ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I investigate the current approaches to measuring global behaviors at individual levels. Table 2.1 (below) shows a variety of approaches to measuring individual global behaviors by key researchers. Such comparisons of different ways of conceiving and operationalizing variables allow us to expose the strengths and weaknesses in major empirical studies. First, different terms have been applied to a family of essentially correlated microglobal behaviors in researchers’ attempts to explore personal experiences beyond a specific territory. This reflects the challenge of global studies to conventional ideas about place, community, and ties. ‘Long distance’ community and relations stretching across borders reveal the central features of ‘global network society’ (Hampton and Wellman 2001; Wellman 2001). The boundaries of concepts like place, culture, and milieu can become questionable if constricted territorially (Albrow, Eade, Dürrschmidt and Washbourne 2007).
