Global, universal, common

three notions for a socio-cultural renewal

Francesco Botturi

pp. 233-254

in: Mauro Magatti (ed), The crisis conundrum, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

Global, universal, common, are the notions semantically clarified in this chapter. Widely used in contemporary discourse on public affairs, each of these terms is carrier—perhaps unwittingly—of influential anthropological, social and political conceptions. Facing the crisis requires criticism to the identification of global and universal, because the general "globe" of technologies is not at all equal to the universal "world" of the human, the world of identities and relations. The essential issues of a renewal therefore concern the relation between technocracy and democracy, the need for community, the authentic nature of being in common, the concrete universality of the community, commons and common good.