Global village?

Member for

2 years

Global village?

Member for

2 years

It was in the 1960s that Canadian sociologist Marshall McLuhan coined the term ‘global village’. His idea was that media and technology enable the whole world to communicate directly as one big village. Sure, it was overly idealistic and has been disputed by others, but the ideal of connectedness stayed alive and Artificial Intelligence is making great steps to overcome language barriers.

ISS itself is an example of a global village. Small but highly international, we practice transnational and transcultural communication daily. And our alumni network is an even better example of connectedness across time and space. We have learned together the value of encounters with colleagues bringing entirely different perspectives, and we communicate through Zoom, Whatsapp, Facebook or whatever medium with our scattered community.

And yet, we live in a world where disconnections seem more powerful than connections. Fake news dominates our media, and social media is a source of connecting; but at the same time also of bullying and segregation. If anything, commercial parties have been more successful than anyone else in cashing in on those opportunities. The McDonaldization of the world has not brought more community but has in fact just become a new form of economic colonialism.

And politics. Ah, politics. Many countries, including the Netherlands, voted for right wing parties, effectively showing a transnational movement in which nationalistic sentiments are combined with rejection of whoever is ‘foreign’. Migrants are in many cases labelled as a risk to society, resulting in xenophobic policies and political claims, which in turn legitimizes new forms of racism, sexism and anti-LGBTI+ slurs.

Maybe that is in fact an unexpected but not unintelligible response to the same globalization that coined the term global village. If the world becomes so large and connected, the desire may grow to return to our villages that were comprehensible and more homogeneous. Global diversity may be enriching, it can also be confusing. And those most vulnerable to the economic consequences may easily be recruited for a nationalist agenda.

Probably the dream of one global village is gone. But the calling remains to build global connectedness as well as local rootedness. We are driven by the responsibility to live and work from the awareness of interconnectedness with the whole planet and its inhabitants. And we can only do so if we also feel at home in our village, wherever it may be.

Ruard Ganzevoort, Rector ISS

Global village?

Member for

2 years