Transparency in Global Change: The Vanguard of the Open Society

by Burkart Holzner and Leslie Holzner

University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006
eISBN: 978-0-8229-7287-7 | Paper: 978-0-8229-5895-6
Library of Congress Classification JC598.H65 2006
Dewey Decimal Classification 352.88

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Transparency in Global Change examines the quest for information exchange in an increasingly international, open society. Recent transformations in governments and cultures have brought about a surge in the pursuit of knowledge in areas of law, trade, professions, investment, education, and medical practice—among others. Technological advancements in communications, led by the United States, and public access to information fuel the phenomenon of transparency. This rise in transparency parallels a diminution of secrecy—though, as Burkart and Leslie Holzner point out, secrecy continues to exist on many levels. Based on current events and historical references in literature and the social sciences, <I>Transparency in Global Change</I> focuses on the turning points of information cultures, such as scandals, that lead to pressure for transparency. Moreover, the Holzners illuminate byproducts of transparency—debate, insight, and impetus for change, as transparency exposes the moral corruptions of dictatorship, empire, and inequity.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Burkart Holzner is professor of sociology and public and international affairs, and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. His earlier work dealt with the sociology of knowledge and includes Reality Construction in Society, and (with John Marx) Knowledge Application: The Knowledge System in Society. He directed the University Center for International Studies for twenty years and became increasingly interested in global change.

Leslie Holzner, a sociologist, was assistant director at the Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh. She has written about organizational change, educational reform, and especially restructuring of mathematics education.

REVIEWS

"Likely to become an important future reference on discussions of governance and globalization."
--Contemporary Sociology

“Transparency in Global Change offers an ambitious discussion of the value of transparency in societies undergoing processes of global change. Focusing on a broad range of nations across the world, and relying on a rich analysis of historical as well as contemporary developments, the authors deliver a powerful and provocative contribution to the study of globalization and the value of open societies. Exceedingly well written, this book will be useful to students and scholars interested in globalization, international studies, and public policy.”
—Mathieu Deflem, University of South Carolina

“Transparency in Global Change offers a rare educational experience of critical aspects of advanced modernity. Burkart and Leslie Holzner judiciously analyze our contemporary post–cold war, post 9/11 global situation as pitting the democratic ideal of the ‘open society,’ based on trust and citizen engagement, against resistance to accountability and transparency from power structures favoring secrecy. The sweep of their work is not only enormous, covering the private and public sectors, but it is also balanced, since some degree of secrecy is a fact of social life, as Simmel long ago realized. All those interested in questions of governance in the global information age will benefit from reading this work. And hopefully they will be stimulated to become active agents for the ‘open society.’”
—Edward A. Tiryakian, Duke University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

<Holzner and Holzner, Contents>
<p. vii, no folio, p. viii, cont'd or blank>
Contents
Acknowledgments	000
1. The Culture Shift to Transparency	000
2. The Rise of Transparency: Some Historical Turning Points	000
3. Perspectives on Transparency: Linking Several Fields of Knowledge to One Social Fact	000
4. Information Cultures in Transformation: The Secrecy and the Transparency Syndromes in Global Change	000
5. Transparency in the World	000
6. Global Civil Society, Transparency, and Social System Change	000
7. Corporate Governance and Transparency: From Exuberance to Scandals to Reform	000
8. The Changing Architecture of Information Values in Health Systems	000
9. Historical Transparency	000
10. Global Change and the Open Society	000
Notes	000
List of Consultations	000
Index	000

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