Globalization and Development: Challenges and Opportunities for Sociocybernetics.

The article analyses the challenges and opportunities for sociocybernetics with increasing globalization and social development. The rapid consolidation of a new global economy and its impact upon social organization, political structures, and world cultures constitute one of the major issues in the social sciences today. Economic and social changes are well underway, led by the expansion of world markets, concentration of international financing, and a more powerful presence of transnational corporations. Global capitalism is generating, however, severe conditions of income inequality, new environmental risks, social conflicts, and challenges to world development. According to the author the social and political consequences of a single, powerful, and unregulated world market will be marked by increasing insecurity, poverty, and economic injustice. This article examines the major trends and characteristics of the globalization process and its impact on general conditions of social development. Special attention is given to the increasing concern about the consequences of globalization and patterns of uneven development in third world countries.