The Cultural Imperative: Global Trends in the 21st Century

With the type of creative thinking he does so well, Lewis looks well into the twenty-first century and answers a question that is on the minds of everyone even remotely involved in international affairs: Can globalisation bring about the standardisation of values and modes of behaviour? Beginning with a broad sweep of history and the spread of culture throughout the world, Lewis then categorises cultures into three groups: linear-active, multi-active and reactive. We don't see our or others' cultures in such terms; we all wear cultural spectacles, glasses tinted with our biases that distort what we see. He explores China's long history of isolationism and proposes the dominant cultural values that he believes will sustain the country well into the future, predicting that the Pacific Rim will assume preeminence in the 21st century, and that the West is slowly adopting some Asian cultural values.