Living In A Global Village

Our perspective of wealth and what we need to live is affected by the people around us. What if the world population were shrunk to a village of 100 people, and you lived in that village? How would your neighbors live? What would they believe? How would that change your perspective? This book gives a glimpse into the world outside our own communities and helps us see the world through the eyes of Jesus.

Networks in the Global Village examines how people live through personal communities: their networks of friends, neighbors, relatives, and coworkers. It is the first book to compare the communities of people around the world. Major social differences between and within the First, Second, and Third Worlds affect the opportunities and insecurities with which individuals and households must deal, the supportive resources they seek, and the ways in which markets, institutions, and networks structure access to these resources. Each article written by a resident shows how living in a country affects the ways in which people use networks to access resources.Most people's ties in the developed world are not with neighbors but are widely dispersed. Unlike traditional studies of communities, social network analysis can identify the flourishing personal communities that people do have, no matter how far their ties may stretch and how fragmented their communities may be.Social networks are one of the principal means by which people and households acquire resources—either directly, through informal exchanges, or indirectly, by providing information on how to access the services provided by governments and other institutions. Networks in the Global Village focuses on how people use these networks around the world.

Technology has shrunk the physical world into a "global village," where we all seem to be connected in an online community worldwide. Yet while we think of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook as accessible to all, in reality, these are commercial entities developed primarily by and for the Western world. Considering how new technologies increasingly shape labor, economics, and politics, these tools often reinforce the inequalities of globalization, rarely reflecting the perspectives of those at the bottom of the digital divide. This book asks us to reconsider "whose global village" we are shaping with the digital technology revolution today. Sharing stories of collaboration with Native Americans in California and New Mexico, revolutionaries in Egypt, communities in rural India, and others across the world, Ramesh Srinivasan urges us to reimagine what the Internet, mobile phones, or social media platforms may look like when considered from the perspectives of diverse cultures. Such collaboration can pave the way for a people-first approach toward designing and working with new technology worldwide that embraces the realities of communities too often relegated to the margins

Since its first appearance in 1962, the impact of The Gutenberg Galaxy has been felt around the world. It gave us the concept of the global village; that phrase has now been translated, along with the rest of the book, into twelve languages, from Japanese to Serbo-Croat. It helped establish Marshall McLuhan as the original 'media guru.' More than 200,000 copies are in print. The reissue of this landmark book reflects the continuing importance of McLuhan's work for contemporary readers.

Joan Marques has personified making a difference and establishing change throughout her personal and professional life. After a successful media career in South America, she reinvented herself by moving to California, and embarking on a journey of education enhancement and knowledge sharing. Dr. Marques facilitates various university courses in Business, Leadership, and Management, and writes for audiences around the globe. "The Global Village" entails a short story of a young woman who learned from a very young age on what the importance was of having a globally adaptable mindset. The book explains, through lessons this woman got from her great grandfather, and the implementation of those lessons as she grew up to become an entrepreneur, how one can achieve success by first formulating what success means to him or her, and then living up to achieve it. The main message in this book is, that globalization and its consequences such as offshoring, are unstoppable, and not necessarily the threat many perceive them to be these days. Molded in an easily readable and understandable way, this important message should not only be seen as an encouraging note to everyone who lives and works in today's fast evolving living and working environment, but even more as an internal and external guide in obtaining a changed mindset in a changing world.

Today, more Americans than ever are going abroad to visit, work, or study. Increasingly, the ability to communicate and work in cross-cultural situations is seen as an important determinant of success in business, government, education, and the social services. Being successful depends less on what you know of a particular culture than it does on what you know about managing new cultural situations. This book provides a comprehensive and practical guide to communicating, learning, and adapting within any new cultural environment. It begins by examining what culture is and why it is important. It then goes on to outline the process of cross-cultural adjustment, and presents some highly effective tools and strategies for avoiding culture shock, while encouraging learning. Advice on learning a language, preparing for the transition, settling in, working and living overseas, and planning re-entry into U.S. culture is given. One of the book's most useful features is the presentation of a detailed plan for actually making the transition from one culture to another. It also provides a detailed chapter on re-entering the home environment, again to aid in minimizing shock and anxiety. The skills learned from this book are essential to success and can be put to use in any new culture, anywhere in the world.

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