Page 170 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

SUPERCULTURE FOR THE COMMUNIC ATION AG E

rationality and cognition in many respects, the symbolic content that technology
carries and the ‘mediated co-presence’ it facilitates (Thompson 1995) interact
intimately with human emotions and the human body. Creating cultural
experiences, relationships, and communities through mediated interaction,
including the Internet, has become commonplace, even ‘natural’. Technologic-
ally mediated information is brought close to the emotions and the body by
stimulating the imagination. Communications media don’t just ‘get between’
humans; rather they connect people to each other in ways that often overcome
the (cultural) barriers imposed by physical distance. Moreover, the crystal-clear
technical quality of digital audio and video transmission actually enhances
emotionality by ‘purifying’ the desired ‘information’ to a level that greatly
exceeds the acoustical expectations of unmediated, interpersonal exchanges of
sentiment.
While it is true that much of cultural life continues to revolve around the
‘local’, and is strongly influenced by ‘physical embodiment’ which situates real
flesh-and-blood human beings together in actual physical places (Tomlinson
1999: 9), spatial distinctions such as those drawn between the ‘global’ and the
‘local’, where the local is said to be experienced more profoundly, greatly
oversimplify the way contemporary symbolic and cultural ‘realities’ are per-
ceived and experienced. Our deepest emotions and our physical bodies are no
longer just ‘here’. A defining characteristic of culture in the Communication
Age is that real human bodies and emotions interact with and are energized
by the evocative, sensual qualities of multiple, ubiquitous, and ephemeral cul-
tural spheres in ways that help individuals increase control over their life
experiences.

A cosmopolitan utopia?

In his chapter in this book and in much of his other recent writing, Ulf
Hannerz has used the term ‘ecumene’ to describe the scope and nature of
globalized cultural activity. His choice of ‘ecumene’ to describe ‘the inter-
connectedness of the world’ (Hannerz 1996: 7) signals a distinct humanistic
philosophy that promotes the (especially Swedish) idea of a ‘global citizen’. In
American English, at least, ecumene has less than subtle religious connotations.
We hear about the ‘ecumenical council of churches’, for instance. The sole
definition of ‘ecumenism’ given by the American Heritage Dictionary is ‘a
movement seeking to achieve worldwide unity among religions through
greater cooperation and improved understanding’. The global ecumene –
which Hannerz and others before him utilize to mean only ‘worldwide’ –
clearly has spiritual, or at least moral implications, whether intended by the
cultural theorists or not.
The ecumene refers to the site where twenty-first-century ‘cosmo-
politanism’, another favorite expression of Hannerz, John Tomlinson, and
others, takes place. Particularly in the rhetorical context of the ‘ecumene’, the

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