Changes in Perception of National Boundaries Resulting from ICT Developments

by Charles L. Mitchell

Grambling State University

Prepared for delivery at the 2011 Western Political Science Association Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, April 21, 2011

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Abstract

The psychological boundaries that people cognitively establish are analyzed in this paper as influencing perceptions and thinking about national boundaries. The boundaries concept in psychology refers to how people establish different groups that they use in their thinking. Fuzzy set logic is presented as a useful technique in representing individual difference in establishing psychological boundaries. Boundaries are explained as a useful analytic concept that effectively encompasses relationality. Social identify theory is explained as significant in revising boundaries as ICT empowers people. The development of Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0is producing more sophisticated messaging, networking, and in the future more heuristic Internet. As ICT messages with more media richness, the influences to change how boundaries are cognitized is increasing. Several cognitive mechanism are identified as causing definition of psychological boundaries. First, the paper discusses how the vast amounts of information available on the Internet is adequate to allow redefining boundaries. Second, strong group identifiers and weak group identifiers are discussed as influencing emerging boundaries. Third, how low status people react to ICT is presented as a cognitive mechanism shaping boundaries. Fourth, empowerment of social identities is seen as boundary shifting. Fifth cognitive incentives to achieve a personal boundary system that has less tension is explained as motivating revising boundaries.

Three cases where boundaries are influential in political conflict are presented. France in the era of the 1848 French Revolution and the 1871 Paris Commune is analyzed as about boundaries. Next, present U.S.-Mexican boarder issues are discussed, and finally the 27 country EU is presented as a psychological boundary situation in political conflict.

ICT increasing ability to communicate across national boundaries is analyzed. Christian and Oliver's Story excerpted from the German soap opera Verbotene Liebe is used as qualitative data supporting the extensive change in communication strength now occurring. German television sequences with English subtitles are explained as about boundary development. Facebook Friends are analogized to social action and street performance as qualitative methods techniques. Conflicts that continue even with reshaped boundaries is discussed. To exemplify difference still to be resolved the terms of the German expression ”klimakakatastrophe” is compared to the U.S. phrase “global warming.” While both describe the same phenomenon, the possibilities for misunderstanding are presented.

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Changes in Perception of National Boundaries Resulting from ICT Developments

National boundaries have existed for centuries with differing amounts of obstacles standing

between citizens of different countries. At least since the advent of European Economic

Community in the 1960s, the trend internationally has been towards less profound national

boundaries. There are, however, some major exceptions. Recent populist politics within the

United States have favored creating a walled border between the United States and Mexico.

The psychological boundaries concept that cognitively accomplished reasoning about

different groupings is the primary emphasis of this paper. The influence of pervasive ICT is

analyzed as a significant factor lowering perception of national borders. Some discussion of

how ICT was a factor in the development of current U.S.-Mexico border politics and European

Union conflict is included in this analysis

The development of nation-states inevitably produced national boundaries. These borders

exist as barriers to commerce, communication, and the free movement of people among

countries. To a greater or lesser extent psychological boundaries similarly inhibit human

activity. In the present day, some national boundaries are mere formalities. Often traffic flows

between countries virtually without interruption, as is the case within the EU. In the most

extreme cases, individuals are totally prevented from crossing borders. A visa must be

arranged beforehand in other cases to allow persons to cross national boundaries. Passports

are frequently required for individuals to travel from one country to another. The international

system is an admixture of all these types of border arrangements.

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These various types of national boundary requirements are influential in shaping the

perceptions that people have about national boundaries. Regulations are not, however,

definitive in establishing perceptions about national borders. The Southern border of the

United States with Mexico is an outstanding example. For many decades, people have freely

crossed between Mexico and United States. The physical barriers to border crossing along

the U.S.'s southern border are virtually non-existent. The Rio Grande is famously only a few

inches deep at many places where the river divides the two countries. Traditionally, those who

entered the U.S. illegally along the southern border could expect to be offered an amnesty

every decade or so that would allow them to become regular U.S. citizens. Perceptions of the

boundary between the United States and Mexico was substantially shaped by this informal

custom.

As the example of the boundary between the U.S. and Mexico presents, border regulations

and perceptions of national boundaries are not necessarily the same. The concept of

boundaries, as discussed in this paper, is primarily psychological. Boundaries denote

differences between groups of people in thinking. Psychological boundaries can be

established by language differences. Boundaries can be created by differences in how people

are accustomed to seeing government react to various situations. When there are substantial

differences in how government services are provided between one area and another,

psychological boundary are created. Boundaries tend to focus citizens interests and politics

toward concerns within the psychological boundaries they create.

The concept of boundaries has never been an exacting concept, and a blur between groups

has always been present to varying degrees. This paper discusses perceptions of national

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boundaries and ICT because the boundary phenomena is changing substantially as ICT

becomes pervasive. Globalism is an increasing reality affecting long-established group habits

of perceiving differences. The blur between groups is substantially increasing as pervasive

computing makes available more than content to all ICT users. ICT is conditioning connected

persons to accept new global standards of perceiving and analyzing reality. That perceptual

changes about boundary issues are occurring is analyzed as an anticipated phenomenon.

Specific instances exist where shifting boundary perceptions are now conflictual political

realities. This paper intends to discuss both the phenomena of increasingly blurred and

unstable boundaries and some cases where conflictual politics are emerging from redefining

psychological boundaries.

Boundaries as a Psychological Concept

As globalism continues to develop, issues related to the changing international situation

cause one to search for explanations for emerging realities. Efforts to explain changing

conditions are sometimes unsatisfactory because they fail to adequately present both the

opportunity and conflicts that are constantly developing. As ICT allows instantaneous

connections between people, the possibilities for transactions significantly increase.

Unprecedented opportunities develop as people are able to search through a vast network

and locate exactly what they like. While opportunity structures are substantially improved,

some difficult negative externalities still appear to plague global developments. Conflicts in

reasoning from culture to culture can be authentic.

In an effort to improve theorizing about the effects of globalism, this paper utilizes the

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psychological concept of boundaries. Thought processes inevitably divide the reality one

perceives so that distinct boundaries are created in our perception. People recognize those

groupings with which they identify and successfully differentiate unlike amalgamations. The

cognitive map of reality that people produce always includes different groupings with varying

degrees of similarity and dissimilarity. There may be considerable individual difference

between how different people cognitive perception of boundaries. Inevitably, however, some

sort of scheme for differentiating assorted groupings is active in each person's reasoning

process. The psychological concept of boundaries can be used to refer to this process of

differentiation found in all human thought.

The concept boundaries is even more sophisticated when one reasons with individual

difference. Different people think differently as they establish their own cognitive maps of the

world around them. The logic different people use to explain their surroundings differ in how

they perceive pronounced differences. Some people always perceive differences between

groupings in strictly black and white terms. These individuals categorize differences in very

strict terms allowing little possibility of blurs between groupings. Other people think

substantially with what is called “fuzzy set logic.” If a person is adapt at fuzzy set logic, that

person may be more attentive to the gray areas between categories than to the distinctions

separating groupings. Individual differences in establishing boundaries have much

significance in appreciating the likely effects of ICT on national boundaries.

Multivalued logic was developed in the 1930's by Polish logician Jan Lukasiewicz. The fuzzy

logic that Lukasiewicz developed assumed a continuous range of truth values from 0.0 to 1.0

(Sowa, 2000, pp. 364-65). By representing truth with values somewhere in this range, one

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could acknowledge varying degrees of definition that exist in categorizing. Fuzzy logic allow

for introducing observations about the real world of varying degrees of exact definition of the

value being coded.

Lotfi Zadeh contributed fuzzy sets theory to representational techniques for knowledge.

Fuzzy set theory acknowledges in a quantitative fashion the lack of precision that exists in

introducing knowledge to representational techniques. Zadeh explains that there are always

differences in how completely facts belong to the sets to which they are assigned.

Figure OneThe Fuzzy Set Representation for “Small Integers”

Figure Three considers "fuzzy membership" for a set of small integers. As expressed in

Figures Three: mF(1) = 1.0, mF(2) = 1.0, mF(3) = 0.9, mF(4) = 0.8 ......... mF (50) = 0.001.

This fuzzy logic statement creates set possibilities for integer X, a small integer,

mF creates a possible distribution across all the positive integers (Luger, 2005, pp. 353-354).

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Where mF = 1, the small integer is completely a member of the set “1.” As the mF value

decreases, this indicates membership in the set “1” is to a lesser degree. Each successive

small integer shows less membership in set “1.”

When fuzzy set logic is introduced to analyzing the boundaries concept in psychology, one

perceives more fluidity in how the concept is comprehended. When cognitive processes

assigns a fact to one grouping or another initially there is an imagination of a rigid thinking

definition. Somehow human thought processes are, however, more complex as people

regularly succeed with much more sophisticated reasoning. Cognitive processes likely

resemble how fuzzy set logic represents truth. Nothing fits neatly into one grouping or

another, and there are all kinds of shades of indifference present instead of exact groupings.

Imagine that one were assigning men to one of three groups: short men, medium height men,

and tall men. From a reasoning perspective, one has a reluctance to assign a person to either

of these three categories. A substantial loss in explanation would occur were one to utilize

only three height categores. Other attributes of fitness and ability would excessively be

dominated mathematically with rigid categorization. Statistically speaking, fuzzy set logic

allows a description of height that substantially reduces the risk of height being an

unrealistically dominant variable.

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Figure TwoA Fuzzy Set Representation for theSets Short, Medium, and Tall Males

Figure Four presents a fuzzy set representation for short, medium, and tall males. Observe

how set membership for each of these three groups is determined. As Figure Four presents,

a person can be a member of more than one height sets (Luger, 2005, p. 354). By

establishing the numerical values between 0.0 and 1.0 that explain set membership, the

extent to which a person belongs to one of these height sets can be specified in knowledge

representation. The objective of effectively representing the world is accomplished with more

precision because of fuzzy set representations.

The example with men's heights is indicative of why Lamont and Molnár, have described

boundaries as “one of our most fertile thinking tools.” When used to describe social

processes, boundaries are excellent for capturing the reality in question. The social process

the boundary concept encompasses is known as “relationality.” (Lamont and Molnár, p. 169)

Boundaries explain how social groupings are comprehended in ordinary thought processes.

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Lamont and Molnár discuss four types of social groupings that people ordinarily recognize.

These four substantive areas include (a) social and collective identity; (b) class, ethnic/

racial and gender/sexual inequality; (c) professions, science and knowledge;

and (d ) communities, national identities, and spatial boundaries. (Lamont and Molnár, p. 169)

While all four types of boundaries are important in one's cognitive schematic, this paper

analyzes people's boundary concepts about communities, national identities, and spatial

boundaries. Changes in these boundary concepts are hypothesized to have substantial

significance explaining how ICT is changing the global environment.

The online publication Forecultures explains the boundary problem as how we want future

generations to perceive the world. “The issue is the sort of Australia we want our children and

grandchildren to inherit. Will it be a relatively cohesive society that studies Shakespeare,

follows cricket and honors the Anzacs; or will it be a pastiche of cultures with only a

geographic home in common.” (Forecultures, p 1). Fuzzy set logic would obviously be useful

in explaining how the composition of a large population contains differing orientations towards

national identities. The Forecultures example usefully explains that each person establishes

his own relationality concepts.

Social identity theory offers further insight into how perceptions of boundaries occur

cognitively. Psychological research shows that when people strongly identify with a group,

they are more likely to think of themselves as being typical of the group. To these people,

group members are “people like me.” Strong identifiers favor keeping groups strong and

boundaries strict. Weak identifier like greater diversity and more porous boundaries. (Theiss-

Morse, pp. 2-3)

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Psychological boundaries are conceptually useful in explaining changing perceptions of

national boundaries. Cognitive adjustments can be readily imagined from the boundaries

perspective. Fuzzy set logics are useful in conceptualizing how individual differences in

populations can produce redefinition of boundaries. People who are weak identifiers are

always plotting to establish different boundary groupings. Social identity theory adds to our

understanding of group dynamics and the process of relationality.

ICT's Cognitive Influence upon Boundary Concepts

During the last 20 years, there have been unprecedented developments in the ICT area.

Internet had been around since the mid-1970's. Originally Internet connected military bases

and large universities with monochromatic computer displays. In the early 1990's, the media

rich visual displays of the present day appeared. Internet is now analyzed as having three

distinct phases. Web 1.0 was about the basics of content delivery. “Websites provided

information with little opportunity for user interaction and feedback.” In Web 1.0, chat and

instant messaging were the most interactive features. Web 2.0 introduced blogs and social

networking. Comment features were introduced following articles that allowed users to

express themselves. Web 2.0 saw a significant increase in web content, much of which was

created by the average Internet user. Web 3.0 is forecast to be more heuristic and feature

more extensive use of machine accomplished searches. The computer is destined to be

become smarter and more able to produce what the user is wanting all without much user

direction. (Taghizadeh, 2010)

Developments in computer mediated communication have included substantial increases in

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media richness in connectivity. Internet users originally chose among simple text message

features. Now, choices in communications are much more multimedia oriented. Decisions

about the effect of communications need be made with regard to how much media content a

message contains. The more graphics and multimedia put in a message, the greater the

influence of the message. Both sending and receiving messages through Internet now results

in more emotional involvement than occurred in the era of simple monochromatic text

displays.

The more sophisticated messaging techniques of the present day have a tremendous

influence on how people cognitize boundaries. Postmes, Spears, and Lee explain,

“Enhanced communication allows us to traverse, and thus potentially transcend, social

boundaries by facilitating the proliferation of both standardization across, and social

differences within communities.”(Postmes, et al. p. 690) This explanation suggests that ICT

provides enough additional contextual understanding to allow a shift away from traditional

boundary concepts. Lack of adequate contextual information could be explained as a

significant factor in traditional boundary ideas. Now, with the increasing media richness of

communications the information is available to allow cognitive shifts away from former

boundary setting practices. This is a first cognitive mechanism that allows redefining

boundaries. Table One presents data collected by a website the author maintained about

European Cities (http://www.casayego.com/europeancities/euroci.htm) This data evidences

that the search for the information to change boundary perceptions continues.

The difference between strong group identifiers and weak group identifiers is a second

cognitive mechanism causing cognitive development in boundary reasoning. The weaker

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one’s identification with a group, the more likely a person is to redefine boundaries. Using

fuzzy set logic one perceives that a substantial percentage of group identifiers are susceptible

to boundary shifting information. ICT is providing the content to allow those who are weakly

connected with groups to reorganize their cognitive boundaries.

Table OneWebsite Access StatisticsMarch 20-April 18, 2011

Theiss-Morse explains that strong identifiers “are more likely than weak identifiers to

place the boundaries in such as way as to make sure they fit comfortably in the center.” The

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strong identifiers is sure to cognitize a group boundary that does not “in any way marginalize

or exclude them from the group.” “A strong identifier will not set any boundary that questions

his or her prototypicality.” Weak identifiers conversely view the group as more heterogeneous.

They are, also, less motivated to view themselves as quintessential group members. The

boundary setting behavior of weak members may well intend to possibly, “marginalize or

exclude themselves from the group.” (Theiss-Morse, pp. 14-15)

This cognitive boundary setting property is often associated with people who are low status

and this is discussed as a third cognitive mechanism affecting boundaries. LaMont and

Molina explain that symbolic boundaries are often used to enforce, maintain, normalize, or

rationalize social boundaries. Some cultural markers are distinct to one social class and

useful in establishing distinctions with other social classes exemplify. Cognitive stereotyping in

gender inequalities would be another example. Boundary theory could emphasize that social

identity includes concern about the permeability of boundaries. When boundaries are

impermeable, the occurrence of individual mobility from one social group into an upper

grouping is rare. Instead class-action more likely occurs. Many people act together to promote

group interest by redefining boundaries advantageously. (Lamont and Molina, p. 170)

Social identify theory can hypothesizes that impermeable boundaries produce social group

action to more favorably redefine boundaries. This perspective has significant implications for

discussing the effect of ICT on boundaries. Attention has been directed until now towards how

the individual redefine his cognitive boundaries and perceives things more advantageously.

The impermeable boundaries theory indicates that mass redefinition boundaries can occur in

some instances. Clearly, the rate of boundary redefinition possibly could occur substantially

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quicker were mass redefinition of boundaries to occur.

Postmes, Spears, and Lee indicate that conditions under which people feel they are

empowered to express social identities are producing revisions in releationality. This is a

fourth cognitive mechanism changing boundary perceptions. Where status and power

differentials exist, communication conditions that lead to a belief in empowerment of social

identifies can be powerful. (Postmes, et al., p. 707) This perspective indicates that changes

in ICT can empower people to express their social identities and to effectively redefine

boundaries. Traditional methods for cognitizing national boundaries could yield to

revolutionary ideas as people are empowered to express their social identities across former

boundary patterns.

The widespread erosion of national boundaries that is widely assumed to be occurring

presently could be attributed to this cognitive property. Social networking is the greatest

example to date of empowerment of people allowing expression of social identities across

traditional boundaries. The reassuring reality that such expression of social identities causes

ameliorates long established methods for cognitizing national boundaries.

Beyond simply breaking down traditional boundaries, ICT empowerment tends to establish

new groupings that compete with traditional psychological boundary ideas. As Postmes,

Spears, and Lee explain, “…New communication technologies also provide the prospects for

developing new (“virtual”) communities and social identities, thereby erecting new boundaries

as well as breaking down old ones.” (Postmes, et al, p. 690) New boundary groupings

supplanting old psychological boundaries is a fourth cognitive mechanism affecting

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boundaries.

A fifth cognitive possibility occurs when incentives are created for interacting across

boundaries. The capacity for “interaction across physical boundaries, especially the potential

to make contact with members of other social groupings, has promised the prospect of

reduced tension, intergroup animosities, and increased equality.” (Postmes, p. 693) ICT

appears to produce numerous incentives for creating new groupings that transcend traditional

national boundaries. The prospect of an international system that is more harmonious with

ones own social identify and less tension producing is an attractive reality. These incentives

lead to a substantially greater amount of interaction across boundaries. Table One presents

the languages from which accessors reach the author's website. The four top languages that

initiate accesses are English, German, French, and Russian.

Several ways that ICT affects cognitizing boundaries have been analyzed. First, media

richness theory has been used to explain how ICT is providing the information needed to

establish new cognitive groupings. In the past, boundaries could have been established as a

psychological economy when some resolution of perceptions had to be accomplished without

enough data. Now, with media rich communications the data is present to redefine how

boundaries are perceived. Table One evidences the occurrence of this. Second, he tendency

of strong group identifiers to define boundaries somewhat different than weak group

identifiers has been mentioned as a second cognitive mechanism. The number of weak

group identifiers that exist indicate that a slight shift in knowledge and communication realities

could effortlessly lead to redefining boundaries. Third, the affect of impermeable boundaries

on low status people has been mentioned. When boundaries are impermeable, class action

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likely results because there is little possibility for an individual breaking down those

boundaries. Mass shifts in cognitizing boundaries can result because of this phenomenon.

Fourth, the empowerment of individuals to express their social identifies across traditional

boundaries has boundary redefining effects. Existing patterns of perceiving boundaries

become less influential and new competing perceptions of boundaries can be created. The

developing techniques for perceiving boundaries compete effectively in many instances

against former boundary perceptions. Finally fifth, new group boundaries can be produced by

the incentives of tension reduction. As the importance of lower tension, less intergroup

animosities, and equality increase incentives, more social groupings in emerging boundary

realities occur.

Boundary Concepts and Political Realities

Conflictual politics can develop from adjustments to boundary concepts. How people perceive

boundaries between groupings possibly remains stable for long periods of time. As conditions

affecting how boundaries are cognitized change, unstable perceptions of boundaries can

occur. In some instances, different people in former groupings begin to appreciate boundaries

differently. Another possibility is that, including social mobility factors, some groups begin to

perceive boundary issues with very high intensity beliefs. Other adjustments in boundary

cognitions can similarly cause conflict.

Table Four presents several salient factors that occur with globalization. These factors all are

influential in shaping how people perceive boundaries. Hedetoft explain globilization affects

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sovereignity/authority, mass/elite (dis)trust, historical identity, and security/threat scenarios.

The Hedetoft model presents the receprocal affect of globalism with each of these factors.

Figure One hypthesizes that globalism has a substantial influence on how the nation is

perceived. The four nodes presented Figure Four "Can hardly be disputed as being at the

core of national self-images and perceptions of independence, though it might be argued that

they are not exhaustive." (Hedetoft, pp. 1-2) According to Hedetoff, "Globalization can be

viewed as a set of processes that derives from, but also transcends, the parameters on which

nation-states and internationality are constructed.

Hedetoff explains, "For most nation-states and international institutions constructed around

principles of egalitarianism and symmetrical interdependence, globalization implies less

financial control, more political vulnerability, increased levels of (inter)dependence, new

supraterritorial processes, and transnational networks." Changes with globalism, also, include

pronounced hierarchies of power and new political cleavages.

Figure ThreeGlobalization Factors that Affect Boundary Cognition

,

Hedetoft, p 2

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"Globalization can be viewed as a set of processes that derives from, but also transcends, the

parameters on which nation-states and internationality are constructed. Such a view

challenges the way in which structures of power and authority are configured in a

Westphalian, state-centric perspective, as deriving from inside state borders and from the

international interaction of states. Globalism entails more pronounced hierarchies of power

and new political cleavages between binary properties of state and government. Changing

groups affect the nexus between power and authority. "(Hedetoff, p.2)

Globalization's implication is undoubtedly a challenge to states. ICT is not ,however, likely to

result in a single world without states, without political borders, and devoid of national

interests. Boundary psychology appears capable of explaining how changes in cognitizing

the dynamics of power and authority, can be identified by reasoning about four national

"nodes": sovereignty, mass/elite interaction, political history/collective identity, and security

and threat scenarios." (Hedetoff, p.2-6)

Examples of the effect of changes in boundary perceptions are numerous. Lamont and

Molna discuss the 1848 French Revolution and the 1871 Paris Communice as exemplifying

boundary conflict. The 1848 Conflict occurred as changes happened in class boundaries. The

1871 Paris Commune occurred together with the emergence of strongly residential

neibhborhoods. In 1871, the neighborhoods were central in mobilizing individuals to the

conflict. (Lamont and Molna, pp. 181-82) Both Paris urpisings could be explained caused by

instability in defining psychological boundaries. In 1848, class boundaries were being

redefined, and in 1871 residential boundaries were a recent development.

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There are other examples of the boundary phenomena causing conflicts. The most

prominent example of a political boundary conflict emerging from changing perception of

boundaries is the present conflict along the U.S.-Mexican border. Recently, changing

perceptions of the border have resulted in people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border

changing their concept of the boundary.

Within the United States, people have recently begun to perceive the U.S.-Mexican border

with hostility. For many decades, a substantial amount of informality was accepted in the U.S.

for the southern border, and people not infrequently entered the United States illegally. On

several occasions a general amnesty allowed illegal immigrants to become regular citizens.

In recent years, this practice of informality has been seriously questioned. Efforts have been

made to create physical barriers blocking immigration from the South. A substantial increase

in the enforcement of immigration laws has occured.

On the Mexican side of border, substantial conflict has developed between the government

and an aggressive drug cartel. The exact conflict is difficult to explain but somehow the

conflict is taking a terrible toll in human life. The violence occurring immediately south of

order is substantial enough that U.S. citizens have become reluctant to enter Mexico. ICT

possibly is a factor in a class action approach changing boundary issues. The individual

attainment may be blocked leading to class action and boundary instability.

The substantial instability that appears to prevail on both sides of the U.S.-Meixcan border are

convincing evidence that profound changes have been happening in how people on both

sides in the border perceive this boundary. ICT's Influence is difficult to determine in this

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case. Possibly, however, I CT is making people on both sides of the border more perceptive

of border issues.

Another virtual side to U.S.-Mexican boarder conflict is that people's well removed from the

border itself are now factor in border related issues. The greater communications strength

resulting from ICT has produced an attentive public far removed from the border itself. This

redefined attentive public lacks decades of experience with immigration across the southern

border. The more inclusive grouping has defined border issues differently. Border issues

have been used to rally political activists. As more communications and news reach them

these distant people, more political stances are taken on boarder issues.

A second present day conflicts that has overtones of perceptions of boundaries involves th

EU. Boundary concepts may prove extremely useful in explanation of EU issues. After the

Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, the 1995 Expansion, the 2004 Expansion, and the 2007

Expansion the EU has become a difficult entity with more boundary groupings than can

readily be cognitized. The original Treaty of Rome created the Common Market of six

countries. Expansion before the Treaty of Maastricht increased membership in EU to 12

countries. Maastricht was the currency treaty that created the Euro. Beyond that the EU

expanded almost uncontrollably as many new members states were admitted. In 2011, 27

nations claimed membership in EU. An additional 8 countries have been designated

“candidate countries.”

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Figure FourThe Expansion of the European Union

Source: Civitas

Whatever else can be said about the EU, this strange admixture of nations is a boundaries

nightmare. Within the European Union, conflict between North countries and South countries

is profound. Even more difficult to imagine are animosities between the West countries and

the East countries. Somehow this conglomeration of disparate political and cultural systems

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is attempting to establish workable policies of economic and government coordination.

Differences among the members states in terms of culture, economics, and government

experience is, however, great. Similarly, differences in standards of living are profound.

From what is known about boundaries as a psychological concept, the present-day European

Union realistically anticipates some rather unstable politics. With the substantial innovations

in ICT, the conditions are really present for some astounding conflicts over adjustments in

boundary perception. There are many instances where empowerment of citizens of one

country may produce mass realignment of perceptions of national boundaries.

European Union's relations with the external world are even more tenuous from the

perspective of boundaries theory EU as an entity is almost an unbelievable one from the

boundaries perspective. Imagining a grouping with so much conflicts and disparate culture

can be difficult. Other more established boundary groupings tend to regard EU as at a loss

because the entity from the perspective of psychological boundaries is troubled. The EU is

analyzed as a profound boundaries case in the present-day. Utilizing psychological boundary

concepts to analyze EU leads to the conclusion that the disparate nature of culture and

political experience potentially causes political crisis

When the European Union is viewed externally, the situation becomes even more difficult

The boundaries concept convinces that external powers cannot connect with anything in a

reasonable way within the EU. Perceptions of groupings and boundaries are likely to prove

deceptive as the established nation states are shamelessly replaced by a questionable

bureaucratic agglomeration. External powers cannot long trust or ignore boundary issues in

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the EU. A possibly outcome is conflict as boundary perceptions of this strange amalgamation

fail.

What this author describes as "the newbies problem" looms as another possible problem.

Today's EU bureaucracy may be stable with most present bureaucrats well familiar with

nation state realities. Replacing these bureaucrats with those only familiar with EU

bureaucracy with the passage of time could result in much greater psychological boundaries

problems. Newbies are likely to be motivated more by rational concerns than earlier

generations familiar with the nation state system. ICT almost undeniably increases

everyone's familiarity with psychological boundary issues. As boundary issues become

prominent, newbies are likely to escalate EU boundary issues. The more prominent boundary

issues, the more likely irrational analysis.

This section of paper has attempted to explain the relationship between psychological

boundary concepts and political conflict. The 1848 French Revolution and the 1871 Paris

Commune exemplify how social groupings and residential groupings can have cognitive

significance in the organization of political conflict. Next, conflict along the U.S. Mexican

border was discussed as exemplifying instability in perceptions of boundaries. On both sides

of this border, changing conditions affected by I CT are producing instability in how this

international border is perceived. U.S.-Mexican border conflicts of the present-day have been

explained as influenced by adjusting perceptions of this boundary. The third example present

in this paper was the EU. After the Treaty of Maastricht and the introduction of the Euro, a

rapid expansion occurred in EU member countries. When the EU reached 27 countries, the

organization became a strange admixture of disparate cultures and government experiences.

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The boundaries concept predicts adjustment of these conflicts are conflict producing.

Differences between the North countries and the South countries and the East countries and

the West countries of EU may be resolved only difficulty. External perceptions of the EU may

similarly results in substantial crisis. These three examples are all indicative of the usefulness

of the psychological boundaries concepts in appreciating how political situations develop.

An Increasing Ability to Communicate across Traditional Boundaries

There is some instability in perceptions of international boundaries. There are, as has been

explained in the proceeding section, some instances where international borders are

significantly influenced by changing groupings. The boundaries concept explains how

individuals in each country cognitize difference groupings. ICT is now exerting a substantial

influence on how borders are perceived.

ICT influences changing these perceptions in several ways. Information that can change

perceptions of borders is now readily available on Internet. Table One was used to exemplify

this. In earlier decades, finding information about a different entity could require substantial

effort. Now, the Internet user has all the information needed to reorganize his boundary

concepts on his own PC. This allows adjustments in how borders are perceived.

As ICT becomes more pervasive already substantial redefinition of boundary concepts is

occurring. The ability to establish one's social identity across borders is likely to produce

substantial redefinition in boundaries concepts. Internet users' ability to have social identity

across boundaries is increasing. ICT now offers more people the ability to effectively

communicate their social identities to people of other cultures.

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English subtitles together with European television sequences is possibly the best example of

communicating across traditional boundaries in the present day. The German soap opera

Verbotene Liebe has several developing stories, one story tread is about Christian and Oliver.

The entire soap opera Verbotene Liebe is broadcast in Germany five days a week at 6 pm.

Christian and Oliver's Story is excerpted from the full version of Verbotene Leibe, translated

into English, subtitled, and posted on YouTube two or three times a week.

Exactly how these subtitled sequences of Christian and Oliver's Story appear on YouTube is

somewhat uncertain. In the proceeding year, they have been posted by two different persons

identifying themselves with pseudonyms. Up to October 2010, " Ichglotlzutube" did the

translating and posting of Christian and Oliver sequences. After October 2010, "Mercury

May" continued Ichglotlzutube's Internet work. Now, one can watch sequences of the soap

opera almost the same day they appear on German television.

In the last few months, Christian and Oliver have had a gay marriage and have

already been foster parents. The Christian and Oliver's sequences present this gay German

couple's involvements with a large group of heterosexual friends. Set in Dusseldorf,

Germany, Christian and Oliver's Story features several German settings including a

coffeehouse bar and an estate with large traditional German manor house. Christian is a

horse trainer at the manor house stables. Oliver manages NoLimits, the coffee house bar.

The flat share situation above NoLimits where Christian, Oliver, and other tenants live is

frequently a scene for the drama's action. Other scenes frequently feature NoLimits and the

manor house.

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Figure FiveChristian and Oliver's Story

Christian Mann played by Thore Schölermannand Oliver Sabel portraited by Joe Weil

Christian and Oliver's Story provides excellent qualitative data useful in an interpretivist

analysis of ICT and the boundaries phenomena. Various sequences of Christian and Oliver's

Story allow the audience substantial opportunity to identify with a German lifestyle. A

substantial revision of ideas about German culture occurs as a result of these sequences of

Christian and Oliver's Story on YouTube.

The hours of dramatic content that comprise Christian and Oliver's Story are influential in

reshaping boundary ideas. ICT is such that these videos can be downloaded onto one's PC.

The boundary shaping function of Christian and Oliver's Story is a nice combination of content

and IT. The German lifestyle presented by the sequences provides information useful in

reshaping relevant boundaries.

The proceeding section of this paper discussed how boundary concepts could prove useful in

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anticipating conflicts within the European Union and between the EU and external powers.

Christian Oliver's Story is excellent qualitative data that improves knowledge about possible

conflictual realities within the EU. This German soap opera is convincing that distinctly

German culture likely will continue as a significant influence. Some of the German insular

values and themes presented in Christian and Oliver's Story remind that a complete

homogenization of culture throughout the EU is not likely going to happen. From Christian

and Oliver's Story, one perceives the psychological boundaries issue within the EU

completely differently.

From the qualitative methods perspective the issues raised by Christian and Oliver's Story are

considerably more difficult than this though. ICT has entered the Web 2.0 phase. Social

networking is the important feature of web 2.0. Simply receiving Christian and Oliver content

from YouTube is exemplary of Web 1.0. The complexities that occur in Web 2.0, are greater

than those that happened in Web 1.0.

Some active learning techniques have been identified by experts as qualitative techniques.

Holstein and Grubrium write about social action as a qualitative method. (Holstein and

Grubrium, 2008) Madison discusses street performance as a qualitative technique. (Madison,

2008) Web 2.0 is supportive of active learning with regard to Christian Oliver's Story.

Facebook is exemplary of the social networking that is a defining feature of Web 2.0.

Consistent with the Web 2.0 idea this author has recently become a Facebook Friend of one

of the actors featured in Christian Oliver's Story.

While the Facebook Friend perspective on Christian and Oliver's Story is a recent occurrence,

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undeniably the new experience has considerable implications for studying boundary

psychology. The discussion of the European Union contained in this paper is undeniably to

some extent influenced by the Facebook Friend with one of the television drama's actors.

This is an excellent example of learning by involvement being knowledge producing and thus

qualitative methods.

To what extent this paper's analysis of the EU and boundaries psychology are influenced by

being Facebook Friends can be left to the reader to determine. From the author's

perspectives, EU concerns about psychological boundaries appear more salient and more

realistic as results of being Facebook Friends. Although date presented in this paper was

collected here in the U.S., being Facebook Friends was invaluable in the constructionism

used in presenting EU issues that pertain to boundary psychology.

Cross-Cultural Conflicts without Traditional Boundaries

This paper's discussion of ICT and psychological boundaries has placed considerable

emphasis on how extensively ICT could revise how boundaries are currently cognitized.

Discussing the Internet in terms of Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 allows concluding that

Internet is influential in causing people to change boundary perceptions.

National boundaries have for centuries been important guides to how citizens organize the

important groupings in their thinking processes. Cognitive schema have substantially

followed from ordinary national boundaries. In many instances, people simply lacked

information that would allow them to reorganize their boundary concepts. Now with Internet

connectivity, virtually every PC has instant access to questions about cultures. The

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increased availability of information on demanded continually supports the conclusion that

boundary are likely to follow social identity groupings. The cognitive dominance that national

boundaries established is waning. How people reason about the international system is

meaningfully influence by psychological groupings produced by pervasive ICT.

Influential persons are likely to assign lower significant to national boundaries now than in the

past. Conflicts, however, still may prevail among members of new social identity groupings.

The emerging social identify groups may even be more conflictual than national boundary

groupings We can even imagine intergroup conflicts between members of different social

identity groups.

Technological determinism is rarely seen as deciding the future. Beliefs about ICT's

importance are usually tempered by other factors that affect the acceptance of ICT. Conflicts

cannot be resolved by ICT. Differences in culture and expression will continue conflictual

even as traditional boundaries become less importance.

One famous example of the problems ahead can be found in how Germans and Americans

discussed the climate change phenomena. Figure Five presents a famous cover of Der

Spiegel from January 1986 which presents the cathedral in Cologne partially submerged in

water with the headline Die Klima-Katastrophe. The difference in the U. S. expression for the

phenomenon has been commented upon on by von Storch and Krauss, as "constructed in

culturally different ways." When extreme weather is discussed in the United States, the

expression "global warming" is used. Germans instead favor “klimakatastrophe." or climate

catastrophe to describe the same weather occurrences.(von Storch and Krauss, 2005).

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Figure SixDer Spiegel Cover

January 1986

The difference between Germany and the United States in discussing changes in climate is

useful in anticipating how non technological factors are likely to continue as influences even

as ICT supplants national boundaries with social identity groupings. While the cognitive

strength of national boundaries appears on the wane, cultural factors likely will produce

conflicts in emerging cognitive groupings. When social identity boundaries supersede

national boundaries, are people likely to understand one another.

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If one returns to the discussion about fuzzy set logics and psychological boundaries, one

perceives that the redefinition of groupings may well be a continual process. Fuzzy set logic

suggests that as cognitive groupings occur the process of breaking down the grouping

similarly begins. Inevitably, in any cognitive grouping there are people who are strong

identifiers and people who are weak identifiers. Those people near the periphery of any

grouping are defining the social group so as to make their exit possible. From a logical

perspective, those who are weakest identifiers have already found another possibility in

cognitive redefinition.

The psychological idea boundaries proves a positive concept for discussing social change.

One imagines that with more ability to gain pragmatic information about social reality, more

effective cognitive boundaries can be established. ICT is producing meaningful increments

and assisting develop groupings that are rationally self-interest oriented. The significance of

our greater ability to access what we choose is likely to be happier and more productive

psychological boundary groups.

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