East-West Identities: Globalization, Localization, and Hybridization

While the economic forces shaping globalization are powerful and seemingly getting stronger, they are not immutable, nor are their effects predictable or necessarily overwhelming. Contributors to this book are optimistic that the socio-cultural formations of the future, such as cultural hybridity and cosmopolitanism, will be a viable option for constructing new or renewed global communities of migrants around the world. It is with these tools that migrants are best equipped to navigate the raging torrents of globalization in the new millennium of a post-postmodern era. Globalization brings with it a fear, a sense of loss and demise. It also brings with it a new sense of opportunity and hope. It is in this spirit that this book should be read.