Chapter 2 contrasts these relatively rigid pathways of bureaucratic information-gathering with the novel pathways of communication that the newly founded Economic Society provided. It demonstrates how the Society built up a network of information exchange through correspondence, as well as the publication of a newspaper, the Gazeta de Guatemala. These networks were designed to extend the reach of the Society from urban contexts into rural ones and had an active purpose: members and their associates were exhorted to grow, collect, and harvest economically useful plants. Reports from members over two decades show that, on a small scale at least, this succeeded, leading to an exchange of useful plant material. The varied social position and geographical locations of the newspaper’s subscribers also made its pages an exceptional forum for debate, creating a nascent ‘public sphere’. The networks even extended beyond the Audiencia’s borders, placing Central America in a context of global economic botany and scholarship. One manifestation of the extension of the Society’s practical network was that a member imported a collection of ‘exotic’ plants and seeds from Sumatra and Jamaica, plants which were then grown and harvested in Central America with some success.

In his chapter Onuma Yasuaki stresses the need for introducing a transcivilization dimension in international law. This approach is based on a critique of international law and international order as shaped by Westerns ideas, values and interests. It amounts to envisioning a more pluralistic form of international order and international law. In the process, the objective is not to deny the importance of universality, including the universality of human rights, but to put in place a form of universalism that is more mindful of legitimate diversity.

Neera Chandhoke focuses on the question of secularism as an expression and a tool for the pursuit of justice. In the process, she reflects on how India came to borrow but adapt as well the notion of secularism, which initially emerged in the West. Chandhoke also alludes to the challenges associated with doing political theory and global political theory in a context that is dominated by Western ways of thinking and paradigms. Important for the future is to identify ways through which the problematization of justice, especially at the global level, would recognize and engineer greater agency to developing countries and their people.

Chapter 3 begins with Wang Hui sharing his experience as a professor at Tsinghua University and as an editor for the journal Dushu. Building on this the conversation explores the need to think about issues of justice in a way that is both pluralistic and mindful of the local conditions—historical, philosophical, economic—of each country. In addition, Wang Hui reflects on Chinese civilization and what the current rise of China could mean for the evolution of world order.