From the most prominent thinkers in Latin American philosophy, literature, politics, and social science comes a challenge to conventional theories of globalization. The contributors to this volume imagine a discourse in which revolution is defined not as a temporalized march of progress or takeover of state power, but as a movement for local control that upholds standards of material conditions for human dignity. Essays on identity, equality, and ethics propose models of transcultural and intercultural relations that replace center/periphery or world-systems approaches; they impel us to focus on building dialogic relationships rather than on accommodating universalized paradigms. Ultimately suggesting a reconstruction of the world in terms of the interests of one of the peripheral regions of the world, Latin American Perspectives on Globalization argues with cogency and urgency that no one within contemporary globalization debates can afford to ignore the Latin American philosophical tradition.

Contributors originally presented their ideas for this book at the IV International Congress on the Intercultural Philosophy, held in Bangalore, India in September 2001. Participants from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America make the case that only by creating conditions of social justice and equality at the world level can we be guaranteed a free interaction in which cultures, without the fear of being colonized, can accept and promote from within a mutual transformation.