This book is a collection of notable papers from the first six volumes of the journal Comparative Sociology. Its content represents leading-edge and contemporarily astute analyses in the burgeoning science of comparative sociology, especially relevant to a globalizing world in transition. Given that not everyone is acquainted with comparative sociology, this book offers an opportunity to enlighten readers unfamiliar with the discipline about the importance of comparative sociology to the new world order. Taken together, the articles illuminate various aspects of comparative sociology—theoretical, methodological, substantive. Some compare social entities in subjective, case-study fashion, while others report on rigorous social research. All contribute in one form or another to describing the many and varied facets of the exciting “new” science of comparative sociology.

Contributors are Margit Bussmann, Cristina Corduneanu-Huci, Mattei Dogan, Janet Harkness, Kristen R. Heimdal, Sharon K. Houseknecht, Ho-fung Hung, Ronald Inglehart, Valeriy Khmelko, Melvin L. Kohn, Robert M. Marsh, Peter Ph. Mohler, Pippa Norris, John R. Oneal, Noriko Onodera, Maryjane Osa, Vladimir I. Paniotto, Masamichi Sasaki, Shalom H. Schwartz, Tom W. Smith, Indra de Soysa, Tatsuzo Suzuki, Erich Weede, Brigitte Weiffen, and Masato Yoneda.

The content of this volume has previously been published in Comparative Sociology volumes 1 – 6.3