"Brilliant, profound, and very timely for anyone trying to understand the meaning and implications of the phenomenon of globalization today." — William F. Ryan, S.J.

What is the human condition at the dawning of the global age? Drawing upon his own extensive experience, as well as upon the thoughts of Western and "non-Western" scholars and philosophers, Farhang Rajaee provides a fresh and critical inquiry into the nature of globalization.

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 of our global, information age.

Globalization on Trial will interest researchers, scholars,and students in the social sciences and, particularly, the humanities; donors, development organizations, NGOs, and development practitioners; and anyone concerned with how globalization and the information revolution are affecting the nature of human civilization, and with the interaction between Islamic and Judeo-Christian (or "Western") civilization.

Visit Globalization on Trial's Web Site

You can read full book online, or download the book.

About the Author:

Farhang Rajaee is a Visiting Associate Professor at the College of the Humanities, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Professor Rajaee received his PhD in Foreign Affairs in 1983 from the University of Virginia, where he worked with Kenneth W. Thompson and Inis Claude Jr. In 1984, he served on the Iranian UN delegation and, from 1985 to 1996, was a professor at the University of Tehran, the Iranian Academy of Philosophy, and Beheshti (National) University. In 1990 and 1991, Professor Rajaee was a fellow at Oxford University. His book Ma'rekeye Jahanbiniha ("The Battle of World Views," Ehya Ketab, 1995 and 1997) established his reputation as an interpreter of Islamic movements and political Islam.

Forward:

John Sigler

In the new information age, we are faced with a daily deluge of new facts from an ever-widening set of sources on an ever-widening set of subjects. At a premium are those few sources that attempt to make sense of this great transition, not only in providing an interpretation of what has happened and why but also in offering a vision of what might be done to develop a more humane future. This all-too-brief monograph by Dr Farhang Rajaee provides us with a critical overview of the principal (and often competing) interpretations of the complex phenomena labeled globalization, as well as a vision of the future. He has drawn on a broad range of sources — Western and non-Western, optimistic and pessimistic — in grappling with the many economic, political, and cultural dimensions of the growing global interdependence. Most of all, he is concerned with what kind of education will be needed to cope with the increasingly complex challenges of the information age.

We have already witnessed a dramatic increase in both the numbers of courses and the types of education for essentially technological careers in the information age — in engineering and computer science and in business management. Technological innovation has, after all, been the hallmark of Western civilization, and those who can cope most effectively with technology have played key roles in both creating and managing change. Dr Rajaee reminds us, however, that severe crises in social organization and values have accompanied previous periods of such intensive technological change, and he reminds us of the twin dangers of excessive resistance to change and excessive celebration of the new. On the basis of ancient Greek philosophy, as well as his own research on ancient Eastern philosophy, he reminds us of the importance of balance and of seeing that the opposites — "us and them," unity and diversity, technology and the humanities — are often complementary and not contradictory. To provide just such a sense of balance was, historically, the role of the university, but in an age of increasing complexity and division of labour, the university itself has been deeply marked by fragmentation, almost to the point at which its enormous success in generating technological and scientific innovation has undermined its contribution to philosophy, the humanities, and the social sciences. All too often, it is in the most advanced technological sectors where fundamentalist political and religious movements find their most devoted followers, which is one of the least understood ironies of these twin processes of technological innovation and social fragmentation.

Dr Rajaee envisions a restoration of dialogue and the emancipation of humanity through communication across and within the major world civilizations. Dr Rajaee's vision contains a deep moral commitment to human worth and dignity, as shared by the major world religious faiths, as well as by secular humanists. In this vision, we need to go beyond the "either—or" system of categories for judging others and understand "both—and" if we are to learn from each other at a time when highly innovative societies are undergoing deep social fragmentation and excessively traditional societies are suffering in poverty and decay. In Dr Rajaee's view, we are engaged, perhaps for the first time, in simultaneous processes of deep change in which shared information and communication, on a truly global scale, offer enormous potential for human emancipation, provided we understand both the opportunities and the dangers.

John Sigler
Carleton University
January 2000

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