Amid fears of terrorism, rising tides of xenophobia, and protests, John Keane explores the contradictory arguments and traces the historical origins, contemporary meanings and political potential of globalization. Defending the idea of a global civil society, Keane stresses the need for new democratic ways of living and demonstrates how it is linked with such developments as turbocapitalism, social movements and the political institutions of cosmocracy.
Keane’s provocative reflections in Global Civil Society? draw upon a variety of scholarly sources and offer a fresh perspective on contemporary political thinking and new global problems. John Keane was born in Australia and educated at the Universities of Adelaide, Toronto and Cambridge. He is Professor of Politics at the University of Westminster. In 1989, he founded the Centre for the Study of Democracy. His most recent work is a study of power, Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts (Basic Books, 1999). His other books include Civil Society: Old Images, New Visions (Stanford, 1998), Democracy and Civil Society (Verso Books, 1998), Reflections on Violence (Verso Books, 1996), the prizewinning Tom Paine: A Political Life (Little Brown, 1995), and The Media and Democracy (Blackwell, 1991). He has been awarded many fellowships and research grants and has lectured throughout the world; he often appears on radio and television and is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement. Currently he is writing a full-scale history of democracy.