Introduction

Abstract

This book re-thinks the goals and practices of psychology in an age of disruptive globalization. At the beginning of this new millennium, after hundreds of years of colonialism and neocolonialism, we cannot escape the disturbing fact that we live in a world where more than a billion people lack sufficient shelter, food, and clean water; where lakes, rivers, and top soils are dying; and where cultures clash and war, genocide, and acts of terrorism seem ordinary. Transnational corporations with vast reach and power control land, media, economies, and elections. Their policies are decided away from public view, in national and international arenas where the super-rich and super-armed preside. Economic globalization undermines much that is local and personal, affecting possibilities for housing, jobs, cultural expression, and self-governance. Such globalization has created a tidal wave of displacement, undermining families, neighborhoods, and cultures. Many who fear these changes blame newcomers and outsiders, reverting to xenophobic and nostalgic narratives, imagining a simpler and “purer” prior history.