What is the world of the 21st century like now that the centralityof the West is no longer given? How were the societies and culturesof today's world together with their interconnections forged, andwhat is driving human society in our times? In short, what is thestate of the world today as we enter the second decade of the 21stcentury?This is the first book which deals with planetary human societyas whole. It is a beginner's guide to the world after the West andafter globalization, compact, portable, and jargon-free. It isaimed at everybody who, even with experience, has kept a beginner'scuriosity of the world, to everybody who does not know everythingthey want to know about it, about the good, the evil, and thesalvation of the world.* It lays bare the socio-cultural geology of the world, its majorcivilizations, its historical waves of globalization, itsfamily-sex-gender systems, and its pathways to modernity.* It outlines the dynamics of the world, its basic drives, thecontours of its most important global and sub-globalprocesses.* It presents the big team players on the world stage, populousas well as rich countries, missions and movements as wellcorporations and cities.* It traces the life-courses of men and women on all thecontinents, from their birth and childhood to their old age, andtheir funeral.

Prologue.Introduction: Humankind and Its World.I. Why We Are Who We Are: A Socio-Cultural Geology ofToday¿s World.The Rock of Civilizations.The Sinic.The Indic.The West Asia.The European.The sub-Saharan African.The Family-Sex-Gender Systems.Sediments of Six Waves of Globalization.Modernity and Its Pathways.A Humanity of Multi-Layered Cultural Agglomerations.II. World Dynamics: The Drivers of Humankind.Modes of Livelihood: The Down and Up of Capitalism, and theRest.Population Ecology and the Ending of Modern EcologicalEmancipation.The Ethnic and Religious Dynamic of Recognition and Respect.Politics of Collective Power: State Apotheosis.Culture: Modernism Globalized, Accelerated, and Chastened.Channels of Operation.Global Processes.1. Flows.Trade.Capital.People.Information.Matter.2.Global-national entanglements.3. Global Action.3. Global Action.National Processes.Performance.Population movements (demography).Distributions: Global, National, Sub-National.The Growth and Resilience of Nation- States.III. The Current World Stage.Scenography: the World Space.The big players.1. The Uneven Field of Nation-States.2. Corporations.3. Missions and Movements.IV. Our Time on Earth: Courses of Life.Birth and Survival.Childhood.Schooling.Labour.Youth: Sex and Culture.A Sexual Geography of the Young World.Marriage and the end of youth.Adulthood.Where to Live: The Urbanization of the World.Making A Living: Classes of Work.Class Formations of 21st Century Capitalism.Making A Living: The Rich and the Poor.Adult Enjoyment : Leisure and Consumption.The Ruling & the Non-Ruling Generation.Old age.Retirement and Pension.Living Arrangements.An Ideal 21st Century Life-Course.Death and After.Conclusion : How We Got Here, and Where Are We Going?How Did We Get Here?Where Are We Going?Notes.Bibliography.