Peter L. Berger

Some people seem to gravitate from one fundamentalism to another, from some kind of secular fundamentalism into a religious fundamentalism or the other way around, which is not very helpful.

The negative side to globalization is that it wipes out entire economic systems and in doing so wipes out the accompanying culture.

If the cultural elite has its way, the U.S. will be much more like Europe.

Our institute's agenda is relatively simple. We study the relationship between social-economic change and culture. By culture we mean beliefs, values and lifestyles. We cover a broad range of issues, and we work very internationally.

When certain branches of the economy become obsolete, as in the case of the steel industry, not only do jobs disappear, which is obviously a terrible social hardship, but certain cultures also disappear.

Some people think that as the Chinese economy becomes more and more capitalistic it will inevitably become more democratic.

In a market economy, however, the individual has some possibility of escaping from the power of the state.

But we don't have an example of a democratic society existing in a socialist economy - which is the only real alternative to capitalism in the modern world.