CHALLENGES OF LIVING IN A

GLOBAL SOCIETY
Let’s begin with a prayer
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LION
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Identify different contributors to cultural diversity in our
society.
• Analyse the challenges we face living in a global village.
• Appreciate unity and harmony amid diversity.
• Recognize the importance of developing the solid
knowledge and skills of intercultural communication.
Introduction
● Our early ancestors lived in small villages
● They spent their lives mostly communicating through face to face
interactions with people who were much like themselves.
● Over the years, advances in transportation, improvements in
telecommunication technologies, increases in international business,
and political exchanges have brought strangers from different parts of
the world into face-to-face contact.
Marshall McLuhan
● Canadian Media Culture Analyst
● 1964 he coined the term ‘Global Village’
● Global Village was used to describe a world in which
communication technology, such as television, radio, and news
services, brings news and information to the most remote parts
of the world.
continuation..
McLuhan’s vision of a global village is no longer considered an abstract idea,
but a virtual certainty.
We can exchange ideas as easily and quickly with people across the world as
our ancestors did within the confines of their villages.
We form communities and societies, and we encounter people from different
cultures in business, at school, in public places, in our neighbourhood, and in
cyberspace.
Each encounter with new food, clothing, lifestyle, art, language, or practice
teaches us new things outside our ‘village’ culture.
For instance

We may wear clothes made in China,

purchase seafood from Thailand, dine out
with friends in an Italian restaurant, work at
a computer made in the United States, drive
a car manufactured in Japan – the list
goes on.
Globalization

is the process of increasing interconnectedness between societies,

so that events in one place of the world have more and deeper
effects on people and societies far away (Baylis and Smith,2001).
 Advanced technology and transport system
Today, we can watch and read about the same events at the same time, regardless
of time and space distance. With emails, social media, bulletin
Example: boards, satellites, fax and mobile phones,
we can
contact people anywhere and anytime. If
we want a more personal exchange,
Skype or video desktop
technology can bring a person at the
other end of the globe onto the computer
screen right in front of
us.
 is now a global phenomenon, allowing people from
all walks of life to post their profiles online and
communicate with other users across the world.

Voice-over-internet protocol (VOIP), one

of the fastest-growing internet technologies, allows
people to talk online as if they were on a landline
telephone.
 Instant messaging and texting messages and images by mobile phone can
carry visual messages, if an audio channel is inconvenient. The choices of
media to connect with other people anywhere and anytime are
multiplying.
 Advanced communication technologies also affect how we form
relationships with others.

In past centuries, social relationships typically were circumscribed by

how far one could walk (Martin and Nakayama,2001).
With each technological advance – the train, motor vehicle, telephone,
or the internet – social relationships have been transformed and
expanded manyfold.
 The internet has led to new ways of socializing that seem especially to attract
young people.

Whitty, Baker and Inman (2007) show that there are still the usual steps leading
to the establishment and development of a love relationship, when initiated on
the web meeting in specific online places, communicating online, and meeting
in real life are factors in successful and unsuccessful online-initiated
relationships.
 The idea of internet-based romantic relationships is gaining
popularity as the mobility of society increases.
Reason being is;
Advanced
● Inexpensive communication
● Similar to a conversation technologies make our
● Convenient
community more
culturally diverse than
● Quick ever before.
 Understanding
other cultures is a challenge we face
today, living in a global society.
If we consider that people with the same cultural background may experience
problems communicating with each other, we can appreciate more fully the
difficulties that people from different cultures may encounter when trying
to communicate.
Perspectives on Globalization
In the academic literature (Held and McGrew, 2007), there are three different perspectives on
globalization:

1. Globalist perspective

Globalists view globalization as an inevitable development.

2. Traditionalist perspective

Traditionalists argue that the significance of globalization as a new phase has been
exaggerated.

3. Transformationalist perspective.

Transformationalists contend that globalization represents a significant shift, but they

question the inevitability of its impacts.
Ongoing conflicts between globalists and sceptics
There is an ongoing conflict between two basic positions: globalists
and sceptics.
● Globalists emphasize the possibility of transnational media
systems and communication technology to create a global public
sphere.
● Sceptics stress the persistent national features of the news media,
and the continuing stability of the nation-state paradigm.
Global economy and business transactions
(CONTRIBUTORS TO CULTURAL DIVERSITY)
● Information and communication technologies (ICTs)
transform the potential reach and influence of our
economy and business transactions from a local to a
global level.
● Global transformation refers to the worldwide
economic and technological changes that influence
how people relate to one another (Cooper,
Calloway-Thomas and Simonds, 2007).
examples
● We are being multiculturalized every day.
● Our local market is as culturally diverse as the global
market.
● Cultural diversity brings many opportunities,
particularly in the economic realm, and helps to
make our society the cosmopolitan, dynamic and
exciting place it is today.
Conceptualizing ethnicity
● As is widely known, ‘ethnicity’ and ‘ethnic’ are derived
from the Greek ethnos, "nation," "people." Groups of
people from specific areas who share the same or similar
customs are ethnic groups.
● At the time of Homer (between 750 and 650 BC) the
term ethnos was applied to various large,
undifferentiated groups (warriors as well as bees and
birds) and meant something like ‘throng’ or ‘swarm’.
● According to Hutchinson and Smith, ethnicity is
named after a ‘human population with myths of
common ancestry, shared historical memories, one or
more elements of a common culture, a link with a
homeland and a sense of solidarity among at least
some of its members’.
Ethnicity as a management issue and resource
● There has been recognition for some time that the management
policies in international operations of multinational companies are
complex and complicated. This is not only due to diverse business or
product market strategies, but also because the political, economic,
social, legislative, and cultural environment varies between locations.
● Ethnicity is not only an issue which calls for ‘management’, but is
itself a potential managerial resource. Ethnicity is important for
organizations at both external (contextual) and internal (operational)
levels.
Mass migration and international exchange
(CONTRIBUTORS TO CULTURAL DIVERSITY)
● One of the most significant contributors to our multicultural
environment is the ever-increasing flow of people through
migration and international exchange.
● Migration increases cultural diversity in the composition of
populations for receiving countries, and contributes to social and
economic development both in the countries of origin and in the
countries of destination.
● Migrants move to their host countries for a variety of reasons,
including access to a better living environment or to give their
children a good education in an English-speaking country. Other
people intend to explore business opportunities unavailable in their
home country, while some migrate to seek refuge or political
protection.

● They are a significant contributor to the multicultural environment

of society today.
NECESSITY AND BENEFITS OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
• Multiculturalism
Behind the overt, visible symbols of cultural diversity is a complex and often
implicit concept of multiculturalism. At a descriptive level, multiculturalism can
be used to characterize a society with diverse cultures.

• Building intercultural understanding

The biggest benefit of accepting cultural differences is that cultural diversity
enriches each of us.

The biggest benefit of accepting cultural differences is that cultural diversity

enriches each of us.
Promoting international business exchange
The ‘International Business Trend Report’ produced in 1999
(Training and Development, 1999) identified three
competencies that are essential in the global workplace of the
twenty-first century: intercultural
communication skills, problem-solving ability, and global
leadership.
Facilitating cross-cultural adaptation
Cross-cultural adaptation has to be understood as a
manifestation of broader social trends that are not
confined to the experience of immigrants, but rather
as extending to many other kinds of associations and
networks as well as into cultural life at large.
 CASE STUDY
Migration and diversity in Australia
*Australia has become one of the most
culturally diverse countries in the world.

*In the eighteenth century, transported criminals

were the basis of the first migration from Europe.
Starting in 1788, some 160,000 convicts were shipped
to the Australian colonies.
*The myth of ‘terra nullius’, or empty land,
encouraged immigration, and many people in the
indigenous population were pushed from their
traditional territory to cede the land,willing or not,
with the newcomers.
*More restricted immigration began by the 1880s, at
the start of the movement known as ‘White Australia’,
when the colony of Victoria introduced legislation to
discourage immigration by taxing Chinese migrants.
*The‘White Australia Policy’ reflected Australians’ fear of the
‘yellow hordes’, as they perceived Asian immigrants –indeed, as
they perceived any migrants who were not from Britain or northern
Europe.

*In the mid-twentieth century, Australia’s outlook on the world was

significantly changed because of the
Second World War. And the devastating effects
of the Depression and the war led to a policy of ‘Populate or
Perish’. Australia opened the floodgates
for mainly British and European migrants.
*In 1973, The ‘White Australia Policy’ was removed, by the then
Whitlam Labor Government.

In 1967, Indigenous people had been recognized as full

Australian citizens through a national referendum.
*In 1973, The ‘White Australia Policy’ was removed, by
the then Whitlam Labor Government.

*In 1967, Indigenous people had been recognized as full

Australian citizens through a national referendum.

*In the 1980s, the nation implemented this policy of

multicultur-alism, adopting an institutionalized diversity.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
*Cunningham, William A., John B. Nezlek and Mahzarin R. Banaji (2004)
‘Implicit and explicit ethnocentrism:
revisiting the ideologies of prejudice’, Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin,

*Martin-Barbero, Jesús (1993) Communication, Culture and Hegemony:

From the Media to Mediations. Newbury
Park, CA: Sage.
GLOBALIZATION AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
*Baylis, John, Steve Smith and Patricia Owens (2011) The Globalization of
World Politics: An Introduction to
International Relations (5th edn). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

*Castells, Manuel (2008) ‘The new public sphere: global civil society,
communication networks, and global
governance’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

*Oxley, Laura and Paul Morris (2013) ‘Global citizenship: a typology for
distinguishing its multiple conceptions’,British Journal of Educational Studies
Thank you for your
time :))
members:
Bathan, Ivan Andrei
Rivas, Irish
Umali, Fhebelyn Heart
Valle, Erika Mae