Globalization
What interests me about globalization is how, unlike at any other time in history, it connects the world through the Internet in an immediate, qualitatively different way, how globalization offers so much of the world access to knowledge, information and advertising, and how this will change people, cultures and languages. On the semester at sea voyage, for example, we gained access to the Internet in every country we visited. Communities form around these Internet cafes. English was the language that not only brought in currency in the tourist industry, but also made surfing the web for utilities and downloads and the majority of web sites easier. Historically, language has tended toward heterogeneity; new languages have continually formed, often because groups have split from one another. Lingua Francas, pidgins and Creoles have dissipated when they are no longer useful. But globalization offers a different story.
How will groups maintain their autonomy? The French, somewhat out of insecurity or realism, set up national institutions like the Academie Francaise, which create French words to supplant English ones. The Chinese, through large numbers of people, will create their own web. In the not too distant future, however, translating programs will bridge language gulfs.
Globalization is an outgrowth of modernization, which has its roots in the industrial revolution, the scientific revolution and the protestant reformation. How do these historical roots play out in this future oriented world is one interesting question?