The Future of Knowledge and Culture

The twentieth century was for the most part an unfolding of the nineteenth, but the twenty-first century is a time of open-ended transitions. This remarkable book attempts to provide a cartography of the contemporary global framework of knowledge and culture that can tell us where we've arrived in the new millennium, and where we are headed. The Future of Knowledge & Cultureis a dictionary of ideas, comprising brief articles from perceptive commentators on subjects ranging from Bollywood, cloning, consumerism, and corruption to refugees, sanctions, water, and WMDs-in other words, on all things that are likely to be of significance in the years ahead.

Vinay Lal is associate professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. His most recent works are Empire of Knowledge: Culture and Plurality in the Global Economy (Pluto Press, 2002), Of Cricket, Gandhi, and Guinness: Essays in Indian History and Culture (Seagull Press, 2002) and (edited) Dissenting Knowledges, Open Futures: The Multiple Selves and Strange Destinations of Ashis Nandy (Oxford, 2000).

Preface

xi

Vinay Lal

Ashis Nandy

Apologies

1

(7)

Vinay Lal

Architecture

8

(6)

R. L. Kumar

Bollywood

14

(6)

M. K. Raghavendra

Calcutta

20

(5)

John Hutnyk

Cancer

25

(6)

Manu Kothari

Lopa Mehta

Cloning

31

(6)

Manu Kothari

Lopa Mehta

Coca-Cola

37

(6)

Ashis Nandy

Consumerism

43

(5)

Ashis Nandy

Coronary Care

48

(5)

Manu Kothari

Lopa Mehta

Vatsal Kothari

Corruption

53

(6)

Sudhir Chella Rajan

Dammed H2O

59

(6)

Dipak Gyawali

Ajaya Dixit

Democracy

65

(5)

C. Douglas Lummis

Development

70

(8)

Majid Rahnema

Economics

78

(6)

Roby Rajan

Education

84

(6)

Gustavo Esteva

Madhu S. Prakash

Ethnic Cuisine

90

(6)

Ashis Nandy

Exile

96

(5)

Sudesh Mishra

Food

101

(7)

Philip McMichael

Genocide

108

(6)

Michael Sells

Grass Roots

114

(6)

Gustavo Esteva

Human Rights

120

(6)

Vinay Lal

Imperial Economics

126

(6)

Roby Rajan

Islam

132

(6)

Ziauddin Sardar

Knowledge Systems

138

(7)

Frederique Apffel-Marglin

Landmines

145

(7)

Vinay Lal

Laughter

152

(5)

Barry Sanders

Literacy

157

(6)

Barry Sanders

Maps

163

(6)

Sankaran Krishna

Marley

169

(6)

Charles Carnegie

Marxism

175

(5)

C. Douglas Lummis

McDonald's

180

(6)

Vinay Lal

Ziauddin Sardar

Memory

186

(6)

Sudesh Mishra

Military

192

(6)

C. Douglas Lummis

Mystery

198

(7)

David Punter

Nuclearism

205

(6)

Ashis Nandy

Peasant

211

(5)

Ashis Nandy

Place

216

(6)

Roby Rajan

Plague

222

(5)

Ashis Nandy

Pollution

227

(6)

Sudhir Chella Rajan

Postmodernism

233

(7)

Ziauddin Sardar

Poverty

240

(8)

Majid Rahnema

Prison

248

(6)

Barry Sanders

Records

254

(7)

Vinay Lal

Refugees

261

(6)

Imtiaz Ahmed

Roads

267

(7)

C. Douglas Lummis

Sacred Groves

274

(6)

Frederique Apffel-Marglin

Sanctions

280

(6)

Vinay Lal

Scarcity

286

(6)

Lakshman Yapa

Singapore

292

(7)

C.J.W.-L. Wee

Spin Doctors

299

(6)

Raminder Kaur

State

305

(6)

R.L. Kumar

Stones

311

(6)

Teshome Gabriel

Sugar

317

(5)

Ashis Nandy

Third Ways

322

(7)

Trent Schroyer

Tourism

329

(7)

Paul Gonsalves

Utopia

336

(6)

Peter Wollen

Weapons of Mass Destruction

342

(5)

Itty Abraham

West

347

(6)

A. Raghuramaraju

Yahoo

353

(7)

Ziauddin Sardar

Notes on Contributors

360

(5)

Index

365

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.