Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Materials / Yilmaz Esmer and Thorleif Pettersson -- Introduction / Yilmaz Esmer and Thorleif Pettersson -- Mapping Global Values / Ronald Inglehart -- A Theory Of Cultural Value Orientations: Explication And Applications / Shalom H. Schwartz -- Globalization, \'Mcdonaldization\' And Values: Quo Vadis? / Yilmaz Esmer -- Individualization In Europe And America: Connecting Religious And Moral Values / Neil Nevitte and Christopher Cochrane -- Religion In Contemporary Society: Eroded By Human Well-Being, Supported By Cultural Diversity / Thorleif Pettersson -- Democratization In The Human Development Perspective / Christian Welzel -- Index / Yilmaz Esmer and Thorleif Pettersson.

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In 1981, the European and World Values surveys started the empirical investigations of value orientations on a global scale. This volume builds on these surveys, which now cover a time period of a quarter of a century. Two chapters discuss basic theoretical and methodological issues of value research, while four chapters focus on contemporary processes of value change: cultural globalization, individualization, secularization and democratization. These analyses of the data from the value surveys give new life to social science classics such as Tocqueville, Durkheim, Marx and Weber. The analyses are also of interest to the practitioners of economic and social development as well as educational and cultural policies. Contributors include: Chris Cochran, Yilmaz Esmer, Ronald Inglehart, Neil Nevitte, Shalom Schwartz, Thorleif Pettersson and Christian Welzel. This book was originally published as Volume 5 numbers 2-3 (2006) of Brill's journal ‘Comparative Sociology'.