A world beyond difference unpacks the globalization literature and offers a valuable critique: one that is forthright, yet balanced, and draws on the local work of ethnographers to counter relativist and globalist discourses. Presents a lively conceptual and historical map of how we think about the emerging sociopolitical world, and above all how we think politically about human cultural differences Interprets, criticizes, and frames responses to world culture. Draws from the work of recent major social theorists, comparing them to classical social theorists in an instructive manner Grounds critique of theory in years of ethnographic research.