ABSTRACT
Globalization is not configured on an exclusively systemic basis but is also processed and reflected in the essentially informal social encounters of everyday life. So far, the small group has remained the black box of globalization theory. This chapter thus conceptualizes the global dimension of small groups’ everyday interactive and observational communicative processes, discussing their limits and potential to strengthen global communitization. Diverse types of small group react to global environments or help shape them in a variety of ways. However, while many groups today are at least partially actors in a global society as a result of their physical and virtual journeys in the context of migration, tourism, business and education, only in a few instances does group communication facilitate and support global community-building. This chapter highlights the obstacles to intergroup communication in global realms and shows how the communicative mechanisms of small lifeworldly groups help maintain often selective and even stereotypical local stocks of knowledge about the world, rather than seeking to tap the potential for understanding-oriented interaction. Everyday globalization can be normalized only if groups’ essential role in socialization, namely turning global knowledge and experience into collectively anchored consensus, is transferred to a global level.
