> RUNAWAY WORLD PROFESSOR ANTHONY GIDDENS > The Reith Lectures > > In April BBC is doing a 5 week-series called RUNAWAY WORLD, starting off >with the subject of globilization. > This year's lectures are also the first to be carried on a dedicated >website. People around the world can join in the debate on the impact of >globalisation by e-mailing their comments. > >See http://www.bbc.co.uk/reith99 for details. > The e-mail interaction already (March 15) contains 115 pages of e-mails >on the subject. --- at > http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_99/email.htm > =============== > > > >BBC World Service > 1 (Globalisation) Sat April 10 21.01 GMT Sun April 11 06.01 GMT > 2 (Risk) Sat April 17 21.01 GMT Sun April 18 06.01 GMT > 3 (Tradition) Sat April 24 21.01 GMT Sun April 25 06.01 GMT > 4 (Family) Sat May 1 21.01 GMT Sun May 2 06.01 GMT > 5 (Democracy) Sat May 8 21.01 GMT Sun May 9 06.01 GMT > >================================================= >RUNAWAY WORLD - 5 "Reith" Letures on the BBC > > > INTERVIEW with Professor Anthony Giddens > > European, North or South American, African or Asian - wherever we live, >whatever our upbringing, we are all children of a revolution. > >It's not been a bloody uprising, nor an entirely peaceful, "velvet" >revolution, says Professor Anthony Giddens. If anything, it's been a >largely invisible overthrow of the old order. > >The revolution to which he refers is that of globalisation - the topic at >the core of this year's BBC Reith Lectures, entitled Runaway World. > >At the root of this change is the "expansion of communications systems >around the world". > >"This is the first time at which you can have instantaneous communication >across the world. That simply changes the nature of people's lives," says >Mr Giddens. > >"When the image of Nelson Mandela is more familiar to you than the image >of your next door neighbour there's something different in the world," he >says, neatly condensing the unwieldy issue into a sentence. > >Name-checking the South African president also serves to reinforce his >view that globalisation is not merely a western concept. Crucially, in >fact, no one person or country, not even Bill Clinton or the United >States, has overall control. That can make globalisation a highly >liberating force. > >"There was a period for a couple of hundred years when the world was >dominated by the West. In the last 20 or 30 years this has changed." > >While the West may still have the upper hand when it comes to influence, >through television, international trade policies, currency exchange and >the Internet for example, other regions are fast catching up. > >Critics will accuse Mr Giddens of revisiting an already well-trodden path, >yet he takes the globalisation debate further than before, drawing a >number of controversial conclusions. > >Chief among them is the effect on our personal lives. Globalisation is >more than world money markets since it influences our perceptions of >tradition and day-to-day family life, offers up new challenges to our >emotions and raises new uncertainties. > >While institutions such as marriage remain, they have become "shell >institutions" in a process of flux. They are not necessarily redundant but >instead are being redefined. > >"Marriage used to be an economic phenomenon, now it's a matter of personal >relationships." It means the emotional stakes in finding a partner for >life are that much higher. > >So while a modern marriage can be more rewarding in terms of love shared, >fragile emotions bring new anxieties that were alien to previous >generations. > >It's a similar story with children, who fulfil more of a "feel good" role >in families than in the past. > >"In many parts of the world still, and also historically, people wanted >quite a lot of children because [they] helped with working on the farm or >in the family business. > >"Now in western countries, and I feel this will be an increasing trend >across the world, there are much smaller families. With that comes the >idea that children are a prized possession because now it costs money to >have children so in a certain sense you love them much more." > >This prizing of children has translated into law so that "children have >far more rights" which means "they are going to talk back to you". > >It might scare some parents, but he likes the idea. "Children should speak >back to their parents." > >His views are bound to court controversy, nowhere more than in the field >of tradition. > >He questions the idea that tradition is mostly "dogma" constructed by >opponents of progress. But all across the world, he says, tradition is >under strain largely as a consequence of the globalising process. The >decline of tradition is closely related to the growth of fundamentalism. >"One of the most dangerous things in the world is the rise of different >kinds of fundamentalist views. It is an embattled defence of tradition; a >reinvention of tradition in a global world." > >In Giddens's world tradition is largely redundant, although he does see a >purpose in the pragmatic customs of government. > >"You can't live without the influence of the past. You could not have a >consistent government in society if you do not have some trappings of >ceremonial. > >"The question is how do you limit fundamentalism and still sustain a >cosmopolitan conversation between traditions?" > >The influence of globalisation on democracy has already been well >documented. The domino-like toppling of Eastern Europe's totalitarian >regimes came after television news footage motivated individuals to take >to the streets. > >Yet he will tell the assembled audience at his fifth and final Reith >lecture that global communications also threaten democracy. Citizens now >have access to more or less the same information as politicians, so >corruption or bad decision making has become easier to expose. > >Badly managed governments must therefore face up to an electorate that is >increasingly cynical about democratic power. > >It's a rich irony that the much-touted "democratising effect" of >globalisation could eventually strip democratic states of their liberties. > >"We are in the rudimentary stages of something like a world society. We >have to learn to live in that society. We have to learn its risks and >dangers, its opportunities and its contours." > >Without this awareness, today's young revolutionaries of globalisation may >turn out to be tomorrow's victims of an unforeseen, unquantifiable and >unwelcome force. > >MENU: > > LONDON > WEEK ONE > "We are the first generation of a global cosmopolitan society" > > > HONG KONG > WEEK TWO > "We simply don't know what the level of risk is. In many cases we > won't know until it is too late" > > > DELHI > WEEK THREE > "Everyday life is opening up from the hold of tradition and custom" > > > WASHINGTON DC > WEEK FOUR > "Among the changes going on in the world, none are more important than > in sexuality, relationships, marriage and the family." > > > LONDON > WEEK FIVE > "For democratic government to recover its legitimacy we need to > democratise democracy" > end ============== Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html The Year 2000 Bug - An Urgent Sustainability Issue http://www.peg.apc.org/~psutton/grin-y2k.htm
