Four Global Trends: Rise and Limitations.

The world seems to be rushing into the state of a global risk-society. Is the diagnosis correct? What are the causes and reasons of the current tensions? What are the prospects? Four global trends are assumed to penetrate the new constellations of cooperation and conflict. The spreading of instrumental activism has its roots in the `conquer and dominate' philosophy of modern industrialism. It is trapped by its own expansion. Individualization is embodied in major evolutionary achievements. it is simultaneously the source of cultural and institutional imbalances. Modernity is marked by an accelerated upgrading of organizational rationality. The process brings about organizational pathologies as well. We witness a fast value-normative universalization. It is paralleled by symbolic and institutional particularizations. Managing these four inherently controversial trends is the major challenge to continuing modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]