Silent String

Abstract

The study of global society opens up spaces beyond those inhabited by states. Globality points to civil-society groups and individuals, and to ethnicities and identities other than those associated with nations;to images and representations of social worlds, and the normative discourses of actors on these;to markets and their interrelations with cultures;and to differing conceptions of governance. Natural systems interact in complex ways with societies and economies, and with the globalization factors transforming these. Understanding environments requires investigation of the forces of economic and cultural change in world society, and it leads back in turn to questions that capture a richer sense of the character of ecological processes.