impressive that this was written more than 10 years ago. the author says that the 21st century is a word where people think of themselves as players instead of workers and prefer others to think of them as creative rather than industrious. it's a world where people have grown up in a world of just in time employment and are used to being on temporary assignment. their lives are mobile and less grounded. they are therapeutic than ideological and think more in tearms of images rather than words. they are less analytical and more emotive. they think of disney world and club med as the real thing and regard the shopping mall as the public square. and equate consumer sovereignty with democracy. (p.187)
you must read this book till the end. the end is what the author really wants to say. and that is local culture is the most important . in communities and countries that have a strong well developed third sector, capitalist markets thrive. market is the first sector. second sector is government and third sector is community. third sector means churches, secular institutions, civic associatons, fraternal organizations, sports clubs, art groups, NGOs. thus the third sector needs to be strong if any market or gov. should thrive. I think i knew this subconsiously and this is why i work in this sector. But to have a scholar point this out was like being hit by lightening.
I think korea is just moving aside from the industrial era to the era of access. where property does not matter but culture does. that's why we need to focus more on grassroots level development.
the right not to be excluded - the right to access - becomes more and more important. inclusion and access rather than autonomy and ownership become the more important tests of one's personal freedom(240)
without social trust and empathy we cannot maintain commerce and trade. the 21st century is about preserving that social trust and empathy. civil education is an essential tool in reestablishing a balanced ecology bet.ween culture and commerce(255)
Mahatma Gandhi expressed " I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any." (259)