Writing Future Worlds

"From the 'end of history' to the 'clash of civilizations', popular scenarios conceived by scholars and journalists have in the past decades stimulated the imagination of contemporary societies as much as they have revealed their anxieties. With his uniquely elegant style and subtle irony, Ulf Hannerz offers a penetrating anthropological reflection on this singular anticipatory genre that simplifies and dramatizes the representation of global tensions. Multiplying examples and crossing perspectives, he proposes an indispensable critical analysis of the way in which our worldviews are shaped." (Didier Fassin, Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA) "With characteristically laconic but amiable barbs, Ulf Hannerz probes and dissects the generalizations about culture emanating from the 'pundits' - those self-appointed, often academically respectable experts on the cultural and political future of the globe, many of them American or focused on America's role, who variously pontificate about the imminent dissolution of the-world-as-we-know-it. Hannerz, a seasoned ethnographer with a pragmatic global vision grounded in the direct experience that many of the pundits lack, both recognizes their skill at dominating public debate and provides an effective antidote to the dangerous moral and cultural panic that their anthropologically naive thinking represents (and often triggers). This book deserves greater and longer-lasting prominence than those with which it engages." (Michael Herzfeld, Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University, USA)

A number of these key concepts—‘the end of history,’ ‘the clash of civilizations,’ ‘the coming anarchy,’ ‘the world is flat,’ ‘soft power,’ ‘the post-American century’—suggest what could become characteristic of this new, interconnected world.This volume presents a comprehensive analysis of global future scenarios and their impact on a growing, shared culture. Ever since the end of the Cold War, a diverse range of future concepts has emerged in various areas of academia—and even in popular journalism. A number of these key concepts—‘the end of history,’ ‘the clash of civilizations,’ ‘the coming anarchy,’ ‘the world is flat,’ ‘soft power,’ ‘the post-American century’—suggest what could become characteristic of this new, interconnected world. Ulf Hannerz scrutinizes these ideas, considers their legacy, and suggests further dialogue between authors of the ‘American scenario’ and commentators elsewhere.