The open spaces of global communication

Abstract

Do contemporary advances in global communication serve mainly to strengthen and extend international power relations already in place, or do they offer realistic opportunities to transform those tendencies into a more humane and harmonious world? Can the enormous barriers posed by fundamentalist thought eventually be overcome through intercultural contact? How might the technological and cultural developments that are sweeping the world today bring about positive results by creating reflexivity and public dialogue on a global scale? Any success that can be brought to fruition in the open spaces of global communication will depend on further expansion of a de facto global civil society that embraces profound technological and cultural change. This potentially transformative project develops in seven overlapping stages. I will now describe seven stages of the open spaces of global communication, starting with a summary analysis of the characteristic conditions of the Communication Age and ending with a hopeful vision of its full potential. Key words: global communication, interculturality, civil society, communication age.