Globalization and Multicultural Societies: Some Views from Europe

This timely book offers a series of lively essays debating the topic of globalization―our increasingly integrated and interconnected world. Globalization and Multicultural Societies argues that the globalization process is a major catalyst in transforming contemporary society. Focusing primarily on Europe, this collection brings together writings by renowned intellectual, cultural, and political figures, such as Romano Prodi, Pierre Boulez, Jacky Mamou, and Franco Modigliani, that reflect on the key features and problems of globalization. Essays range across broad topics, including multinational corporations, technology, the arts, science, information flow, finance, unemployment, and the environment.

Part 1 of the book is devoted to an analysis of contemporary society’s evolution toward globalization. Part 2 focuses on the restructuring of the systems that produce and distribute goods and services around the world. Part 3 explores the effect of globalization on culture. Taken in their entirety, these essays offer a deeply and meaningfully multidisciplinary volume in which each piece contrasts and contextualizes the other. As most of the contributors are European, the text also offers a fascinating snapshot of contemporary European consciousness, and reveals how much of a “great experiment” the European Union really is.

This significant book makes a timely and learned contribution to the debates over globalization that are currently raging not only in the academy, but also on the nightly news and in daily political life. It will appeal to anyone who wishes to better understand the evolution of the world in which we live.

Contributors: Ilya Prigogine, Franco Modigliani, Peter Eichhorn, Taïeb Hafsi, Ernst-Moritz Lipp, Horst Steinmann, Andreas Schere, Dario Velo, Philippe de Woot, Romano Prodi, Emilio Gabaglio, Mihail Papyannakis, Jacky Mamou, Photis Nanopoulos, Alexandre Kiss, Dinah Shelton, Elisabeth Sledziewski, Pierre Boulez, Sergio Escobar, Davide Paolini, Jacques Marescaux, Marina Ricciardelli, and Sabine Urban.

Marina Ricciardelli teaches political economics and monetary economics at the University “La Sapienza” in Rome and at the University of L’Aquila.

Sabine Urban is professor emeritus at the Université Robert Schuman in Strasbourg, France and former director of the CESAG-IECS Research Center with which it is affiliated.

Kostas Nanopoulos is assistant professor at the Université Robert Schuman in Strasbourg, France.