Beyond Globalization: Making New Worlds in Media, Art, and Social Practices

Does living in a globally networked society mean that we are moving toward a single, homogenous world culture? Or, are we headed for clashes between center and periphery, imperial and subaltern, Western and non-Western, First and Third World? The interdisciplinary essays in Beyond Globalization present us with another possibility—that new media will lead to new kinds of “worldmaking.”

This provocative volume brings together the best new work of scholars within such diverse fields as history, sociology, anthropology, film, media studies, and art. Whether examining the inauguration of a virtual community on the website Second Life or investigating the appropriation of biotechnology for transgenic art, this collection highlights how mediated practices have become integral to global culture; how social practices have emerged out of computer-related industries; how contemporary apocalyptic narratives reflect the anxieties of a U.S. culture facing global challenges; and how design, play, and technology help us understand the histories and ideals
behind the digital architectures that mediate our everyday actions.

A. ANEESH is an associate professor of sociology and global studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and the author of Virtual Migration: The Programming of Globalization.

LANE HALL is a professor in the department of English at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. His work examines digital art and culture, procedural and experimental literature, and the history of the book.

PATRICE PETRO is a professor of English and film studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She is past president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and has written and edited numerous books, including Idols of Modernity: Movie Stars of the 1920s, Rethinking Global Security: Media, Popular Culture, and the War on Terror, and Global Currents: Media and Technology Now (all published by Rutgers University Press).