The Global Age: State and Society Beyond ModernityStanford University Press, 1997 - 246 pages Taking issue with those who see recent social transformations as an extension of modernity, the author contends that social theory must confront an epochal change from the modern era to a new era of globality, in which human beings can conceive of forces at work on a global scale, and in which they espouse values that take the globe as their reference point. The book begins by assessing the problems of writing about modernity, showing how narratives of an endlessly self-perpetuating modern age were intrinsic to the "modern project," the attempt by Enlightenment philosophers to transform the everyday world in accord with science and logic under the auspices of the nation-state. Now we are beginning to realize that the nation-state and the modern project cannot renew themselves endlessly through expansion. Instead, the author contends, the age has culminated in its own dissolution, and globality has supplanted modernity as the basis for action and social organization. In theorizing the global age, he considers the worldwide environmental consequences of aggregate human activities, the reconception of human security in the age of nuclear weapons, technological advances in communication systems, the rise of a global economy, and the growing reflexivity of global consciousness, as people and groups begin to refer to the globe as the frame for their beliefs. The book concludes by examining the consequences of the Global Age thesis for politics, identifying a new popular construction of the state that the author terms "performative citizenship." In the modern age, the nation-state was the central power and citizens were beneficiaries of that power, with rights and duties. In the global age, citizens respond to the lack of central power by creating, or performing, the state themselves. The global managerial class uses the skills learned in the bureaucracy of the nation-state to bring pressure on national governments in the interests of global economic, environmental, or human-rights issues. |
From inside the book
Results 6-10 of 29
Page 35
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 37
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 42
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 46
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 50
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Contents
Theorizing the Transition | 4 |
Resuming the History of Epochs | 7 |
The Construction of NationState Society | 28 |
The Decay of the Modern Project | 52 |
Systems | 123 |
People | 150 |
The Future State and Society | 178 |
The Global Age Hypothesis | 184 |
Notes | 203 |
221 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstract activities Adam Ferguson Albrow alternative analytical arise become boundaries capitalism capitalist central citizens citizenship Cold War concepts configuration contemporary culture democracy depends discourse dominant economic effectively Émile Durkheim epoch epochal change equally European expansion of rationality experience extent factors forces forms frame Global Age global warming globe groups High Modern historical period human Ibn Khaldun idea identify identity imagination individual industrial inherent institutions intellectual involved irrationality late modern lives logic managerial class Marx Marx's Marxist Max Weber means Modern Age modern period Modern Project movements narrative nation-state society nature outcome political possible postmodern practices principles problem production Ralf Dahrendorf reality recognize reference reflexive reflexive modernization relations relationships represent requires seek sense shift sphere structure territorial theoretical tion transformation transnational universal values Weber welfare Western worldwide