Lebanese Global Villages: Practices of reproduction and constitution of global communities

扎根于黎巴嫩村庄的全球侨民社区在过去世纪中发展起来，并遍布世界各地。与此同时，世界各地的社区的个人之间出现了永久性的全球流动，通信的高度一体化正在发展。新的媒体和数字平台使社区充满活力，因为音频和视频通信现在几乎随时可用。互联网上社区的这种虚拟复制为联合活动和联合行动开辟了更多的机会。人们认为，新的信息和通信技术加强了跨越国界的社区的社会团结。社区内现有的社会秩序模式变得更加重要。从侨民社区的角度来看，目前的政治和社会调整主要涉及权力的重新分配，他们希望参与其中。该项目的一个目的是发展一个新的理论框架，重新考虑传统的类别，如种族，社区和民族国家。该项目的成员制定了一种新的经验方法，以纳入信息和通信技术与社会变革之间的相互作用。最后，项目的结果显示了全球社区成员在其所生活的社会中参与社会和政治的可能性。为了实现这些目标，科学家们将黎巴嫩的那些村庄Aitou、Hadchit和Ehden作为他们实地考察的起点。从这些村庄，他们扩大了他们的实证研究到德国，澳大利亚和美国。科学家将散居定义为支离破碎的社会秩序。为了将这一概念置于现代语境中，他们完善了TÖNNIES（1887）的Gemeinschaft概念，并将其与Schatzki（2002）的社会实践理论联系起来。发展的理论强调社会生活的异质性和情感时刻。地球村的成员通过集体的社会实践，如传统的舞蹈和仪式，以及日常的电话实践，建立和复制这些情感关系。该项目提出了一个新的理论框架，地球村作为一个有价值的概念，做研究的过程中，在现代全球化的世界社区建设。

Global diaspora communities with roots in villages in Lebanon have developed over the course of the past century and spread all over the world. At the same time, there is a permanent worldwide mobility occurring and intensive integration of communication developing among the individuals of the communities in different parts of the world. New media and digital platforms make the communities dynamic, since audio and video communication is now available virtually at any time. This virtual duplication of the community in the internet opens up additional opportunities for conjoining activities and joint actions. It is presumed that the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) strengthen the social consolidation of communities that transcend national boundaries. The existing patterns of social order within the communities gain additional importance. From the viewpoint of the diaspora community, the present political and social reorientation primarily involves a redistribution of power, in which they want to participate. A purpose of the project is to develop a new theoretical framework reconsidering conventional categories such as ethnicity, community and the nation state. The members of the project develop a new empirical approach to include the interplay between ICTs and social change. Finally the results of the projects exhibit possibilities of social and political participation of members of global communities in the societies in which they are living. To encounter these aims the scientists use the villages Aitou, Hadchit and Ehden in Lebanon as start points for their fieldwork. From these villages they expand their empirical studies to Germany, Australia and the USA. The scientists define Diasporas as fragmented social orders. To put this concept in a modern context, they refine the concept of Gemeinschaft by TÖNNIES (1887) and connect it with the theory of social practices of SCHATZKI (2002). The developed theory emphasizes the heterogeneity, and emotional moment of social life. The members of the global villages establish and reproduce these affective relations by collective social practices, such as traditional dances and ceremonies, and day-to-day practices as phone calls. The project suggests the new theoretical framework of the global village as a valuable concept to do research on the process of community-building in the modern globalized world.