The changes to which we are witness today are as complex as they are extensive and, in many respects, they are unprecedented in human history. In studying these developments, our particular focus is on the changing frameworks of meaning and moral order—the symbolic and structural frameworks within which individual life, institutional adaptation, and political conflict in the contemporary world take place. Our attention, then, is directed not to the passing trends or the artifacts of change but rather to what we call the “deep structures” of contemporary culture, to the way transformations at this largely tacit and constitutive level take concrete institutional form in the organization of public life, in the moral coordinates of people’s personal lives, and in the sources of meaning that define human flourishing.

No other scholarly center exists in the world for understanding the underlying movements of contemporary culture and its consequences for individuals and social life. Though in its infancy, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture is already modeling a new kind of intellectual engagement that is leading to new understandings and interpretations of our times. In doing so, the Institute seeks to provide resources to all who seek to understand better and engage more effectively the transforming world around us—a world that is as promising as it is perilous.