「グローバリゼーション」を政治経済に留まらず、文化、環境、イデオロギーをも含む社会の多元的変容過程として論じる、シリーズきってのベストセラーです。主な用語や概念について簡潔な定義を提供するのみならず、グローバル化は善か悪かといった難問にも取り組みます。2023年改訂の第6版は、気候変動、パンデミック、ナショナリズムの復活、グローバル化するSNS、貿易戦争、中国の世界的地位向上、ロシアの拡張主義、核紛争の新たな恐怖といったトピックも盛り込み、かつてないグローバル化の加速と混乱を俯瞰します。
 

     
We live today in an interconnected world in which ordinary people can became instant online celebrities to millions of fans thousands of miles away, in which religious leaders can influence billions globally, in which humans are altering the climate and environment, in which new infectious diseases spread across continents at lightning speed, and in which complex social forces are increasingly impacted by digital technology. This is globalization.
   
In the sixth edition of his bestselling Very Short Introduction, Manfred B. Steger offers concise definitions of pertinent key terms and concepts. He provides an accessible overview of the long history of globalization followed by an examination of its major dimensions: economic, political, cultural, ideological, and ecological. He also engages the hotly contested question of whether it is, ultimately, a good or a bad thing. From climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic, resurgent nationalism to global social media, trade wars to China's growing global profile, Russia's expansionism to renewed fears of nuclear conflicts, he explores today's unprecedented levels of planetary integration and disruption.