globalization aesthetic: anatomy of a trend

The who, what, where, when, why—and how—of the emerging aesthetic

Trade as a percentage of global GDP has been in decline since the financial crisis in 2007. Like so many drivers of change, the second order effects lagged showing up in culture. In 2025, the effects of de-globalization are impossible to ignore. Those who thought a more connected world was a foregone conclusion can no longer ignore that the arc of history is bending away from their preferences.

But the unprecedented pushback against cosmopolitanism doesn’t mean all is lost. It does however mean that globalization’s presumptive vision of the future is now firmly in the past.

Those who believe a better world is a more connected world will have to—in the word’s of Coldplay—go back to the start.

Find the trend diagnostic below: