Global Networks and Local Values A Comparative Look at Germany and the United States (2001) / Chapter Skim
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3 Understanding Local Values and How They Are Affected by Global Networks
3 Understanding Local Values and How They Are Affected by Global Networks
Pages 46-73
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From page 46... ...
. These kinds of contrasts would seem to lead to the stark and simplistic assertion that global networks threaten local values.
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Nevertheless, analysis of values has increased and improved in quality with the recognition that values can change; they can be affected by public policy, and they influence how people respond to public policy.2 This study aims specifically at understanding the influence of global networks on local values, and the public unease to which it gives rise, in order to provide advice to political actors on how and whether to take action. Under the circumstances, it is difficult to avoid the general question of what values are, what function they have for the individual, society, and government, and what makes them local.
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But there are also instances in which global networks may serve to promote local values that have been undermined by political considerations. For example, global networks give German citizens access to environmental information that the German government holds but has been hesitant to release, despite its legal obligation to do so.
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Commonly shared values are modeled as social norms. These restrictions are interpreted as tools that facilitate the coordination of behavior and, in that sense, as goods not provided by the market.9 7Hans Albert.
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i4John Robert Anderson, 1999, "Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications," New York: Freeman; Nicola Doring, 1999, Sozialpsychologie des Internet. Die Bedeutung des Internet fur Kommunikationsprozesse, Identitaten, soziale Beziehungen und Gruppen, Gottingen: Hogrefe; Sara Kiesler, Jane Siegel, and Timothy W
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" Understanding the Impact of Global Networks on Local Social, Political and Cultural Values (Law and Economics of International Telecommunications 42) , Christoph Engel and Kenneth H
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2iWolfgang Kersting, 2000, "Global Networks and Local Values. Some Philosophical Remarks from an Individualist Point of View," in Christoph Engel and Kenneth H
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Normative values form a cognitive framework for allowing individuals to understand social reality. Moreover, society organizes itself around shared values.
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For example, in both Europe and the United States, post-World War II affluence and the application of many kinds of technology have promoted similar patterns of changes in values albeit with differing trajectories.25 By altering people's perceptions of their nation's well-being and of their own well-being, affluence can indirectly alter local values and, across nations similarly situated, promote some convergence of values. That convergence may either strengthen or weaken efforts to preserve remaining differences, as is evident in the conflicts within the United States over multiculturalism and the implications of an increasingly heterogeneous, pluralistic society within with a single nation.26 3.3.4 Function for Government and Formal Institutions Legal formality distinguishes state and society.
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Local values may have their origins in a blurred past that is seldom completely abandoned. However, the set of values evolves over time, triggered by events in the world, a changed composition of the population, or fresh ideas.
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However, this does not mean that local values are merely those that underlie a given legal order. It is true that governing is easier when constituencies share values, but in democratic states it is at least debatable whether government has a mandate to form the values of its citizens.
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But locality is more related to a value system than to a particular value. Because modern societies do not really live in accordance with a hierarchical, rigid, and totally coherent order of values, there will be overlaps and even inconsistencies among the values promoted by various institutions.
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It deliberately leaves open which substantive values another person may adopt, and asks us to respect that decision. Other formal values are, for example, the moral obligation to keep one's promises, to abide by legitimate statutes, or to pay taxes.
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This places a heavy burden on the institutions that protect these formal values. 3.6 THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL NETWORKS ON VALUES 3.6.1 Caveats As the discussion in this chapter should make clear, casting light on the impact of global networks on local values is not a straightforward task.
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In practical terms, global networks can thus affect local values by changing social and political structures (see Chapter 4) , or ways of doing business (see Chapter 7~.
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For example, Western societies, to a greater or lesser degree, endorse open and wide political discourse in which people can participate regardless of 39More from Richard Munch, 1998, Globale Dynamik, lokale Lebenswelten. Der schwierige Weg in die Weltgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp; Ronald Robertson, 1992, Globalization, London: Sage; Benno Werlen, 1993, Society, Action and Space: An Alternative Human Geography, London: Routledge.
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Even in this instance, the global value may not replace the local one. It may only reach a segment of the local society or it may govern Internet activities alone while other local life is still governed by the traditional values.
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All this may threaten local values, as they must be embedded in and protected by formal and informal institutions. And insofar as these institutions rely on third-party scrutiny and enforcement, it is hard to apply them within global networks.
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The values of an individual are the result of a learning process. His or her contact with different value systems encountered in using global 48Icek Ajzen and Martin Fishbein, 1977, "Attitude-Behavior Relations: A Theoretical Analysis and Review of Empirical Research," Psychological Bulletin 84:888-918; Icek Ajzen and Thomas J
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The impact of global networks on local values need not be reduced to the simple dichotomy of erosion or corroboration. The use of these networks can also lead to the modification of values or to the rebalancing of the set of values.
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In such circumstances, the Internet becomes the medium for a conscious learning process. Global networks also help that process gain social momentum, as they make it easy and inexpensive to spread information challenging traditional values among others who are doubtful.
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Although the possibility of eroding traditional values should not be overstated, learning a new value system does not lead inexorably to the replacement of traditional values. The real change brought about by global networks may be the realization that modern life encourages, and often requires, living with multiple value systems.
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On the other hand, the ease of tracing or limiting the use of electronically published material at the source makes it practical to drastically reduce the scope of public use of the work. Thus technical changes are forcing legal institutions to forge a new balance between the rights of author and public.53 A third example is provided by new technologies that offer a stronger means of enforcement for local values.
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