PUBLIC-LIFE AND GLOBALIZATION AS CULTURAL VISION

This article explores the social implications of globalization as cult ural vision. Discussion bears upon the tension between the discourse o f globality and local priorities, of individual rights and public comm itments, and upon the problems of finding new ways for grounding ident ities as territorial state boundaries are weakened and the ideas of pr ogress, modernity and evolutionary perspectives are eroded as part of a process of change initiated in the developed and hegemonic settings of the world system. It is claimed that these tensions and problems re main a crucial aids of political debate. It is suggested that differen t patterns of participation meld in manifold ways into recreated forms of political will and varied interpretations of social claims on and rights to affect the shaping of public life at the turn of the century .