Abstract. New phenomena, processes and trends develop in the globalizing world after the end of the “Cold War”, which, if considered beyond the purely political context of the events, marks the transition from „massive industrial” to “post-industrial information” society. Many of them seem inexplicable from the pepective of the old concepts and explanatory diagrams offered by the humanitarian, social, and economic sciences. Their in-depth understanding is an urgent task of the present. This paper aims to explicate some of the theoretical premises for the study of the new dimensions of the contemporary global situation in terms of the changing relation towards the Western civilization.
Key words: globalization, social values, cultural norms, civilization process, progress. Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 21, January 2016, rhetoric.bg/, journal.rhetoric.bg, ISSN 1314-4464