Communication and Community: Promoting World Citizenship Through Electronic Communications

Abstract

The term citizenship is usually defined in relation to membership in a state with its attendant rights and responsibilities. It would be an appropriate term for membership in a world state had we achieved a form of world government more powerful than the existing United Nations. Lacking this development, and focusing on consciousness and civic responsibility (in particular, the importance of educating the public about the need to develop a sense of responsibility for the whole of mankind), rather than on formal legal rights and privileges, world citizenship can be seen as an aspect of a sense of community which can coalesce around any number of possible identities. The multiplication of such identities is indeed a hallmark of the postmodern age. Identities based on gender, sexual orientation, privilege or its absence, disability, have taken their place alongside more primordial identifications based on ethnicity, language, religion or race. All of these identities vie for recognition and formal attention.