Contemporary Developments in World Culture

Abstract

World culture in the post-war era of rapid globalization is increasingly organized, rationalized, and ubiquitous. The core of world culture - rationalized science, technology, organization, professionalization, etc. - has been thoroughly institutionalized. For all kinds of actors, global principles and procedures for the production of identity, action, and progress have expanded. Ontologically, individualism has been rising rapidly while collective identities have also strengthened in some respects. Normatively, the global moral order has become increasingly organized and broadly activated, particularly in terms of the ideology of human rights. In a dualistic process, world culture generates both extensive homogenization and the legitimation of certain forms of difference. Though some countervailing forces are evident, world culture is likely to continue to become further codified, institutionalized, and consequential in coming decades.