Global megatrends and the community

Abstract

An examination of the thesis of Asian megatrends as conceived of in the literature until recent times, is reviewed. Major ramifications within it, such as the role of Asian values, economic growth and development, a self‐reliant nationalism different from the West, and the rise of a human development concept, are critically examined. Yet the role of community as substantively defined in this paper, is found to have remained ignored in the study of major megatrends between the West and the East. This remiss in the study of human futures within a politico‐economic developmental context is argued to cause unsustainability of the megatrends paradigm. The projected decline of the Asian megatrends is shown to arise from its absence of an understanding of a ‘globally’ interactive, integrative and evolutionary process of understanding historical change. Within this new paradigm the epistemology of community is shown to play a much more substantive role than simply the pursuit of growth and development in the midst of capitalist globalism. Substantive methodological implications are shown to emanate from such a different view of studying megatrends in general. The concept of objective globalization is thereby derived.