Standards and Standard Setting, Global

Generally speaking, a standard is an agreed-on repeatable way of doing something. Standards have become an integral element of all modern societies and of global society as a whole. Almost every sector of society, almost every activity in daily life, at work or during leisure time, is influenced and often governed by standards and standardized behavior.

Examples of standards are easy to name, starting with the standardized time and its various zones across the planet. They include mundane matters such as Internet programming and its top-level domains, paper sizes, and various measurements for coffee to go. On a more significant level are standards of corporate behavior and accountability or standards of health care. They are indispensable facilitators, especially in trade and business but also in terms of technical issues and developments or in terms of conduct. Because they are mostly norms or rules accepted worldwide, standards are part of the increasingly global social organization of modernity and contribute in the name of efficiency to greater similarities across countries. Standards also facilitate the increasing interactions among people from different cultures. Furthermore, as regulatory frameworks, standards serve as the basis for international conventions and treaties. Although standards and standard setting certainly do not cause globalization, they make globalization possible.