The book argues that a new conceptualization of 'the global' and 'the planet' requires input from African and Asian language cultures.

Bo Stråth is professor emeritus. He was Professor of Nordic, European and World History at the Helsinki University (2007-2014), Professor of Contemporary History at the European University Institute, Florence (1997-2007), and Professor of History at the Gothenburg University (1991-1997). He is the author of The Brandt Commission and the Multinationals. Planetary Perspectives (Routledge, 2023), Europe's Utopias of Peace: 1815, 1919, 1951 (2015) and co-author of A Brief History of Political Economy (2016) and European Modernity: A Global Approach (2017).

1. Introduction 2. Ujamaa: evasive and elusive African socialism 3. The translation of the unwritten: ubuntu as religion, as law and as politics 4. Epilogue: can we learn from ujamaa and ubuntu?