GlobalVillages
Marshall Mc Luhan
 
See also: Global Villages: OriginsOfTheTerm, Definition ; GIVE

The author who coined the term "Global Village".

  • "The medium is the message." ?
Contrary to widespread beliefs, Mc|Luhan not only expressed the quality of electronic media of bringing things to our perception AS IF they happened within our own village. No. McLuhan was really interested in villages as such:

"The village had institutionalized all human functions in forms of low intensity. In this mild form everyone could play many roles. Participation was high, and organization was low. This is the formula for stability in any type of organization. Nevertheless, the enlargement of village forms in the city-state called for greater intensity and the inevitable separation of functions to cope with this intensity and competition. The villagers had all participated in the seasonal rituals that in the city became the specialized Greek drama. Mumford feels that "The village measure prevailed in the development of the Greek cities, down to the fourth century . . ." (The City in History). It is this extension and translation of the human organs into the village model without loss of corporal unity that Mumford uses as a criterion of excellence for city forms in any time or locale. This biological approach to the man-made environment is sought today once more in the electric age. How strange that the idea of the "human scale" should have seemed quite without appeal during the mechanical centuries." ( Understanding Media p. 97-98)

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