The Creation of the World or Globalization (SUNY Series in Contemporary French Thought)
Appearing in English for the first time, Jean-Luc Nancy's 2002  book reflects on globalization and its impact on our being-in-the-world.  Developing a contrast in the French language between two terms that are  usually synonymous, or that are used interchangeably, namelyglobalisation(globalization) andmondialisation(world-forming), Nancy undertakes a rethinking of what "world-forming"  might mean. At stake in this distinction is for him nothing less than two  possible destinies of our humanity, and of our time. On the one hand, with  globalization, there is the uniformity produced by a global economical and  technological logic leading to the contrary of an inhabitable world, "the  un-world" (l'im-monde)--as Nancy refers to it--an un-world that entails  social disintegration, misery, and injustice. And, on the other hand, there  is the possibility of an authentic world-forming, that is, of a making of  the world and of a making sense that Nancy calls a "creation" of the world.  Nancy understands such world-forming in terms of an inexhaustible struggle  for justice. This book is an important contribution by Nancy to a  philosophical reflection on the phenomenon of globalization and a further  development on his earlier works on our being-in-common, justice, and  a-theological existence."Graced by a lucid introduction from his superb translators, Jean-Luc  Nancy'sThe Creation of the World or Globalizationplots the  creative world-forming possibilities by which, in the name of a certain  justice, the nihilism of globalization may be resisted. The future of the  world hangs in the balance; Nancy makes a brilliant contribution to  thinking new beginnings." -- David Wood, author ofThe Step Back: Ethics  and Politics after Deconstruction--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.