CULTURAL TRENDS, TROUBLES AND TRANSFORMATIONS - A GUIDE TO RECENT LITERATURE

Fragmentation is one of the hallmarks of our age. Not surprisingly, it also characterizes thinking about cultural trends (notably the drivin g force of globalization), cultural troubles (largely due to our infor mation-glutted society), and cultural transformations (both ongoing an d desired). These three broad and overlapping categories have seldom, if ever, been viewed together. A framework for thinking about cultural issues is provided here, largely as seen through American eyes, and l argely as concerns the USA, arguably the world's dominant cultural act or, for better and worse. It seeks to be a crude intellectual map for an important area that appears never to have been mapped. Judging from the extensive literature cited here, it is certainly time to make som e initial attempt at this taxonomic task.