Civilizations and the twenty-first century: some theoretical considerations

Since the end of the Cold War, globalization has become the centralphenomenon in world politics. Civilizations, once geographically based,are now loosened from fixed space, as migration of peoples andof ideas has accelerated. A focus on the dimensions of intersubjectivitywill give some understanding both of differences among civilizationsand on transformations of civilizations. Attention is thus givento different forms of substantive economies, to historical dominanceand subordination of civilizations and to the reawakenings ofcultures; to what Sorokin called the sensate and ideationaltypes of consciousness and to different forms of spirituality,and to relative orientations toward time and space. Two propositionsare implicit in a concern for civilizations: (i) that thereare alternatives for the human future, and (ii) that if differentcivilizations do coexist, the problem of mutual comprehensionbecomes paramount for the maintenance of world order. The implicationsfor a research program are to study civil societies as the sourcesof intersubjective meanings, the maintenance of the biosphereas the basic material condition of existence of all civilizations,and world governance as the modus vivendi of a plural world.