Conceptualizing the World

<p> What is-and what was-the world? Though often treated as interchangeable with the ongoing and inexorable progress of globalization concepts of world globe or earth instead suggest something limited and absolute. This innovative and interdisciplinary volume concerns itself with this central paradox: that the complex heterogeneous and purportedly transhistorical dynamics of globalization have given rise to the idea and reality of a finite-and thus vulnerable-world. Through studies of illuminating historical moments that range from antiquity to the era of Google Earth each contribution helps to trace the emergence of the world in multitudinous representations practices and human experiences.</p>