Programmes
General Introduction
If, as Eric Hobsbawm believed, the 20th Century was the 'Age of Extremes', no one can predict, only a decade into the 21st Century, what forces will shape the coming age. However, it is already possible to discern some trends that may become increasingly important.
The earth's climate is changing, and the evidence indicates that human activities are driving up temperatures. How will a hotter world affect our global neighbours? Will we - the minority living in so-called 'developed' countries - be able to break our addictions to carbon and consumption, and move over to a cleaner, more sustainable way of life?
The global economy is changing too, with the centre of gravity shifting eastward. China has already become the second largest economy in the world, and looks likely to surpass the US within a few decades. From the headlines in western media, it may seem that this should be a matter of concern; but if we take time to learn a little more we may find that there is much more to China than meets the eye.
In a similar vein, other powers - Latin America and India, for instance - seem likely to rise to prominence in the years to come. Even in Africa, long regarded as something of a 'lost continent', there are new forces at work, not least heavy investment from China.
Indeed as the UN pushes towards its Millennium Development Goals the developing world in general is changing: poverty is being reduced in some places, while crises loom elsewhere; the position of women is improving in some respects, if not in others; after a wave of democratisation, challenges to participatory politics are rising again.
In this series we will begin to examine these and related issues in an attempt to learn both about life in The Next Village, and about our changing place in the new global neighbourhood.