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The Big Here and the Long Now: From Global Uniformity to the New Diversities
A spirited and engaging 'big picture' narrative of how we can reverse capitalism's relentless drive towards biocultural homogeneity
For thousands of years, humanity's story was one of diversification. Across centuries and continents, our species proliferated new approaches to family and community life; to agriculture, economics, religion, artistic expression, and self-understanding. Today, this process is in reverse.
Culturally and ecologically, we are witnessing an almost universal drive towards homogeneity and the loss of diversity. The global forces of capitalism have created a world riddled with overlapping crises, with any alternatives pushed into the margins, narrowing the scope for action when we need it most. And yet its logic is never totalizing: contrary to Margaret Thatcher's famous mantra, there are many alternatives.
The Big Here and the Long Now begins with the story of how our world of efficiency, standardization, and development optimism first came into being, and how promises of progress, growth, and prosperity have, in recent years, acquired a nasty aftertaste. The book concludes with hope and an exploration of creolization and hybridity. With biocultural diversity already being revived by activists and indigenous communities, from Manhattan to Micronesia, there are plenty of green shoots. Now they must be cultivated and nurtured.
For thousands of years, humanity's story was one of diversification. Across centuries and continents, our species proliferated new approaches to family and community life; to agriculture, economics, religion, artistic expression, and self-understanding. Today, this process is in reverse.
Culturally and ecologically, we are witnessing an almost universal drive towards homogeneity and the loss of diversity. The global forces of capitalism have created a world riddled with overlapping crises, with any alternatives pushed into the margins, narrowing the scope for action when we need it most. And yet its logic is never totalizing: contrary to Margaret Thatcher's famous mantra, there are many alternatives.
The Big Here and the Long Now begins with the story of how our world of efficiency, standardization, and development optimism first came into being, and how promises of progress, growth, and prosperity have, in recent years, acquired a nasty aftertaste. The book concludes with hope and an exploration of creolization and hybridity. With biocultural diversity already being revived by activists and indigenous communities, from Manhattan to Micronesia, there are plenty of green shoots. Now they must be cultivated and nurtured.
320 pages, Paperback
Published April 20, 2026
About the author
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
90 books146 followersGeir Thomas Hylland Eriksen was a Norwegian anthropologist known for his scholarly and popular writing on globalization, identity, ethnicity, and nationalism. He was Professor of Social Anthropology in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. He has previously served as the President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (2015–2016), as well as the Editor of Samtiden (1993–2001), Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift (1993–1997), the Journal of Peace Research, and Ethnos.
Hylland Eriksen was among the most prolific and highly cited anthropologists of his generation, and had been recognized for his remarkable success in bringing an anthropological perspective to a broader, non-academic audience. In Norway, Hylland Eriksen was a well-known public intellectual whose advocacy of diversity and cultural pluralism had earned both praise and scorn. Right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, cited Eriksen critically in his manifesto and during his 2012 trial.
In the academy and beyond, Hylland Eriksen had been highly decorated for his scholarship. He was the recipient of honorary degrees from Stockholm University (2011), the University of Copenhagen (2021), and Charles University in Prague (2021), as well as one of anthropology's most prestigious honors, the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography's Gold Medal (2022). He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
Hylland Eriksen was among the most prolific and highly cited anthropologists of his generation, and had been recognized for his remarkable success in bringing an anthropological perspective to a broader, non-academic audience. In Norway, Hylland Eriksen was a well-known public intellectual whose advocacy of diversity and cultural pluralism had earned both praise and scorn. Right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, cited Eriksen critically in his manifesto and during his 2012 trial.
In the academy and beyond, Hylland Eriksen had been highly decorated for his scholarship. He was the recipient of honorary degrees from Stockholm University (2011), the University of Copenhagen (2021), and Charles University in Prague (2021), as well as one of anthropology's most prestigious honors, the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography's Gold Medal (2022). He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
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