1999-2000 director's lectures by Professor Lord Giddens
The Runaway World: Reith Lectures Revisited
The 1999-2000 Director's Lectures, held at the LSE, revisit the 'Runaway World'
of the the 1999 BBC Reith Lectures, continuing
the dialogue and taking it forward into the millennium.
'As we stand at the end of the twentieth century I suggest to you that rather
than a world of high organisation and predictability tightly within our control
it seems to be an erratic, dislocated world. If you like a runaway world. When
you look into the origins of this runaway world of uncertain possible futures
there's one great set of changes which lies behind these transformations, and
that is the impact of the phenomenon of globalisation. Globalisation is a single
term for a lot of paradoxical and contradictory changes. Rather than just
talking about greater global integration we should discuss basic shifts in the
way our world is and what it is like. These shifts do not just include changes
in the structures of the world, but changes in our own inner consciousness and
identity.'
