"Paolo Perulli has written the type of book one will return to many times. And everytime we are likely to discover something we had overlooked. It is firmly rooted in a range of observations that are both familiar and surprising." (Saskia Sassen)

1989 and 2050 are two symbolic dates, and we are, by and large, equally distant from both. How will we survive the challenges that humanity has posed Earth? Will we be richer or poorer? Safer or more insecure? Will we have better lives, or worse? It depends on how we now attempt to amend the mistakes committed over the last thirty years of globalization. An opaque and irresponsible ruling class has put the Earth at risk and created an unprecedented global underclass opposed to a knowledgeable yet powerless creative class. Tomorrow’s planet could be made up of large continent-states linked to each other by fair trade practices and based on intelligent glocal communities. This book is a rallying call to plan this new world.

Paolo Perulli is an economic sociologist who has taught at the University of Piemonte Orientale. He has been visiting scholar at MIT, visiting professor at Université de Paris Sud and has taught Governance of the City at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio (Switzerland).