Managing Diversity in a Glocalizing World

Our daily lives are governed by products and images originating from all over the world, through the process of globalization. At the same time, however, globalization creates favourable conditions for all sorts of forms of particularization, localization and even fragmentation. While individuals and groups acquire multiple identities, the resulting plurality gives rise to conflicts, controversies and variations, but also to attempts to live peacefully together, to co-ordinate activities, and to balance interests. In short, present-day society embodies the ongoing dialectical processes of globalization and localization, and a review and reassessment of our reality is thus required. A necessary precondition for this review, however, is to promote dialogue between groups with different identities, without asking these groups to develop a shared system of basic values or a common worldview, i.e. commonality. The paper thus suggests (1) a plea for compatibility - instead of commonality - with regard to cultural values and (2) a strong emphasis on the interaction model in decision making, i.e. a model which does not advocate uniformity, but the compatibility of views, and in particular, practices. It concerns the coordination and combination of the proper interests of the various actors who have to depend on one another for the satisfaction of their demands or the realization of their objectives