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The battleground of the twenty-first century will pit fundamentalism against cosmopolitan tolerance. In a globalising world, where information and images are routinely transmitted across the globe, we are all regularly in contact with others who think differently, and live differently, from ourselves. Cosmopolitans welcome and embrace this cultural complexity. Fundamentalists find it disturbing and dangerous. Whether in the areas of religion, ethnic identity, or nationalism, they take refuge in a renewed and purified tradition--and, quite often, violence.Giddens is not coy about where he "We can legitimately hope that a cosmopolitan outlook will win out." In what is sure to be a controversial chapter, he examines sex and family life through the prism of this fundamentalist-cosmopolitan divide. He is severely critical of what he calls the "traditional family," which he considers an aspect of fundamentalism the world over and an enemy of sexual "I remember what my great aunt once said to me. She must have had one of the longest marriages of anyone, having been with her husband for over 60 years. She once confided that she had been deeply unhappy with him the whole of that time. In her day there was no escape." Runaway World is certain to provoke a lively debate--Giddens would surely have it no other way. --John J. Miller
163 pages
First published January 1, 1999
「失控的世界」談的是全球化的影響,只不過它是以社會學的觀點切入,畢竟全球化所影響到的層面本就不只有經濟活動,每一個人的生活層面或多或少都會受到這隻看不見的手所擾動,包括家庭、政治等,透過這樣一本書讓人可以用更全面的觀點來看待全球化這個議題。
書是薄薄的一本,只是也不知道是天氣太熱、題材太過嚴肅,抑或是翻譯翻得太差,雖然隱約可以了解作者想要表達的意思,然而在閱讀過程中始終無法從文字中接收到清楚的訊息,這也是讓我感到比較遺憾的地方。