The article starts with an overview of modernization theories, its history of ups and downs as well as its present status. This first part is followed by an analysis of basic social structure distributions and trends in human development in selected countries. One major focal point of the paper is the Non-Western world and the Arab countries, in particular. The author looks at modernization and modernity in that region and comes to the conclusion that the Western world can no longer expect to be able to simply export its own values and its way of life to the rest of the world.

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The purpose of this study is to expound the dilemma that, in spite of the huge wealth of Saudi Arabia, its drive for development and modernization is stumbling. This situation is due to a large extent to the country's severe administrative limitations.

L'institution judiciaire en général et le procès civil en particulier ne sont pas épargnés par le mouvement de la dématérialisation qui touche de nombreux secteurs du service public. En effet, l'introduction des TIC dans le procès civil a été motivée principalement par la quête de la célérité et de l'efficacité de ce dernier. Toutefois, il faudrait contrebalancer ces deux objectifs recherchés avec l'exigence du respect des garanties procédurales et institutionnelles des justiciables. Car, la recherche d'accélération du temps judiciaire et la réalisation d'économie de moyens alloués à ce service ne doivent pas l'emporter sur la qualité des jugements civils. La conciliation de ces trois exigences se révèle comme l'obstacle majeur qui freine le processus d'intégration des TIC dans le procès civil. Néanmoins, tout est question d'équilibre : la technique informatique ne doit pas l'emporter sur la technique juridique et sur l'esprit même de la justice. L'essentiel, c'est que authenticité et modernité riment ensemble. / The justice system in general and the civil suit in particular not been spared by the movement of dematerialisation wich has affected many areas of public service. In fact, the introduction of ICT in the civil suit was fueled primarily by the quest for speed and efficiency. However, the need arose to balance these two objectives with the requirement of compliance with procedural and institutional guarantees for a fair trial. This is because the quest to accelerate judicial time and save resources allocated to this service sould not undermine the quality of civil judgments. Reconciling these three requirements is revealed as the major obstacle hindering the process of ICT integration in civil suits. Nevertheless, it is all about balance: computer technology should not prevail over the legal system and the spirit of justice. It is essential the authenticity and modernity go hand in hand.

The Question(s) of Youth, of what to do with them, of how to school them, or police them, or regulate them, or house them, or employ them, or prevent them from becoming involved in any number of Risky (sexual, eating, drug (ab)using or peer cultural) practices are questions which have a substantial historical aspect. In the Liberal Democracies at the end of the millennium the Crisis of Youth (at-Risk) is a key marker in theoretical, political and popular debates about Youth. This thesis explores the 'conditions of possibility' which enable discourses of Youth at-Risk to function as true (Henriques et al 1984). I argue that the truth of Youth at-Risk rehearses, in part, the historical truths of Youth as Delinquent, Deviant and Disadvantaged. I will also argue that a historically novel aspect of the truth of Youth at-Risk is that, potentially, every behaviour, every practice, every group of Youth can be constructed in terms of Risk. This thesis is not about the practices, behaviours and dispositions of young people. Rather, my concern is with the ways in which institutionally structured processes of expert knowledge production construct the truths of Youth (at-Risk). The thesis is concerned with the processes by which these largely autonomous systems of expert knowledge production are constitutive of both the 'institutional reflexivity' which characterises contemporary settings, and the forms of identity which emerge in these settings (Giddens 1994 c). I am also concerned with the ways in which these systems of expertise mobilise categories of Risk in diverse attempts to regulate the behaviours and dispositions of certain populations of young people under the conditions of 'reflexive modernization' (Beck, Giddens & Lash 1994). The thesis argues for a productive convergence between theories of reflexive modernization and governmentality. This convergence enables Youth at-Risk to be examined at two (interconnected) levels. In the first instance Risk is understood as constituting a metanarrative in an Age of Manufactured Uncertainty. In the second instance the identification of Risk factors and populations at-Risk will be understood as techniques mobilised in diverse attempts to 'make up' rational, choice making, autonomous, responsible citizens within (Neo)Liberal projects of government (Rose 1996). Foucault's (1991) theory of governmentality foregrounds the practices and relations implicated in the processes whereby 'human beings are made into subjects' (Foucault 1983). Governmentality is a useful and strategic analytic for understanding the diverse attempts by various experts and centres of expertise to regulate young people's identity through the construction of populations of Youth at-Risk. Processes of reflexive modernization are marked by the emergence of a degree of collective awareness that our contemporary conditions of existence are characterised by the thoroughgoing penetration of the social and the natural by reflexive human knowledge. Such a situation leads, not to a position in 'which collectively we are the masters [sic] of our destiny'; but rather to a series of settings in which we are confronted with the possibility that, as a 'consequence of our own doings', the future becomes 'very threatening' (Beck, Giddens & Lash 1994). In problematising the truth of Youth at-Risk this thesis will also engage with various problematisations of Left (critical) intellectual and political practices in domains which take Youth as their object. This thesis is explicitly located in the space of 'critical' (Educational) scholarship in Anglo settings which is structured, historically, by the 'European Marxist social philosophy' of the Frankfurt School and Gramscian (British) Cultural Studies, and French and Italian Feminism and Post (Structuralism and Modernism) (Popkewitz and Brennan 1997). The thesis argues that in order to problematise the truth of Youth at-Risk it is necessary, also, to problematise the processes of truth production mobilised from the Left in an engagement with the material and discursive realities which enable Youth at-Risk to function as a truth. Examining the truth of Youth at-Risk in the frameworks enabled by a convergence of theories of reflexive modernization and governmentality is a contribution to the processes of rethinking the intellectual and political positions which the Left might mobilise at the end of the millennium, when, as Beck (1994 ) argues, 'uncertainty returns'. I will argue that Left intellectual and political practice has no choice but to be open to the uncertain nature of truth telling which characterises processes of reflexive modernization. The tensions generated within these processes are not resolvable. Nor should the 'return of uncertainty' be seen as immobilising in the context of political and intellectual practice. The thesis argues that theories of reflexive modernization and governmentality highlight the dangers of intellectual and political positions which invest heavily in 'modernity's war on ambivalence' (Bauman 1990 b). In settings where the practices and activities of expertise have so thoroughly penetrated the natural and the social, where these processes of colonisation have resulted in the 'return of uncertainty', then the practices and activities of expertise promise, paradoxically, to 'exterminate ambivalence' by telling the truths of Youth at-Risk (Bauman 1990 b). This thesis argues that in an Age of Manufactured Uncertainty the mobilisation of rationally grounded Risk discourses in attempts to regulate Youth emerges as a paradoxical, and dangerous, Quest for Certainty (Bauman 1990 a).

A rapid economic boom in the past decade has completely transformed China’s urban landscape into a theme park of skyscrapers. Architecture has become a means to showcase ambition and desire. Architects are forced to fit into a prescribed way of thinking and assist a powerful government to realize its vision of a utopian order. And as such, many of them are deprived of opportunities to thoroughly investigate the social issues that are affecting China’s urban development. Quite often, architects fall prey to political constraints and economic challenges. Despite China being a testing ground for handsome architecture and experimental urban planning, it is at the same time a graveyard of ethical architectural practices. In response to such pervasive conditions of architectural practice, this thesis investigates social and cultural issues in China that are beyond the control and repertoire of an architect; but ones that directly affect the development of this fast-modernizing nations. Across the dynasties, a unique walled culture was developed in the Chinese society, characterized by its emphasis on inward orientation and boundary making. The Ming dynasty reached the maturity of this walled culture when political hierarchy, strict morality and the obsession of wall building dominated society in an extreme fashion. It was during the Ming dynasty that the Great Wall was substantially extended in length. Inside the limits of this national boundary, the emperor enclosed each city itself within massive walled networks. In this way, the wall became a physical symbol of Chinese centrality and insularity, where massive walls, strict order and a focus on morality all worked together to create a physically and psychologically suffocating cultural atmosphere. Within this walled culture, a growing fear of a centralized bureaucratic power and a subsequent repression placed upon political criticism were commonplace. Today, almost five centuries after-the-fact, there remains a ghost of this former walled culture. Although most of these ancient symbols of physical control—the walls themselves—have fallen in ruin after the collapse of dynastical China, an invisible, psychological wall still remains in Chinese society to restrict any politically incorrect thoughts. The collective mind of contemporary China is struggling between the will of rapid modernization and the desire for free expression. The notion of ‘going modern’ and developing an advanced lifestyle now forms a kind of mutual consent between the government and the citizens. In order to enjoy their ‘modern’ lifestyles, contemporary Chinese must acknowledge and respect certain limits—they must always act and think for the collective good as determined by the government. The government sees suppression of free expression and covering up of social injustice as the best way to ensure social stability and centralization of power. It is for this reason that the ancient walls of China have gradually transformed into a psychological wall that haunts the mind of the citizens. From this perspective, the wall never really collapsed or became ruins—it still resides in the psychology of the collective. The concept of wall, physical and metaphorical, is the central theme of this thesis. It is not only to be understood as the physical realization of a superficial idea of protection, separation and control, but also as the dominant mechanism of repression, an invisible wall that continues to shape the Chinese national psyche today. This thesis attempts to reveal and confront the unspoken meaning of the wall in Chinese culture which has been buried under the glamour of national pride and glory. It presents a yearning to transform a wall that covers up injustice and inequality into a wall that connects to the underside of the social subconscious.

A rapid economic boom in the past decade has completely transformed China’s urban landscape into a theme park of skyscrapers. Architecture has become a means to showcase ambition and desire. Architects are forced to fit into a prescribed way of thinking and assist a powerful government to realize its vision of a utopian order. And as such, many of them are deprived of opportunities to thoroughly investigate the social issues that are affecting China’s urban development. Quite often, architects fall prey to political constraints and economic challenges. Despite China being a testing ground for handsome architecture and experimental urban planning, it is at the same time a graveyard of ethical architectural practices. In response to such pervasive conditions of architectural practice, this thesis investigates social and cultural issues in China that are beyond the control and repertoire of an architect; but ones that directly affect the development of this fast-modernizing nations. Across the dynasties, a unique walled culture was developed in the Chinese society, characterized by its emphasis on inward orientation and boundary making. The Ming dynasty reached the maturity of this walled culture when political hierarchy, strict morality and the obsession of wall building dominated society in an extreme fashion. It was during the Ming dynasty that the Great Wall was substantially extended in length. Inside the limits of this national boundary, the emperor enclosed each city itself within massive walled networks. In this way, the wall became a physical symbol of Chinese centrality and insularity, where massive walls, strict order and a focus on morality all worked together to create a physically and psychologically suffocating cultural atmosphere. Within this walled culture, a growing fear of a centralized bureaucratic power and a subsequent repression placed upon political criticism were commonplace. Today, almost five centuries after-the-fact, there remains a ghost of this former walled culture. Although most of these ancient symbols of physical control—the walls themselves—have fallen in ruin after the collapse of dynastical China, an invisible, psychological wall still remains in Chinese society to restrict any politically incorrect thoughts. The collective mind of contemporary China is struggling between the will of rapid modernization and the desire for free expression. The notion of ‘going modern’ and developing an advanced lifestyle now forms a kind of mutual consent between the government and the citizens. In order to enjoy their ‘modern’ lifestyles, contemporary Chinese must acknowledge and respect certain limits—they must always act and think for the collective good as determined by the government. The government sees suppression of free expression and covering up of social injustice as the best way to ensure social stability and centralization of power. It is for this reason that the ancient walls of China have gradually transformed into a psychological wall that haunts the mind of the citizens. From this perspective, the wall never really collapsed or became ruins—it still resides in the psychology of the collective. The concept of wall, physical and metaphorical, is the central theme of this thesis. It is not only to be understood as the physical realization of a superficial idea of protection, separation and control, but also as the dominant mechanism of repression, an invisible wall that continues to shape the Chinese national psyche today. This thesis attempts to reveal and confront the unspoken meaning of the wall in Chinese culture which has been buried under the glamour of national pride and glory. It presents a yearning to transform a wall that covers up injustice and inequality into a wall that connects to the underside of the social subconscious.

The secularization theses has over the last decade been a central issue within the sociology of religion. The two classic theses has been criticized for being one-sided and only focus on the change from traditional to modern society. The intention of this study is to evaluate this critique and to discuss what is defendable in the early secularization thesis in our contemporary world.This essay’s primary purpose is to compare the secularization theses Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. I use two analytical models, posing three levels and three categories of secularization, in order to make the comparison explicit. The levels are societal, organization and individual. The categories are descriptive, normative and analytic.As result I have found that there are perspectives of the classical theses of Weber and Durkheim that is defendable in the contemporary world. The critique is valid in some aspects, but not in every.

In the United States, the floodplain maps used in the administration of the National Flood Insurance Program are created and maintained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Currently, a nationwide map modernization program is underway to convert the existing paper floodplain maps into a digital format, while continuing to improve the maps and expand the scope of the studies. The flood zones depicted on these maps are developed through engineering studies, using a variety of accepted methods to model and predict flood-prone areas. These methods are classified as detailed, limited detailed, or approximate, corresponding to varying levels of expense and accuracy. Current flood map revision activities across the nation typically consist of developing new hydraulic models, or reusing existing hydraulic model results in conjunction with new, more detailed LiDAR terrain models. This research develops a profile synthesis method for redelineation of approximate flood boundaries, and evaluates the method's performance and usability. The profile synthesis method is shown to perform reliably on simple floodplain geometry, recreating a water surface profile based only on its floodplain boundaries. When applied to a real-world floodplain studied in a previous flood insurance study, the profile synthesis method is shown to perform adequately, with results comparable to an approximate hydraulic model developed in HEC-RAS. Methods similar to this profile synthesis method for reuse of existing approximate zone boundaries have not been widely documented or evaluated; nevertheless, methods such as this are believed to be common in the revision of approximate zone flood boundaries. As such, this work explores concepts which will be of interest to individuals actively involved in flood map revision and modernization. / Master of Science

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