Books by Kevin (University of Melbourne) McDonald

This book, first published in 2000, explores the relationship between experiences of selfhood and patterns of social life. It does so through an encounter with young people who confront urgent social and cultural transformations, whose experience of selfhood is unclear, often shaped by social forces that while powerful, appear difficult, if not impossible to name. These young people live in a world where institutions are weakening and identities fragmenting, where socialisation into roles is being replaced by imperatives of communication and self-esteem. Their world is shaped by different forms of freedom, but also by different forms of social polarisation and conflict. More than other social groups, young people confront the imperative of locating a sense of self and subjectivity, and this book is an account of this struggle in a context of profound social and cultural change.

Over the past decade we have witnessed the extraordinary rise of new global movements that throw into question the way we think about culture, power and action in a globalizing world. Examines three of the most significant global social movements of the last decade: anti-globalization, new Islamic movements, and the Falun Gong in China.