Towards A Global Village

This book is the outcome of a global study undertaken on behalf of the World Education Fellowship (WEF) in collaboration with UNESCO. It provides education policy makers with evidence to support programs that address the major challenges faced by education systems in the next decade. It contains case studies, and it expands on the work done by UNESCO’s International Commission on Education for the 21st Century (the Delors Report).

As the world moves towards the twenty-first century, it enters a period of unprecedented crisis: the human race can no longer take the future for granted. Yet over the last decade, millions of people worldwide have turned to local action to tackle some of the planet's seemingly intractable problems. In thousands of towns, cities and villages, community groups and non-governmental organisations are teaming up with local authorities to form links with their counterparts in the developing world - but until now, these initiatives have been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. Even participating communities are sometimes barely aware of the movement's existence. Towards a Global Village aims to lift these local initiatives from obscurity into the mainstream by offering the first comprehensive account of the emergence of community development projects on a global scale. Basing his account on data from programmes in twenty-one countries around the world, Shuman evaluates their influence and offers sound, practical recommendations for increasing their impact and effectiveness. Towards a Global Village offers hope, ideas and inspiration to all those who continue to believe that there is some point in working for real change at a local level.

Provides cross-cultural perspectives on computer-mediated communication.

Porter challenges the powerful ideology of "Globalism" that is widely subscribed to by the US national security community. Globalism entails visions of a perilous shrunken world in which security interests are interconnected almost without limit, exposing even powerful states to instant war. Globalism does not just describe the world, but prescribes expansive strategies to deal with it, portraying a fragile globe that the superpower must continually tame into order. Porter argues that this vision of the world has resulted in the US undertaking too many unnecessary military adventures and dangerous strategic overstretch. Distance and geography should be some of the factors that help the US separate the important from the unimportant in international relations. The US should also recognize that, despite the latest technologies, projecting power over great distances still incurs frictions and costs that set real limits on American power. Reviving an appreciation of distance and geography would lead to a more sensible and sustainable grand strategy.

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.