The Culture of Strangers

The Culture of Strangers explores the relationship between the development of commercial societies and cultural values. Using a phenomenological approach, G. Eric Hansen presents an evolutionary model of social development, which describes the ways in which economic relations and values interactively change as societies evolve in terms of such elements as demography and technology. Using the insights of the social sciences and history in particular, Hansen proposes that the development of commercial societies and market values relate to the parallel development of other key cultural values. He holds that only Western societies have fully developed these commercial values and attributes of personality and that the forces of globalization have advanced and advantaged these societies while disadvantaging others.