ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book suggests that connectivity severely neglects the significance of ideational and symbolic factors, particularly in view of the fact that planet earth has over many centuries become increasingly relativized. There is a need for the rethinking of connectivity within the context of four different levels of social meaning: ideas, ideologies, imaginaries, and ontologies. Axford investigates the constitution of three digital worlds in different analytical and empirical domains through specific examples: global microstructures; the logic of connective action; and networked individualism. Much of the discussion of glocalization runs strongly against the grain of the idea of globalization equaling Americanization, or even homogenization. Globalization studies-indeed global studies generally-urgently need to consider the complexity of the relationship between sameness and difference in an increasingly relativized and relativizing world.
