Globalisation

The word ‘globalisation’ first appeared in an advertisement for American Express Cards. It has come to represent a world where we observe an intimate connection both economically and socially into a dominating cultural totality. Against this pressure for unification is a backlash of localisation where each culture and subculture thrusts against its own extinction – what has been called identity politics. Western capitalism is ahead of this backlash with the concept of ‘glocalisation’ (originally a Japanese concept) where the control remains central but the impression is given that the local is the market’s major concern. With Neo-liberalism has come the rise of the notion that the Market is God – and globalisation today has a distinct neo-liberal flavour. Bishop Laurie’s international travel has informed his thinking and writing on this important subject – and his understanding is that we cannot understand either Globalisation nor Urbanisation today without appreciating how the one is dynamically interconnected to the other.


New York

Favela in Sao Paolo, Brazil


Addressing Urbanisation - A way forward for the Anglican Communion, September 2000

Addressing the Global City, Texas 2002

Urban Ministry in a Global Context, address at book launch of Urban Ministry and the Kingdom of God, SPCK, 2003

The Kingdom Vision, a talk given at the AGM of the Episcopal City Mission, Massachusetts, June 2005

Globalisation and Christian Living, a talk given at 'Wellspring 2005' in Kent