ABSTRACT
The idea of civilization has made a return to the contemporary scene. What is noteworthy about the idea of civilization today is the emphasis on the plural: it is a matter of civilizations. The universalistic notion of civilization went into gradual decline over the last twenty years or so as a result of four major discourses, which can be summed up as discourses of civilizational mastery, civilizational hybridity, clashes of civilizations and civilizational cross-contamination.
