Max Weber, a German political economist, legal historian, and sociologist, had an impact on the social sciences that is difficult to overestimate. According to a widely held view, he was the founder of the modern way of conceptualizing society and thus the modern social sciences. His major interest was the process of rationalization, which characterizes Western civilization---what he called the "demystification of the world." This interest led him to examine the three types of domination or authority that characterize hierarchical relationships: charismatic, traditional, and legal. It also led him to the study of bureaucracy; all of the world's major religions; and capitalism, which he viewed as a productof the Protestant ethic. With his contemporary, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim---they seem not to have known each other's work---he created modern sociology.
Radhika Coomaraswamy was formerly Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, Sri Lanka, and Director, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo. She was formerly the United Nations Special
Isabel Wilkerson (born 1961) is an American journalist and the author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010) and Caste: The Origins of O
Walter Chambati is executive director of the Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies, Harare, Zimbabwe. He received a BSc (Hons) in agricultural economics from the University of Zimbabwe, a
Hicham Safieddine is lecturer in the history of the Modern Middle East at King’s College London and author of Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon. He is co-founder of Al-Ak
G. Arunima teaches at the Centre for Women’s Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and has researched and published on, both, historical and modern contexts in India, with a focus on cultural, vi
