works of the metro project and the simultaneous actions of the Greek government to exclude disability organizations from the design process and to disrupt the accessibility-metro actor network.

This review discusses Arvind-Pal S. Mandair's Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of Translation (hereafter RSW), published in 2009 by Columbia University Press.

AbstractA number of controversial aspects of the relationship between religion and the state are located in public space. Although burqa bans, the Swiss minaret ban, and duties to display crucifixes on public buildings are different in various ways, it is significant that they all take place in this particular type of location. However, when normative political theorists have addressed these issues, they have rarely paid sufficient attention to their spatial location, and, as a result, their analyses are lacking a vital dimension. This article shows what can go wrong when these normative analyses do not refer to an account of public space. It then indicates what part of a suitable account would look like by sketching four of its essential elements, referred to as the definition, distinctiveness, differentiation, and dynamism of public space. It is argued that normative political theorists should draw on aspects of such an account in order to achieve a more sophisticated understanding of issues concerning religion in public spaces, as well as to reach more securely grounded normative conclusions about them.

General introduction / Aaron Ricker -- Religion and cosmology / John T. Fitzgerald -- Calling down the spirits in the sky : Blackfoot astronomy and sense of the sacred / Eldon Yellowhorn -- To reverently bestow the seasons : calendrical narratives in early China and Rome / Rebecca Robinson -- Celestial deities in the flat-earth Buddhist cosmos and astrology / Jeffrey Kotyk -- Early Islamic encounters with the rain stars of pre-Islamic Arabian astronomy / Danielle Adams -- Cosmology and religious culture in Jewish and Byzantine art / Shulamit Laderman -- In search of the stars of David : situating the Rabbinic Jewish astronomical tradition in world cultural astronomy scholarship / Andrea D. Lobel -- The cosmos of a Big God : Brahe, Kepler, Bruno and the sizes of the stars in a Copernican universe / Christopher M. Graney -- Apocalyptic themes in Isaac Newton's astronomical physics / Stephen D. Snobelen -- Georges Lemaître's dual life in cosmology and theology / Simon Mitton and Rodney D. Holder -- Albert Einstein's cosmic religion / Nicholas Campion -- Market predictions : astrology in modern India / Parna Sengupta -- Faster than the speed of NASA : the tenth planet, prophecy and the universalization of a Gujarati village goddess / Darry Dinnell -- Radiance and darkness : Japanese Buddhist cosmographies / Melissa Anne-Marie Curley -- Abductions angelic and alien : the changing cosmologies of otherworldly journeys / James F. McGrath -- Astrophysics and religion / Arnold O. Benz -- The epistemology of Flat Earth theory : evidentialism, suspicion, and the ethics of belief / Jennifer Guyver -- Astrobiology, astroethics, and astrotheology in conversation / Grace Wolf-Chase -- Religious traditions and religious imagination in cosmos contexts / John Hart -- Wonder brokers : scientific wonder as spiritual authority in the Cosmos series (1980 and 2014) / Aaron Ricker -- Conclusion / Darry Dinnell.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -- INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER ONE: The Rise of Western Capitalism -- CHAPTER TWO: Basic Concepts in Weber's Economic Sociology -- CHAPTER THREE: The Economy and Politics -- CHAPTER FOUR: The Economy and Law -- CHAPTER FIVE: The Economy and Religion -- CHAPTER SIX: Epilogue: Weber's Vision of Economic Sociology -- APPENDIX: The Evolution of Weber's Thought on Economics -- NOTES -- INDEX