[.uk] Grassroots Post-Modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures (ISBN 1856495469)

Book Description:
This remarkable book draws its inspiration from what its authors describe as the post-modern epic now unfolding at the grassroots. It portrays the ways in which the world's social majorities are now escaping from the monoculture of a single global civilization and regenerating their own cultural and natural spaces. In so doing, they are challenging the three sacred cows of modernity--the idea, entrenched in globalization, that there is only one, universally valid way of understanding social reality; the exclusive and general validity of Western-defined notions of human; and the notion of the self-sufficient individual, as opposed to people-in-community, which has grotesquely transformed how we see the human condition. This is quite simply, a book which will transform how one sees the world--North and South.

An introduction to alternative thought on grassroots culture:
Esteva and Prakash provide sources of alternative thought about what is important in and of the world. The book offers evidence of how grassroots cultures in non-western nations are combining people interests with environmental interests to assure a future for their cultures. The book gives support to the idea that technological development is not inevitable, but a choice that may be much easier for non-western nations to make. Additionally, the authors offer food for thought for rural sustainable community development in the U. S.

A must read:
A must read for individuals that want to understand the new social movements occurring within our times; the writers describe stylistically the rift that is widening on the issue of globalization in our world, and more specifically Mexico. The thesis is that the Zapatista movement is justified, but it goes beyond the normal rhetoric; this book is not meant to be taken as the only source of wisdom on the subject but it does help see beyond our economic goggles. An analysis based on sustainable development, cultural upheaval, and anti-globalization stance. For so long have viewed the world through the confined bifocals of economic language and hearsay, this book allows us to venture beyond certain overdrawn arguments and back to some more personal and basic arguments that we sometimes have forgotten the validity of. I haven't rated the book with five stars, for I believe its usage of language at times to be fairly abusive and pompous.