Culture Shock in the Global Village?

Throughout human history land, territory and space have been incredibly important to human beings. Human beings have always made their homes and developed their cultures within a territory that was limited by borders.

Another important feature of human civilisations is that they have often tried to extend those borders. The most obvious way this has been done is through war and colonisation, but it has also been done in other ways such as trade or religious conversion.

So the Romans, who originally occupied a small territory in what we now call Italy, expanded their territory, until they occupied most of Europe and all the land surrounding the Mediterranean. The Islamic religion extended the territory in which Islam was the main religion until it occupied an area that stretched from India in the East to Spain in the west and the Aztecs originated in the centre of what we now call Mexico to occupy all the surrounding land, from the east coast to the west coast.

In the past, territorial expansion has always been limited by the level of technological development of the civilisation in question. Until the British empire was established, no civilisation had had the technology to maintain a territory that was global. The British Empire, like all empires before it, didn't last. However, the technologies that allowed it to be global have continued to develop, forcing cultures that had previously existed exclusively within a relatively small territory to recognise that they actually share a much larger territory, the Earth, with a multitude of other, quite different, cultures. Indeed, the idea of the Earth, that is so familiar to us, is relatively new, no more than a few hundred years old. Before that humans had no idea that, in fact, they all shared the same territory- a small planet suspended in the enormity of Space.

Now, not only do we know that we share a common territory, but our technologies have made it possible for us to travel from one side of that territory to the other in a matter of hours and to communicate across that territory in an instant. Fashions spread quickly around the world, overcoming cultural barriers. Products that can be bought in Leeds can also be bought in Riyadh, Shanghai, Tokyo or New York. We live in a globalised world- or what the thinker Marshall McLuhan called, "The Global Village".

How do you feel about the emergence of this Global Village?

Do you think that a 'global monoculture' is developing? If you do, do you think this is to be welcomed or is it a threat to the richness of local cultures and traditions?

Do you think there really is a global village, or do you agree with those people who say that we cannot talk about a global village when so many people on the planet have no access to the technologies that would allow them to participate in the life of this village (for example, according to some estimates, a third of the world's population has never even used a telephone!).

If the global village is a reality, do you think it's going to be possible for people to put aside their differences and co-habit peacefully or are we going to see an increase in the number of wars.

And finally, do you think there is a genuine dialogue taking place in the global village, or do you think that this process of globalisation is being driven and shaped by commercial and business interests?

Please tell us what you think- leave a message with your point of view. It can be long or short, serious or lighthearted. You can even leave a photograph, if you think it's relevant.