Living in a Global Village?

Living in a Global Village?


1. Felix Stalder – The Network Paradigm. Social Formations in the Age of Information

- The transformation of modern societies into the so-called network societies has implications for the society with all its sub-areas
- Integrated global networks differ from the physical world by constituting a “space of flows” - a virtuality with timeless time and placeless place
- The new societal logic of the Information Age question the primary identities of human beings

The transformation of the Industrial Era of modern times into the contemporary Information Age has lead to major social, economic, and political changes at the end of the last century. The sociologist Manuel Castells constitutes in his trilogy “The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture” of the late 1990s that we all have become part of the so-called NETWORK SOCIETY.
The new system which consists of a net of information, power, technology, and capital is characterized by the globalization of economy, technology, and communication as well as the parallel affirmation of identity as the source of meaning. The construction of this new kind of global society has been interrelatedly bound to the establishment of a new form of capitalism: the Network Enterprise - “an economy with the capacity to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale”. Workfields merely based upon network patterns have led to a shift in internal hierachies as well as in competition and cooperation across companies and made work tend towards individualization and unstable patterns of employment.
Observating this interdependence of these fundamental changes in progress convicted Castells that Net and Self stand in dialectical opposition towards each other – with the Net being the new organizational formations based on the networked communication media and the Self being the social and economic activities which tranform into dynamic networks. It is this interplay which results in the need for a deep reconfiguration of human life and experience.
“Since technology is society and society cannot be understood or represented without its technological tools” he is assured that social relations and technological innovation determine each other. In the same time, the way social groups define their identity shapes the institutions of society as “Identity-building itself is a dynamic motor in forming society.”
And it is the identity of every single person which is challenged and threatened by the new societal logic of our times: new social formations emerging and changing the established norms cause the need for a reposition and a reaffirmation of people´s identity. Biological and social primary identities have been questioned in recent years - and as not even the nation-state (which is facing a loss of sovereignty) does not function as identity-finder anymore – everybody is left alone to find his own place in the global society.
Castells calls integrated global networks “space of flows” which indicates its different to the physical world – the “space of places”. Inside the culture of real virtuality timeless time and placeless place have developed which means that time and space have become binary: something happens now or never, here or nowhere.
This signifies that the real world embedded in specific social, historical or regional contexts and the virtual world of organizations depending on flows and networks drift apart: “anything can happen at any time, it can happen very rapidly, and its sequence is independent from what goes on in the place where the effects are felt.” Therefore, organizations start to underlie a different logic than societies, a “structural schizophrenia” is developing.


2. Saskia Sassen – Digital Networks and the State

- Internet not only enhances democracy but creates limitations for the public as well
- Relationship of state to the Internet is highlighted by private digital networks trying to neutralize the state
- Embeddedness of digital networks helps maintain the form of distributed power

In studying our present theme “Living in a global village?” we have taken a close look at what Professor Saskia Sassen, a famous U.S. sociologist, considers to be of importance. On the one hand, Sassen points out that there is a confusion between privately owned digital networks and 'public' digital space which needs to be clarified. On the other hand the focus needs to be put on the possibilities of regulating the Internet.
When dealing with economic power and state power in the Internet, the first aspect to be presented is that the Internet cannot purely enhance democracy and freedom but instead even apply significant control and limitations on access. Firewalls and software development of identity verification are two such examples. This privatized and technologically based rule enforcement becomes an obstacle regarding the scrutiny of public law.
Furthermore, there is a growing resistance among non-elites of information against the commercialization of the Net, as they are strengthening their use of the Internet as a public platform to communicate which holds enormous political as well as civic potential.
Sassen now puts the spotlight on the relationship of state regulation and the Internet. The debate questions whether governance of the Internet is possible or not. In the view of the supporters, the Net is a global entity where a certain system of property rights is required, either coming from a transnational organization or being solely created through Internet practices. Opponents of Internet governance claim that the decentralized nature of the system makes external regulation ineffective. However, the majority consider the former to be the correct stance.
Much of the power to neutralize state sovereignty actually stems from private digital networks which possess unique forms of power supported by instantaneous transmission, interconnectivity and speed. Financial markets, for instance, concentrate power capable of influencing national government economic policies. In addition, financial markets are strong enough to set norms which the state then uses as criteria for 'proper' economic policy.
The embeddedness of digital networks in both a technical as well as social structure is of importance to help keep the form of distributed power. Private digital space exemplifies this embeddedness by forming massive concentrations of infrastructure as well as a complex interaction between conventional communications infrastructure and digitalization. The term "global cities" captures this uniqueness which leads us to view our present and future, at least for the time being, of seemingly paradoxically being a "global village" teeming with 'global cities'.
All in all, we can conclude that private digital space has a far greater impact on effecting national sovereignty than the Internet or public space in general has despite the State having several possibilities of exercising authority. The challenge for now rests in the lack of accountability and transparency in order for public law to guard legal and human rights.


3. Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi - The Global and the Local in International Communications

- Socio-economic development constitutes itself by being a self-chosen path
- Confusion of the terms local and national leads to the partially incorrect understanding of a ‘nation-state’
- Hybrid cultural forms are created by ‘active audiences’

In the article on hand Sreberny-Mohammadi focuses on the relationship and the “dynamic tension” between global and local values, attitudes and customs that are being confronted due to the effects globalization and the development towards a global network society have had on the international media industry. Based on the observation that, contrary to McLuhan’s concept of a “Global Village”, there has also been an increase in strong local-cultural identities and nationalisms, she emphasises the need to recognize the interplay in between the global and the local. The study of international communications has to analyse how global values and world-views, projected by foreign media content, are integrated into the set of local ones.
The text is a critique of recent paradigms in the field of international communications and particularly of that of “Cultural Imperialism”, a perspective concentrating on the dependency of developing countries on the Western world. Its main idea is that socio-economic development cannot be imposed onto a culture, but that it has to be a self-chosen path, which accords to the specific characteristics of the culture concerned. The import of media formats into third world countries supposedly impacts “cultural homogenization” and the loss of local indigenous cultures. However, Sreberny-Mohammadi argues that “human history is a history of cultural contact, influence and recombination”, hence that any culture is to a degree the product of exchange and conflict with other cultures. This naturally questions the meaning and appropriateness of the term “authenticity” if it is attributed to traditional cultures.
Moreover, it is indicated that the general understanding of the term “local” actually is that of “national”, and that this confusion leads to a generalization of diverse tribes to one collective (the nation-state), although the individual cultural components might actually contradict one another.
Sreberny-Mohammadi notes that the model of the “active audience” has not been considered by scholars so far. According to her, it must be acknowledged that mediated cultural content is not merely passively absorbed by the audience, but that it is processed through an individual selective reception and certain (possibly culturally determined) structures of interpretation. By means of this phenomenon, “´hybrid` cultural forms" such as new movie genres have evolved. The observation that foreign cultures portrayed through the media do not necessarily replace traditions from one’s own culture, but that rather a parallelism of objects and items from diverse cultures is witnessed, supports Sreberny-Mohammadi’s viewpoint.
It is the intention of Sreberny-Mohammadi to formulate a new paradigm that accounts for the local reactions to an increasingly globalizing media industry. Along with her, a new term in between “local” and “global” is required, which considers the role of the nation-state, its political structures and the way of policy-making, and which is the reference point for analyses of the dynamics in between the global and the local. This fourth perspective in the study of International Communications is referred to as “The Global in the Local, the Local in the Global”.


Synthesis - The Global Village

“After 3000 years of explosion, by means of fragmentary and mechanical technologies, the Western World is imploding. (…) As electronically contracted, the globe is no more than a village.” (Marshall McLuhan)

Digitalization, privatization, and the vanishing of time and space are central aspects of the overtaking globalization in modern society. The accelaration of economic development and the universal reach of the new technological means have led to the convergence of all cultures. However, does moving closer actually lead to the creation of a homogenous Global Village? Are there indivuals and collectives excluded from this development? Will the diversity of cultures fully fade away?

The discussions in response to the previous presentations had the following outcomes:

Despite Manuel Castells´ notion of the newly established network society, he nonetheless takes into consideration the negative aspects such as the exclusion of certain regions all over the world. As they have no access to information and the global networks they are referred to as “black holes of informational capitalism” and therefore form the so-called “Fourth World”. Not only do they not participate in the virtual world but they neither have the potential to ever become connected. Sreberny-Mohammadi refers to this issue by describing the selective expansion of the media industry that does not incorporate all regions (“global still does not mean universal”). However, according to her it is not simply about being “inside” or “outside” the interconnected society, but rather about how the integration into the global network affects and is affected by local values. In this, Sreberny-Mohammadi introduces the concept of “localization” as a contrary development. Castells sees another danger of networking in the effect that the new economy depends more and more on networks and flows causing the decrease of acting inside their social, historical or regional contexts. A virtual world is created which has no location in the real world – no responsibility for addressing the critical issues of the region and no bonding to the people is the result.
Sassen directs the globalization issue to the privatization of the internet and the impact it has regarding state sovereignty. The global capital market, for instance, forms such a concentration of power that it can dictate the economic policies of the state, therefore leading to a diminishing of political power. Sreberny-Mohammadi agrees that the political structures and policies of nation-states have to be focused on, as “local” cultures are often confused with nations that sometimes consist of numerous individual cultures. Most important of all according to Sassen, the private digital space interweaves with both the technical as well as societal structure meaning that interaction occurs between conventional communications infrastructure and digitalization. This leads to the notion of global cities as members interacting together to form one global village.
The discussion of Mohammadi´s text dealt with the question of whether we are moving towards a global homogenous culture and the rich cultural diversity found across the world will decrease, or whether new technologies and means of communication enable members of specific sub-cultures to connect and thereby promote the specialization or differentiation of cultures. On the one hand, it was argued that on the level of communicating, it is likely to expect a continuous standardization enabling a growing amount of people from all across the globe to join the network society. On the other hand, however, the human need of self-realization and of being different will prevent the extinction of traditional cultures and might even lead to the emergence of new (sub-)cultures that develop the way cultures have for centuries – through intercultural exchange, conflict and cooperation.

Valentin Priebus, Frank Stephenson, Alexandra Vogels