People, A Global Agenda discusses the social impact of global transformations. A collaborative effort of more than fifty thinkers from countries throughout the world, the book contains specific proposals intended to address several of the major problems afflicting virtually every country today. The crises confronted by the contributors include poverty, unemployment, and social disintegration.

Part One examines the need for a shift in our understanding of security from a political to a human sense of the term. Contributors devise strategies for improving human living conditions, and propose new frameworks of development cooperation and new patterns of global governance in order to enhance human security.

Part Two highlights the impact of poverty in political, economic, social, and environmental terms. The character of unemployment, under-employment, low-productive employment, and the new phenomenon of jobless growth at the turn of the 21st century forms the heart of Part Three. The selections seek to delineate measures, at both the state and market level, for the expansion of productive employment and sustainable livelihoods, and for the role of new technology in this endeavor.

Part Four examines the causes and impacts of the world's social disintegration and inequality, and advocates means by which social cohesion and justice can be enhanced.