RETHINKING SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION: Criticism and Creativity at the Turn of the Millennium

At the turn of the new century and the new millennium, we are confronted with an unprecedented challenge of rethinking the meaning and method of social transformation. The familiar models of and routes to it such as socialism and modernization do not help us come to terms with changes taking place in self and society. The present volume undertakes such a task and explores the implications of rethinking social transformation in various domains of our lives, viz., education, politics, religion, spirituality, social movements and cultural criticism. Sixteen outstanding scholars from different vocations and disciplinary backgrounds have discussed different dimensions of contemporary transformations and have suggested new pathways of criticism and creativity. They draw our attention to both socio-political and socio-spiritual struggles and urge us to realize that social transformation involves both structural transformation and self-transformation.

The book speaks to a wide readership of students of social theory and cultural transformation and would be of interest not only to scholars in such diverse fields as sociology, anthropology, philosophy, political science, history, literature, and cultural studies but also to activists in voluntary organizations and social movements and to seeking souls everywhere in the world.

Ananta Kumar Giri is currently on the faculty of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai and has an abiding interest in contemporary processes of social and spiritual transformations. He has also been a visiting fellow at International Social Science Institute, The University of Edinburgh; MSH, Paris; and International Institute of Asian Studies, Amsterdam. He is a prolific writer and has published widely in many reputed national and international journals.