At the end of the 20th Century, we still bear the imprint of that history. But there are new and far-reaching complications that demand our attention. For instance, scholars in communications point to the potency of new technologies, which seem to compress time and to reconfigure the space in which we live. Demographers alert us to population growth and novel forms of migration. Theologians speak about metaphysical dislocation and the imperatives of a new metaphor for the sacred.
Biologists worry about eco-systems and the diversity of life.
Economists describe the rise of a new kind of market, characterized by the microchip, biotechnology, and genetic engineering. Students of history, politics, and culture point out the danger of pandemic anomie, the likely collision of civilizations, and the need for new sorts of global sensibilities. As educators and citizens, we must invent concepts that will help us to come to grips with these multiple and overlapping developments, these constant motions of ecological, economic, cultural, and political phenomena. Globalization is one such concept. It captures an emerging sense of paradox, a recognition that old and new forces have joined in peculiar combinations.