Program Leader: Prof. Manfred Steger
Program Manager: Mr Peter Phipps

Here we are concerned to understand the intensification and expansion of cultural flows through globalizing cities and their regions, with a particular emphasis on the current transformation of ideologies, urban spaces, civil society, religion and the arts. This program is driven by the need to understand the impact of globalization on cities in a comprehensive sense, but with an emphasis on the cultural-political outcomes. It is concerned with the fundamental question of how processes of urbanized globalization—in particular, the intensification and expansion of cultural flows through globalizing cities—are transforming the meanings and experiences of culture for the peoples of this region. These global urban processes highlight the challenges of human security, community resilience and cultural and environmental sustainability. One of the key themes of this program will be the culture of civil society. The vibrancy of this sphere is based upon two essential conditions: the free circulation of ideas and opinions (the diversity of ideologies) and the existence of ‘civic’ spaces (parks, open markets, community halls, etc.) within which cultural practices and identities can arise through inclusion and tolerance. With the intensification of globalization, however, both ideological variety and civic space have been severely reduced, limited or colonized. The rise of a dominant ideology (that is, globalism) extolling the virtues of the unhampered market and limitless consumption went hand in hand with the rapid commodification of civic space in the world’s major cities. Yet at the same time, globalism promises democracy and greater freedoms. Rethinking this basic contradiction between the promise of globalism and the problems of ideological homogenization and the related phenomenon of dwindling civic space in urban landscapes lies at the heart of this research theme.