Review article

ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES AS CULTURAL CHALLENGES

Rade Kalanj ; Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb

Abstract

The paper sets out from the standpoint that environmental challenges standing before all modern societies, and before the world on the whole, should be regarded as cultural challenges. That approach to the issue is especially relevant for the societies in transition inasmuch as they aspire to avoid the defectiveness of the traditional conception of modernization. In this context, the thesis is put forward that solving of essential development issues in the period of environmental crisis and shift in relation to nature has to confront three large cultural challenges: the globalization–communication challenge, the challenge of identity, and the challenge of transitional modernization. The globalization changes spatial and temporal perception of societies and social actors due to development projections, the identity appears as "lost" and "re–found" subject of development, the transitional modernization makes topical "old" issues of equality and freedom, regulation and market, and the communication challenge suggests completely new forms of sociability, interaction and action. From this follows that "cultural transcription" of environmental paradigm is the broadest explication framework for understanding the complexity of development, and that this view of development (and transition) holds a significant place in modern sociology.

Keywords

autonomy; complexity; globalization; identity; modernization; sociability; transitional; modernization

Hrčak ID:

141439

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/141439

Publication date:

15.4.1996.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

Visits: 1.312 *