[I-House Press] Contradictions of Globalization: Democracy, Culture, and Public Sphere

Contradictions of Globalization: Democracy, Culture, and Public Sphere–
Edited by Tessa Morris-Suzuki

2008 / 164 pages / paperback
ISBN 978-4-903452-09-8
1,571 yen / Special price*: 1,100 yen (inclusive of tax)
*Special price are applicable for IHJ members.

This is a collection of papers and writings contributed to the House conference in summer 2006 to celebrate the renewal reopening of the International House of Japan. Attempting to grasp the complex and multiple meanings of “Globalization” beyond the conventional definition and understanding in terms of the growing interdependence of the world, the formation of global institutions, and mutually exclusive conditions of the global and the national (local), this volume aims at shedding light on its contradictory aspects from both a political and cultural perspective. While national borders seem to have subsided or been lowered for some in our rapidly interconnected world, new borders, real and imagined, are being constructed or reconstructed, as, for instance, seen in the widening gaps/disparities and the eruption of identity politics. How should the paradoxical development of two contrasting phenomena, —for example, economic globalization and the rediscovery of culture as the basis of identity—be perceived? Prominent intellectuals from academia, the mass media, and NGOs/NPOs from around the Asia-Pacific address such issues as the role of intellectuals, journalism, cultural /academic organizations, and the significance of cross-border networking, with a focus on the idea of the “public” in order to tackle a trans-disciplinary agenda in an increasingly borderless world.