Globalization And Civilizations

Globalization and Civilizations challenges established assumptions about the nature of civilizations and the supposed inevitability of the conflict between the Islamic and Western worlds. Uniquely, this edited book critically interrogates the concept of 'civilization' by asking whether it is still valid in the globalized world economy of the twenty-first century. The first half of the book provides an historical and theoretical context to understand the idea of 'civilization' in political science and demonstrates how the various social, economic, political and cultural processes of globalization have radically altered perceptions of civilization. The second half of the book looks particularly at non-Western examples of the interaction between globalization and civilization and includes case studies on the Arab world, Islam, China, India and Europe

For Harry Redner, the phrase "beyond civilization" refers to the new and unprecedented condition the world is now entering‘specifically, the condition commonly known as globalization. Redner approaches globalization from the perspective of history and seeks to interpret it in relation to previous key stages of human development. His account begins with the Axial Age (700 300 BC) and proceeds through Modernity (after AD 1500) to the present global condition. What is globalization doing to civilization? In answering this question, Redner studies the role played by capitalism, the state, science and technology. He aims to show that they have had a catalytic impact on civilization through their reductive effect on society, culture, and individualism. However, Redner is not content to diagnose the ills of civilization; he also suggests how they might be ameliorated by cultural conservation. Above all, it is to the problem of decline in the higher forms of literacy that he addresses himself, for it is on the culture of the book that previous civilizations were founded. This study will be of interest to sociologists, historians, and social and political theorists. Its style makes it accessible also to general readers, interested in civilization past, present, and future.

This timely and original volume fills the gaps in the existing theoretical and philosophical literature on international relations by problematizing civilization as a new unit of research in global politics. It interrogates to what extent and in what ways civilization is becoming a strategic frame of reference in the current world order. The book complements and advances the existing field of study previously dominated by other approaches – economic, national, class-based, racial, and colonial – and tests its key philosophical suppositions against countries that exhibit civilizational ambitions. The authors are all leading international scholars in the fields of political theory, IR, cultural analysis, and area studies who deal with various aspects of the civilizational arena. Offering key chapters on ideology, multipolarity, modernity, liberal democracy, and capitalism, this book extends the existing methodological, theoretical, and empirical debates for IR and area studies scholars globally. It will be of great interest to politicians, public opinion makers, and all those concerned with the evolution of world affairs.

Globalization on Trial challenges the conventional view that equates globalization with the expansion of the capitalist economic system. With a broad historical and holistic brush, the author presents a view of globalization that is both multidisciplinary and multicultural. What opportunities must we seize? What dangers must we overcome? Rajaee examines human governance and the paradox of globalism and nationalism (or "nativism"), providing a particularly fresh perspective on Islamic civilization. He also focuses on our education system and how it will have to adapt to meet the new challenges.

The purpose of this book is to evaluate the question: What does the New World Order (NWO) mean in the 21st century? After the Polish Revolution in 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Soviet Union in 1991, many people expected better times than those during the Cold War between the West and East. Since Communism lost to Capitalism, can the latter promote freedom and happiness for all of us everywhere? However, this dream did not happen, vice versa we face now so called liquid times, times of instability and chaos. Therefore, this book is written for those who would like to know why the supposedly ideal economic solution known as Capitalism cannot bring happiness to all of us as it is promised by its promoters. This means that the book should be interesting for all kinds of readers and could be potentially read by millions. The book discusses Hegelian dialectics under the form of competition among ideas that have been neglected in the NOW-21st century and unopposed Capitalism has been transformed into Turbo-Capitalism, also known as Undemocratic Capitalism. This process is supported by additive waves of globalization taking place in the last 500+ years. Eventually in the 21st century humanity is facing the resulted transformation of western civilization into global civilization. The book analyzes this transformational process and its positive and negative repercussions for humanity.

The century that began in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War was catastrophic. Over the course of that one-hundred-year span, civilizations were destroyed in the Old World, the New World, and the Third World, the latter represented by China, India, and Islam.In Europe the main agent of destruction was totalitarianism; in America it was globalization, ushered in by modernity; and in the non-Western world it was colonialism, followed later by totalitarianism and globalization. Harry Redner examines each of these processes, providing theoretical and historical accounts of their emergence. He considers the effects of Nazism and Bolshevism on the morale and morals of Europe; studies the effects on the United States of the nation's emergence as a major world power; and describes the impact of modernization on China, India, and Islam as they underwent Europeanization, Sovietization, and Americanization.Redner confronts us with a paradox: in the midst of unprecedented material affluence and organizational efficiency, one that uses advanced technologies and cutting-edge scientific knowledge, we are also sinking into an unprecedented cultural, moral, intellectual, and spiritual decline. He locates the origins of this condition in the violently contradictory processes of the twentieth century.

This volume of Culture and Civilization focuses on cosmopolitanism, the global polity, and political ramifications of globalization. The introduction by Gabriel R. Ricci establishes context and provides an overview of the entire work. Topics include the history of globalization, climate change policy, ecological consequences of development, concepts of civilization, human rights, Eastern thought and economics, global citizenship, and travel writing. Within this collection, Carl J. Strikwerda argues that the first era of globalization in modern times was marked by global migrations patterns. Pablo Iannone's history of the Andean oil rush and its ecological consequences looks at the processes of development. Brett Bowden argues that civilization entails both progress and war. J. Baird Callicott provides a philosophical analysis of a moral theory that accommodates spatial and temporal scales of climate change, Sanjay Paul analyzes the United Nations Global Compact, and Ed Chung discusses the role of economic theory in business schools. Colin Butler reflects on E. F. Schumacher's "Buddhist Economics," while Taso Lagos relates parallel polis to the idea of global citizenship. Tony Burns examines the ways in which Aristotle, Hegel, and Kant have been interpreted. Finally, Adam Stauffer explores Charles Warren Stoddard's work South-Sea Idyls. This volume of Culture and Civilization, the first under Ricci's editorship, follows the tradition of the previous four volumes - developing critical ideas intended to produce a positive intellectual climate, one that is prepared to confront challenges and alert us to the opportunities, for people in all fields and of all faiths, of the twenty-first century.