Multiple Modernities in an Age of Globalization

Abstract

Recent events and developments — especially the continual processes of globalization and the downfall of the Soviet regime — have indeed sharpened the problem of the nature of the modern, contemporary world. Indeed, as we are approaching the end of the twentieth century, new visions or understandings of modernity, of modern civilization are emerging throughout the world, be it in the West — Europe, the United States — where the first cultural program of modernity developed, or among Asian, Latin American and African societies. All these developments call out to a far-reaching reappraisal of the classical visions of modernity and modernization.