Deutsch Welle - instantaneous access to world communication?
I am still not sure how to consider Deutsch’s study: everything from Quant is telling me that a sample of sixteen combined with relatively small numerical dominance of one decisive trait of integration/amalgamation/pluralism just isn’t very convincing. That aside, Deutsch’s analysis would be interesting to repeat in the context of modern communication.
I saw in several other blogs mention of what Deutsch would do with the internet and the possibilities in communication that it allows. On page 201, Deutsch concludes that “The most promising general method for moving toward these goals seems to be more and better communication.” His measurements of communication, collaboration, and government consulting were based on physical mail flux and acknowledgement of amalgamated institutions. In a world where corporations live in multinational terrain and bandwidth is the limit on communication, where communication across town or across the globe is nearly instantaneous, and where we are used to CNN having correspondents in the farthest reaches of the earth, the idea that “modern life…tends to be more international than life in past decades or centuries, and hence more conducive to the growth of international or supranational institutions” (22) is an unfounded belief just isn’t the case anymore.
Would he see MNCs as amalgamated institutions? Would he find any benefit to the fact that even “lower classes” have immediate access to the world through their television screens, computer monitors, and Hondas?
With our current conflict situation, threats of terrorism, and importance of national security, the US-Canada pluralistic integration would not be a center for a security community – but Europe seems to have become his solution.
Is it then possible for there to be trans-oceanic amalgamated (or pleuralistic – because he definitely suggests they are far more stable and easier to achieve) security-community? Though there can be promises of support, the physical transport/mobility of people and material goods may be too slow for the speeds at which we now communicate.
I saw in several other blogs mention of what Deutsch would do with the internet and the possibilities in communication that it allows. On page 201, Deutsch concludes that “The most promising general method for moving toward these goals seems to be more and better communication.” His measurements of communication, collaboration, and government consulting were based on physical mail flux and acknowledgement of amalgamated institutions. In a world where corporations live in multinational terrain and bandwidth is the limit on communication, where communication across town or across the globe is nearly instantaneous, and where we are used to CNN having correspondents in the farthest reaches of the earth, the idea that “modern life…tends to be more international than life in past decades or centuries, and hence more conducive to the growth of international or supranational institutions” (22) is an unfounded belief just isn’t the case anymore.
Would he see MNCs as amalgamated institutions? Would he find any benefit to the fact that even “lower classes” have immediate access to the world through their television screens, computer monitors, and Hondas?
With our current conflict situation, threats of terrorism, and importance of national security, the US-Canada pluralistic integration would not be a center for a security community – but Europe seems to have become his solution.
Is it then possible for there to be trans-oceanic amalgamated (or pleuralistic – because he definitely suggests they are far more stable and easier to achieve) security-community? Though there can be promises of support, the physical transport/mobility of people and material goods may be too slow for the speeds at which we now communicate.
posted by Rebecca at 3:33 PM
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