Globalization, Technology, and Philosophy

Abstract

Globalization, Technology, and Philosophy, David Tabachnick and Toivo Koivukoski, eds., Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004, pp. vi, 251.Technology is an underlying cause, probably the chief underlying cause, of the complex phenomenon of globalization. That much is virtually axiomatic among globalization theorists and social scientists generally. From at least early modernity to the present, global flows of people, commodities, ideas and information have expanded, and sped up. In recent times, trans-border social networks and international governance have become increasingly important. Political decision making is increasingly directed at management of the planet as a whole; the world of politics is increasingly Earth. All of these aspects of globalization (and others besides) depend on the development and deployment of technologies, and on the development and deployment of technoscientific knowledge.