James N. Rosenau - People Count!: Networked Individuals in Global Politics

The Rules of the Game: A Primer on International Relations, by Mark R. Amstutz

A Tale of Two Quagmires: Iraq, Vietnam, and the Hard Lessons of War,
by Kenneth J. Campbell

Celebrity Diplomacy, by Andrew F. Cooper

People Count! Networked Individuals in Global Politics, by James N. Rosenau

Paradoxes of Power: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changing World, edited by David Skidmore

Global Democracy and the World Social Forums, by Jackie Smith et al.

Meets Market Fundamentalism, by Robin Broad and John Cavanagh

Spirits Talking: Six Conversations on Right and Wrong
in the Affairs of States, by Stephen D. Wrage

People Count!

First published 2008 by Paradigm Publishers

Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14
4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Copyright 2008, Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosenau, James N.
People count!: networked individuals in global politics / by James N. Rosenau.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59451-414-2 (hardcover: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-59451-415-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Globalization. 2. International relations. 3. Political sociology. 4. Political geography. 5. Political participation. 6. Civil society. I. Title.
JZ1318.R668 2007
327.1dc22

2007023086

Designed and Typeset by Straight Creek Bookmakers.

ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-414-2 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-415-9 (pbk)

This book is about you and me, and everyone else. It seeks to explore a number of roles that are salient in communities. It does so in order to stress that the course of events is sustained by ordinary individuals as well as officials and governments. Such a perspective runs counter to prevailing ways of thinking about the world. Most people see large macro entities, from corporations to states, from trade unions to universities, whereas here the stress is on micro actors, on the people who maintain or undermine the macro organizations and institutions that are the usual focus of concern.

A micro perspective is difficult to develop and maintain, so fully ensconced are most people in macro thinking. Yet, it does not take much reflection to appreciate that the macro organizations and institutions rest on the conduct of the individuals of which they are composed. The problem is, and always has been, one of tracing the ways in which individuals at the micro level shape and are shaped by the macro organizations to which they belong. It is not an easy problem to solve, so complex are individuals and so complex are macro organizations and the links between the two. No claim is made here that the analytic micro-macro problem is solved in the ensuing chapters, or even that taken together the chapters adequately address the problem, but I hope the emphasis on the micro will give pause to those who proceed from a thoroughgoing macro approach. That the macro rests on the micro wherever organizations are active seems so obvious as not to be worthy of intensive discussion. Such is not the case, however. Once one begins to ponder the nature of micro-macro links it immediately becomes clear that one has taken on degrees of complexity that are not readily resolved. Or at least I have yet to resolve them.

In short, the central idea underlying the analysis of all the chapters is that as time and space continue to shrink with the continuing advent of new technologies for moving ideas and individuals around the world, people become increasingly important. The title of the book succinctly summarizes this theme: whatever role they may occupy, people make a difference, they COUNT!

I hope the analyses that make up the ensuing chapters at least suggest the complexity of the micro-macro problem and provoke readers to explore how to address, if not to solve, the problem. I would welcome outlining the solutions that readers may develop. A couple of caveats are in order. First, the individual roles selected for analysis are far from complete. Societies are composed of many more roles than could be considered in one volume. The logic of selecting those roles subjected to analysis in and concerns the way in which the roles may be caught up in the clash between those forces at work in the world pressing for integration and those pressing for disintegration. However, this theme is not as pervasive as it might have been in order not to detract from the presentation of micro roles.

I am indebted to Miles D. Townes, Ysbrant Marcelis, and Sally Montague for their help in preparing this book for publication. They made a complex task much easier. The encouragement and advice of Jennifer Knerr, surely one of the worlds finest editors, is also happily acknowledged, along with the fine Paradigm production team headed by Melanie Stafford. As always, the support of Hongying Wang was unstinting and greatly valued. In their own way too, our young children, Fan and Patrick, contributed to the creative environment that facilitated completion of this work.