The Global Age: State and Society Beyond Modernity

Many authors who discuss the idea of globalization see it ascontinuing pre-established paths of development of modernsocieties. Post-modernist writers, by contrast, have lost sight ofthe importance of historical narrative altogether. Martin Albrowargues that neither group is able to recognize the new era whichstares us in the face. A history of the present needs an explicitepochal theory to understand the transition to the Global Age.

When globality displaces modernity there is a general decenteringof state, government, economy, culture, and community. Albrow callsfor a recasting of the theory of such institutions and therelations between them. He finds an open potential for society torecover its abiding significance in the face of the decliningnation state. At the same time a new kind of citizenship isemerging.

This important book will provoke both radicals and conservatives.Its scholarship ranges widely across the social sciences andhumanities. It is bound to promote wide cross-disciplinary debate.