Conventional approaches for academic research on the Internet are strongly tied to Western reductionism and tend to narrow the scope of research into specific fields, and they sometimes fail to grasp the Internet as architecture. There are so many activities and technical developments that have occurred outside academic societies. It has passed six years since the Internet Architecture (IA) Tec...

That may seem rather unnecessary: social transformation is a commonly used expression and not particularly new. Generally it implies an underlying notion of the way society and culture change in response to such factors as economic growth, war or political upheavals. We may have in mind the ‘great transformation’ (Polanyi 1944) in western societies brought about by industrialisation and moderni...

SIR We are concerned about the prevalence of child sexual abuse in Italy. It is approaching 5%, which is similar to estimates (from 1-5%) for other western societies.' This implies that in Italy about 450 000 children aged 0-14 years and the same number aged 15-24 years (data from the census of 1991) are sexually abused each year. It has been estimated that in 1994 in the USA about three millio...

BACKGROUND Social phobia is a highly prevalent disorder in western countries, but is rather rare in eastern societies. Prevalence rates range from 0.5% in eastern studies and up to 16% in western studies. The present study examined the prevalence of social phobia in the Iranian general population and demographic characteristics associated with this anxiety disorder. METHODS Participants inclu...

This paper examines the issue of gender equality within Islam in order to develop an ethical framework for businesses operating in Muslim majority countries. We pay attention to the role of women and seemingly inconsistent expectations of Islamic and western societies with regard to appropriate gender roles. In particular, we contrast a mainstream western liberal individualist view of freedom a...

Digital games are becoming popular among older adults. People who are 50+ years of age represent 29% of the gamer market in the United States (US); which is a 20% increase in comparison to their 1999 report. Digital games have become a popular activity in the lives of many older adults in Western societies and scientific studies on older adults and games go hand in hand with the increasing popu...

The call for indigenous sociology is a discussion that reflects reactions to the Eurocentric character of Western and alternative proposals. According advocates this call, sociology, based on social historical experiences societies, do not allow understanding non-Western societies have different backgrounds from West, it also against their interests. It creates intellectual dependence inequalit...

Guanxi is deeply ingrained in Chinese society and business etiquette; therefore, it is critical to understand and appreciate it to gain a commercial foothold in China. This paper explores the fundamental differences between Chinese and Western approaches to business dealings, to identify the factors that make it difficult for Western managerial practises to adopt guanxi. The authors identify th...