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The Big Pond: Global Village

January 31, 2008 @ Project Shrink: The Blog from Bas de Baar

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Times are changing. The world is getting smaller. World orders are shifting. The ocean is turning into a pond. That is the whole idea behind the Fish Pond Metaphor. In this posting we will have a more detailed look about the globalization, into people interacting on a global scale. What is going on in The Big Pond?

What Drives Human Behavior?

Our investigation starts however on the lowest level: the individual inhabitant of our planet. What is driving their behavior? What is determining the way they interact with other people? Our journey has to start here before we can make some sense of the overall result of all those interactions a global scale.

Generally spoken, people will try to reach their goals, their desires, or try to avoid their fears come true. However, this can be so generic, therefor we will go one step back; peoples’ needs. The needs of humans is their ultimate goal that drives their actions.

People have physical or material needs. Think about food, a roof above their heads, or maybe some kind of transportation. We will categorize this type of needs as “economic needs”. In its simplest view we will just assume monetary rewards in return for labor when we are referring to “economic needs”.

Next to economic needs are “emotional needs”. To be more specific about this subject, we will make use of the following taken from Eqi.org: “In various degrees, each according to his or her own unique nature, we each have a natural emotional need to feel:

These needs are all expressed in comparison of other members of the globe. That is why they are considred “social”. In this context we also consider the concept of “group affiliation”. Group affiliation is what it is all about in our lives. During your life you are a member of a lot of social groups, by default, by choice or by force. One of us (Bas) is a Dutch white male, member of a child-less double income household, Project Manager, author and web aficionado, to name just a few of his traits. The Dutch white male is something that he is by birth, by default. All other affiliations are more or less done by choice, even though you can debate if in all case he was totally aware of the choice made.

The group memberships determine how we see ourselves in the whole of society, it determines our identity. Actually, we have more than one identity. We can choose, we can switch depending on the situation. Bas, again, likes to see himself as an author. With the risk of making him sound like a moron: it’s the worldly sophisticated aura that is associated with it, even though every freak can publish a book these days. Within the professional world he emphasizes the “software project manager” affiliation. You have been dealt a lot of group affiliations. You can emphasize or down play each affiliation to create your identity.

As an identity is how we see ourselves within the ultimate large group of humans, it not something that is to be seen an an individual level, it is a group thing. Without groups, the whole concept of identity wouldn’t make sense. We are shaping identities by combining three mechanisms: categorization, identification and comparison. Although broadminded people like to think they do not put everyone in boxes, everyone does. We always put people in categories, we “label” them. This is done by looking for signs that we associate with a certain group. These signs are the mentioned use of icons, rituals or speak. To be able to associate yourself with a group, we first have to divide society into groups. Identification is the part where you affiliate yourself with a group.

People are in continuous pursuit to satisfy their economic and social needs. This will determine their behavior. As far as we are concerned, there is no hierarchy within the needs. Not on a group level. Every individual has his own unique set of economic and social needs that he or she tries to satisfy, and they even fluctuate per situation.

To help you visualize what we mean, we can go to the gaming industry for assistance where these concepts are used in simulations of people in games like The Sims.

Economic And Social Clustering

Suppose we have a model with agents (people) modeled after the concepts as described in the previous paragraph, and suppose we look at the global perspective. What is it we will see? All the fish in the pond are grouping together.

Economic Clustering

Like the oceans are all connected to each other and provide us with currents, so are the economic forces in constant flux and alternating over the globe. Work moves around. If it can be produced cheaper, more efficiently or better, it gets relocated. Talent moves around. If one area on the globe is more exciting and thrilling than another, people relocate. Work moves around and people that perform the work move around. Not necessarily dependent of each other.

Regional population changes rapidly. Asia gets a booming population growth. First world nations have a enormous amount of seniors coming towards them as the baby boomers are getting old. With regional changes in the populations, the demand for work shifts.

But one remarkable aspect is that work seems to be located around certain topological centers like a harbour, a place rich of natural resources or just cities. Work is not spread out evenly over the planet. There are concentrations of it. The same goes for the other current, that of talent moving around (from “The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent” by Richard Florida). The most incredible, creative talent is looking for great places to live. Places where tolerant stimulating locations provide company of like minded people. Both currents have as a net effect that people are clustering, one gets clusters because people have the need to satisfy their economic needs.

Social Clustering

Suppose the map of the earth doesn’t reflect countries, but they represent ideas. Or they would represent religions, world views, life styles and other concepts. Imagine a spatial representation of concepts. People will not be spread out evenly. What you will see is that people are cuddling up next to each other. As their social needs by definition can only be fulfilled in relationship to other people, the association needed with groups ensures the clustering will be a fact when using a conceptual map.

When discussing social clustering in the context of The Fish Pond one needs to consider what has been termed Big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), which is a term that was introduced by Herbert W. Marsh which hypothesizes that the self-concept of students is negatively correlated with the ability of their peers in school: Thus, academic self-concepts depend not only on one’s academic accomplishments but also the accomplishments of those in the school that a student attends. Go big fish in shallow waters compare themselves with others? Socialization in small world might intensify the feeling of belonging in either a positive or negative ways as proximity might encourage comparing oneself with others. If a team member feels he is a Big-Fish in a little-pond will behave differently than if he feels that he is a small-fish in a big-pond. The idea is similar to a hefted weight is perceived as heavier than normal when “contrasted” with a lighter weight.

Closeness of social groups may produce another effect. International teams may produce different breed of ideas as fish produce different breeds of fish in a fish pond. Most pond fish will breed with regularity in a pond containing plant life. It is always fun for everyone to see the baby fish hatch and see what colors and characteristics they develop, Socialization in international teams might lead to novel ideas because of their hybrid fertilization.

What puts the “village” into Global Village?

Until now we didn’t touch on the current trends that are taking place. The world is shrinking. But what does that mean? The world is “getting flat” is a statement we hear a lot. It reflects the effect of globalization on economic needs:

“Although the world, as characterized by columnist and author Tom Friedman, is getting flatter as a result of removal of trade and other barriers, it is also being tilted at an increasingly steep angle. Think of it as a sliding board, very flat and smooth but inclined to speed the move of production, services, technology, wealth and power from West to East and often from open, democratic systems to more opaque, authoritarian regimes.” (source)

The removal of trade and other barriers, the ever increasing availability of cheap communication are what puts the “village” into Global Village. The impact is not only economic. Globalization also has its effects on social needs:

“By the end of the twentieth century, if not before, globalization had turned world order into a problem. Everyone must now reflexively respond to the common predicament of living in one world. This provokes the formulation of contending world views. For example, some portray the world as an assembly of distinct communities, highlighting the virtues of particularism, while others view it as developing toward a single overarching organization, representing the presumed interests of humanity as a whole.” (source)

What is happening in this live time is unprecedented. Economic and social barriers as we know it are removed; mostly creating new ones. People will still form clusters, but that is a grouping we are not familiar with. All the barriers that used to separate people from each other are gone. The same people are now in one room together, and we are all running for a corner to get the familiar feelings back.

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The Big Pond: Global Village

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