Book, For another globalization: from single thought to univ consc[LS]

Language: Brazilian Portuguese. "Now in a new edition, with a preface by Itamar Vieira Júnior, For another globalization deals with globalization as a fable and as perversity. For another globalization proposes to be an independent reflection on our time, on its material and political foundations, and a desire to explain the problems and pains of the current world. But, despite the difficulties of the present era, it also wants to be a message carrying objective reasons to continue living and fighting. Leaving aside the “copious lists of quotes” that generally characterize books that aim to study society's issues, Milton Santos directs this book to the common reader, who dispenses with the ceremonial obligation of references. The current nature of the book, first published in 2000, is present at all times. An example extracted from the author's introduction: "The central emphasis comes from the conviction of the role of ideology in the production, dissemination, reproduction and maintenance of current globalization. This role is also a novelty of our time. Hence the need to analyze its fundamental principles, pointing out its lines of weakness and strength. Our insistence on the role of ideology derives from our conviction that, given the same materials that currently exist, it is both possible to continue making the planet a hell, as we are witnessing in Brazil, and it is also feasible to do the opposite. Hence the relevance of politics, that is, the art of thinking about changes and creating the conditions to make them effective. In fact, the transformations that history has been showing lately allow us to glimpse the emergence of more promising situations. They may object to us that our belief in the change of man is unjustified. What if what’s changing is the world?” For Milton Santos, historical change will come from a bottom-up movement, with underdeveloped countries and not rich countries as the main actors; the disinherited and the poor and not the opulent; the liberated individual, part of the new masses and not the man in chains; free thought and not single speech. Current globalization will not be irreversible and universal history is just beginning. “[This book] is a chain of reflections that invites us to consider the possibility of a new world. Together, we can develop a feeling that I call engaged hope. It is the feeling that is found in the title of this work. The other globalization that Milton Santos evokes is a human globalization to be carried out in this popular period of history. The technical bases can be at the service of everyone's social and political foundations, and not just at the service of large corporations. Only in this way can we found a new history, based on a network of horizontal reciprocity that we know as solidarity. A globalization where indigenous philosophies and thoughts will not be suffocated by global capitalist rationalism.” – Itamar Vieira Júnior, in the preface to the new edition. "