Community values, cultural institutions, and globalization

A thought struck me while sitting in class yesterday afternoon: How would it affect the character and institutions of our culture if society at large came to understand the vital importance of community? Many occupations today require frequent travel or relocation. If it were generally understood that every person should be connected to a family, a church, and a healthy community, how might these occupations be different?

Consider a couple of examples: The globe-trotting journalist or foreign correspondent who works for a major news outlet spends most weeks of the year traveling between the various locations he covers. If he has a family, he's away from them for much of the year, and he certainly isn't able to be involved in a local church or a community. Or consider the career diplomat, who moves from country to country throughout his career, spending no more than a few years in each location. Even if his family is with him, they probably never have a chance to put down roots in a community with shared culture and values, and probably can't develop a sense of belonging to a particular home. These sorts of occupations are numerous. Members of the military usually move every few years. Businessmen who work for companies with branches across the country and around the world often spend much of their time traveling. These are just a few examples.

Some who do understand the importance of family, church, and community might say that Christians should just avoid these occupations as much as possible. If we want to see such values in society at large, however, I don't think we should simply leave these jobs to others. How would these jobs, and the institutions they support, change if community values became the norm and even the people in charge of the institutions tried to reflect them in their organizations' structures? How might this affect commerce and intercourse between various regions of a nation, and between countries in the international community? Would letting people stay at home necessarily result in less intercourse with other parts of the world? How might this affect the phenomenon of globalization that the world has seen in the last couple of decades?

If you know of anyone who's thought about, or even better, written about these issues, I'd love to hear about it.