{"id":15437,"date":"2017-11-16T20:38:54","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T04:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=15437"},"modified":"2017-11-19T06:04:44","modified_gmt":"2017-11-19T14:04:44","slug":"globalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/globalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Globalization"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anthony Elliott\u2019s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction<\/em> is a valuable reference book for study and researching contemporary social theories and global ideas. \u00a0He focuses on local, national, and global issues that influence everything from what we eat to what we believe.\u00a0 This post will bypass the traditional comprehensive reviews and zero in on globalization, the impact of introducing technology to an African village, and a few comments on spiritual warfare.<\/p>\n

Elliott says there are costs associated with the continued advance of globalization, positive and negative. He says, \u201cGlobalization has enmeshed individuals throughout the world in historically unique circumstances placing an unavoidable burden on each individual to reflexively manage their own life- creating a new and pervasive individualism.\u201d[1]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0The authors argue that globalization must be \u201cconceptualized as possessing efficacy\u201d within the internal life of the individual \u00a0before they can adapt to the magnitude and scale of the outside influences, stimuli, and forces that they encounter in everyday life.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Macha Works is a living example of introducing information technology to the bush.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

During my mission aviation service in Botswana and Zambia I was able to participate in bringing internet to the \u201cbush\u201d in Zambia.\u00a0 At the time I did not realize the long-term impact, but as I read Elliott\u2019s work on globalization I realized that we introduced the internet, training, and information technology that will forever change the social and cultural context of Macha, Zambia, and the surrounding region.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 My colleague and friend Dr. Gertjan van Stam completed his PhD with Tilburg University, Netherlands after years of extensive field research in the African bush to find out what happens \"\"<\/a>when African society and technologies meet.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Flying Mission, the missionary aviation organization that I helped lead, became partners and stakeholders for the introduction of technology to Macha.\u00a0 First, we determined a location, obtained the permission of the chiefs and elders, and leveraged the villagers to build us a runway, by hand, pick, and shovel. Next, using small airplanes, we flew in the technology, computers, hardware, and training material needed for the initiative.\u00a0 We also crossed rivers and deserts by land to drive in heavy equipment, storage containers, and brick making machines to build structures, offices, and homes.<\/p>\n

Stam told me, we must be careful introducing technology because\u00a0 it can be \u201cunhelpful in the local African community if there is no connection with African meaning making.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 I remember taking it slow, establishing relationships, respecting their values, helping them make meaning out of the changes.\u00a0 It was important to earn the trust of the indigenous nationals before opening the flood gates of information technology through the internet.\u00a0 We forced ourselves only to advise, encourage, and support.\u00a0 We had to resist the chief\u2019s desire for us to lead the program, make decisions, and make assignments.\u00a0 It was painful, inefficient, and took years to accomplish their transition to a globalized worldview.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the time and effort were worth the wait, because this small village made the technological leap from grass huts with mud floors to the \u201cborderless worlds\u201d of advanced technological relationships through the world wide web.[7]<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Globalization came to Macha through the introduction of information technology.\u00a0 Now they are not only stretching social relations across oceans, but also developing global interconnectedness between tribes, people groups, institutions, states, and countries.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Our missionary service, in Elliott\u2019s globalization terms is called a \u201cvast, multi-layered structure of global civil society.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Macha, colonized by the British and missionized by the Catholics, is now a thriving center of \u201cexpertise, training, innovation, and experimentation in agriculture, alternative energy, entrepreneurship, and novel approaches in ICT appropriate for the African context.\u201d[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

It was relatively easy to make research connections between globalization and spiritual warfare.[10]<\/a>\u00a0 For instance, DeBernardi reports a globalized conference in Guatemala City in 1998 where hundreds of participants from 115 countries gathered to share ground level spiritual warfare.[11]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0Churches and believers from around the world gathered to talk about the problem that they see influencing Christians on a global scale.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I think spiritual warfare is part of our social theory construct.\u00a0 In my experience, the African believer is much more sensitive to the influences of Satan and the forces of evil than the Western believer.<\/p>\n

In summary, one of the effects of globalization is the marginalization of the churches response to spiritual warfare. Like Elliott says, we are subjected to so much information, data, stimulus, images, and satanic influences, that many believers, trying to reflexively manage their own lives, create non-biblical levels of individualism, which may even lead to idolatry, sin, and separation from God.\u00a0 Overall, Elliott is a good electronic resource and primer for social theory presentations and research.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/h6>\n

[1]<\/span> Anthony Elliott, Charles Lemert, and Mark Carrigan. “The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization.” Journal of Critical Realism<\/i> 9, no. 3 (2010): 384.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/span> Ibid., 386. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/span><\/span><\/span> Gertjan van Stam and Gerard van Oortmerssen. “Macha works!.” (2010).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/span><\/span><\/span> Jonas, Karl, Idris A. Rai, and Maurice Tchuente, eds. e-Infrastructure and e-Services for Developing Countries: 4th International ICST Conference, AFRICOMM 2012, Yaounde, Cameroon, November 12-14, 2012, Revised Selected Papers<\/i>. Vol. 119. Springer, 2013.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/span><\/span> Ibid., 2.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/span><\/span> Ibid., 3. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/span><\/span> Anthony Elliott. Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction<\/i>. (Routledge: New York, NY, 2014) 335.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[8] Ibid., 340.<\/p>\n

[9] Stam, Macha works<\/em>, 1.<\/p>\n

[10] DeBernardi, Jean E (Jean Elizabeth). “Spiritual warfare and territorial spirits: the globalization and localisation of a ‘practical theology’.” Religious Studies And Theology<\/em> 18, no. 2 (December 1999): 66-96. ATLASerials, Religion Collection<\/em>, EBSCOhost<\/em> (accessed November 16, 2017).<\/p>\n

[11] Ibid., 85<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Anthony Elliott\u2019s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction is a valuable reference book for study and researching contemporary social theories and global ideas. \u00a0He focuses on local, national, and global issues that influence everything from what we eat to what we believe.\u00a0 This post will bypass the traditional comprehensive reviews and zero in on globalization, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[238,573,1039],"class_list":["post-15437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-elliott","tag-globalization","tag-spiritual-warfare","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15437"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15477,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15437\/revisions\/15477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}