• The Social Construction of Banking Systems. Meidating the boudnaries between state and society: explaining shifts in central bank independence (S.E. Stockdale). Russian bankers: agents of capital and structural change? (N. Dinello). The Political Economy of Market Reform. Networks of governance and privatization: a view from provincial Russia (A.D. Buck). The impact of privatization on labor in Venezuela: radical reorganization or moderate adjustment? (S. Ellner). Democracy, Liberalization, and Left Solidarity. Palm workers, patrons, and political violence in Colombia: a window of opportunity for the left despite trade liberalization (L. Carroll). Civic republicanism versus social struggle: a Gramscian approach to associationalism in Italy (M. Kohn). Scholarly Controversy: Chaos And Governance. Hegemonic transitions: past and present (G. Arrighi, B.J. Silver). A new emergent hegemonic structure? (S. Sassen). Cycles, spirals, and transcendence (W. Goldfrank). Differentiation and the sources of destabilization (W.H. McNeill). Hegemonic transition: a rejoinder (G. Arrighi, B.J. Silver).

Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA How do 'we' create a society/world based on social and economic justice... There is, of course, no single answer... The authors in this edited volume understand this issue; nonetheless, they still share a common hope that a more just and egalitarian society can be created. Indeed, that hope and a critical analysis of society can be created. Indeed, that hope and a critical analysis of sociohistorical and contemporary processes are the driving forces behind these essays. Contemporary Sociology