Social cohesion at the global level: The roles of science and technology

Technology enables globalization, through falling transportation and communication costs. Multi-national firms, which act as integrators in the global economy, are by definition technology-intensive and often innovate in technology-intensive businesses. The global elite, including scientists and engineers, are much more likely to feel integrated into global society than those at the bottom of the pyramid, since the Black Holes of the Information Society are characterized by lack of access to the integrating technologies. Civil society reaches out to disconnected people in the global technological order better than other institutions. If science and engineering want to contribute to global social cohesion rather than exacerbating exclusion, they also need to reach out. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.