Page - 49 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

49 | www.limina-graz.eu ples would remain forever subjugated to powerful outside sources by the way their very thinking about themselves was changed by the colonizers (Gruzinski 1988). Second, the outcome of the global and the local encounter would not lead to uniformity, but rather greater plurality. This hyperdifferentiation of cul- tures—something first described most effectively by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (Luhmann 1987)—resulted in the formation of homoge- neous subcultures where, in the networks of social communication, people seek out like-minded others with whom to interact rather than interacting with those in their immediate physical vicinity. Today, this is most obvious in where people choose to get their news and opinions in the media. People are less likely to seek out a spectrum of opinion, but rather tend to converge on sources with whom they already agree. The result is not more widely shared opinion; what ensues in its stead are enclaves that do not commu- nicate with each other. This second decade of globalization saw the outworking of some of the consequences of the first decade described above. Advocates of a new full- er human order continued to look for further opportunity even as oppo- nents of globalization saw it as the new face of a familiar colonization. The hopes of the advocates for greater unity were met by the pluralization and complication of society. But it also saw some notable advances. Within just three decades, some four hundred million people were lifted out of poverty in China alone. The number of people living in absolute poverty decreased. And some of the United Nations Millennium Goals to end poverty and illit- eracy were met in some measure. But the fears expressed by globalization’s opponents also became ever more realized. While significant percentages of people were lifted out of dire poverty, those left behind drifted even further away from any improvement in their circumstances. Growing in- equality belied the promise of universal prosperity. The lower edges of the middle ranks of society in industrialized countries experienced economic stagnation and diminishment of their status. robert J. schreiter | Globalization and Plural theologies The encounter of the global and the local turned out to bring hybridity or hyperdifferentiation rather than a new homogeneity. Globalization indeniably brought some notable advances. But the fears expressed by its opponents also became ever more realized.