This collection is a collaborative, international effort to reflect on a broad range of issues relating to globalization. Several encompassing themes are addressed. One central issue concerns ideals proper to the democratic nation-state and their relationship to a globalizing culture. A second theme is the tension between increasing needs for technical, ""Western"" education and the desire to maintain and enhance the cultural richness of ""local"" worlds. A third related theme is an attempt to understand the nature of modern technology and its relationship to the lifeworld and the lived worlds of indigenous peoples. Finally, discussions of globalization inevitably involve questions regarding the nature of history and human freedom. Is globalization a necessary force? Does human historical existence provide the resources for the free creation and preservation of other cultural worlds?
