Conserving Cultures: Technology, Globalization, and the Future of Local Cultures [Paperback]

As the forests are felled, cultures are destroyed. In our technological civilization, the forces of globalization are a threat to both nature and culture. The many and varied cultures of the world are beset by the homogenizing impact of the global media, which represents the triumph of technics. The fate can only be averted by a concerted effort at culture conservation. Nature and culture must be protected to preserve a humanly habitable world. Conserving Cultures is the first book to link nature and culture conservation. The threat to nature is now well understood, how it relates to cultures is not. This book both describes and analyzes theoretically the danger to culture and proposes practical remedial measures.Harry Redner was formerly an endowed professor at Darmstadt University in Germany, and a reader at Monash University in Australia.

Part 1 1 What Is Global Culture?
Chapter 2 The Cultural Impact of Globalization
Chapter 3 Flight-Culture as a Premonition of the Future
Chapter 4 Americanization, or the Origins of Global Culture
Chapter 5 In Defense of Local Culture
Part 6 2 Why is Global Culture So Successful?
Chapter 7 The Economy of the Media: Supply and Demand
Chapter 8 Technology and the Media
Chapter 9 From Popular to Mass to Global Culture
Part 10 3 How Does Global Culture Differ from All Other Cultures?
Chapter 11 A General Theory of Culture
Chapter 12 Technics
Chapter 13 Technification of Representation
Chapter 14 Technification of the Ethos
Chapter 15 The Retreat from Technics
Part 16 4 What Are the Alternatives to Global Culture?
Chapter 17 Values and Their Enemies
Chapter 18 Values and Commodities
Chapter 19 Choosing Local Culture
Chapter 20 Resisting Global Culture
Chapter 21 Toward an Eco-Cultural Balance
Part 22 Epilogue
Part 23 Endnotes