The World A Beginner's Guide

by Therborn, Gö; ran

• ISBN13: 9780745643434
• ISBN10: 0745643434
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-02-07
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

What is the world of the 21st century like now that the centrality of the West is no longer given? How were the societies and cultures of today´s world together with their interconnections forged, and what is driving human society in our times? In short, what is the state of the world today as we enter the second decade of the 21st century? This is the first book which deals with planetary human society as whole. It is a beginner´s guide to the world after the West and after globalization, compact, portable, and jargon-free. It is aimed at everybody who, even with experience, has kept a beginner´s curiosity of the world, to everybody who does not know everything they want to know about it, about the good, the evil, and the salvation of the world.It lays bare the socio-cultural geology of the world, its major civilizations, its historical waves of globalization, its family-sex-gender systems, and its pathways to modernity.It outlines the dynamics of the world, its basic drives, the contours of its most important global and sub-global processes. It presents the big team players on the world stage, populous as well as rich countries, missions and movements as well corporations and cities. It traces the life-courses of men and women on all the continents, from their birth and childhood to their old age, and their funeral.

Author Biography

Göran Therborn is Professor of Sociology at University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Introduction: Humankind and Its World

Why We Are Who We Are: A Socio-Cultural Geology of Todaýs World

The Rock of Civilizations

The Sinic

The Indic

The West Asia

The European

The sub-Saharan African

The Family-Sex-Gender Systems

Sediments of Six Waves of Globalization

Modernity and Its Pathways

A Humanity of Multi-Layered Cultural Agglomerations

World Dynamics: The Drivers of Humankind

Modes of Livelihood: The Down and Up of Capitalism, and the Rest

Population Ecology and the Ending of Modern Ecological Emancipation

The Ethnic and Religious Dynamic of Recognition and Respect

Politics of Collective Power: State Apotheosis

Culture: Modernism Globalized, Accelerated, and Chastened

Channels of Operation

Global Processes

Flows

Trade

Capital

People

Information

Matter

Global-national entanglements

Global Action

Global Action

National Processes

Performance

Population movements (demography)

Distributions: Global, National, Sub-National

The Growth and Resilience of Nation- States

The Current World Stage

Scenography: the World Space

The big players

The Uneven Field of Nation-States

Corporations

Missions and Movements

Our Time on Earth: Courses of Life

Birth and Survival

Childhood

Schooling

Labour

Youth: Sex and Culture

A Sexual Geography of the Young World

Marriage and the end of youth

Adulthood

Where to Live: The Urbanization of the World

Making A Living: Classes of Work

Class Formations of 21st Century Capitalism

Making A Living: The Rich and the Poor

Adult Enjoyment: Leisure and Consumption

The Ruling & the Non-Ruling Generation

Old age

Retirement and Pension

Living Arrangements

An Ideal 21st Century Life-Course

Death and After

Conclusion: How We Got Here, and Where Are We Going?

How Did We Get Here?

Where Are We Going?

Notes

Bibliography

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.