SCALING, SPATIALITY, AND ACTORS:

APPROACHES TO THEORIZING GLOBALIZATION

 

With this panel, the Globalization and Education SIG is aiming to direct attention on the spatial issues that frame and inform theorizing about globalization.  The papers examine this in relation to agency, scalar analysis and internationalization strategies.

 

 

Agency and Power: Confronting Contemporary Theories of Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education

Alma Maldonado-Maldonado (University of Arizona)
Brendan Cantwell (University of Arizona)

ABSTRACT:  Globalization has been under-theorized in higher education scholarship. Most commonly, globalization is distinguished from internationalization where the former is a downward pressing meta-process and the later is how institutions respond. This approach is problematic on at least two counts: 1) It is passive and a-spatial, globalization is seen as something that floats above, it is everywhere and nowhere; furthermore, it is often portrayed as something inevitable and neutral; 2) It represents higher education as reactive, stripping agency from universities in global processes. “Glonacal” or “Glocalization” frameworks improve upon the dominant approach by stitching together space at global, local and national levels and by introducing the role of agency, which interacts complexly with structural features across spatial layers. While the role of agency is emphasized, it is not clear as to what enables and limits agency. This paper expands the theorization of the globalization of higher education and the implications in the study of practices. It focuses on the role of agency through the lenses structural and social power relations, discursive ordering, and intersubjectivity at different scales/levels. Of particular interest are practices (understood as empirical guideposts for theoretical formation) in the production and reproduction of higher education spaces within globalization.

GATS and the Politics of Education: A Pluri-Scalar Analysis of Liberalisation Factors
Antoni Verger (Universteit van Amsterdam)

 

ABSTRACT:  The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) introduces complexity in the global governance of education scenario. Since this agreement was created in the framework of the WTO (1995), new non-conventional actors and extra-educative elements are involved in activities of education regulation. The system of rules of the GATS pushes for a progressive liberalization of education all over the world. Nevertheless, education liberalization under the GATS is also a contested process. We argue that local contestation is able to shape the form of the new global trade regime that the Agreement promotes. Specifically, the paper explores how domestic actors, its ideas and strategies are key elements to understand the constitution of this global process. Our results show that globalization is not a top-down process and that global and domestic events are related in a dialectical way. More interestingly, we obtain new evidences to support the argument of the Global Structured Education Agenda approach on the sectorial and scalar division of education regulation.  Our arguments are based on intensive fieldwork involving three country case studies (Argentina, Chile and Spain) that are analysed through a comparative strategy. Our fieldwork also contemplates interviews with international actors involved in the negotiation subsystem of the GATS.

 

Paradox or Parody? Globalisation and Internationalisation of Higher Education

Brian D. Denman (University of New England)
 

ABSTRACT: An ongoing study on international university co-operation has been conducted to classify international university organizations by purpose and administrative patterns.  Between the years from 1996-2008, surveys were sent to over 600 international university organizations worldwide in which respondents were asked to classify their entity.  Surveys were in part designed to identify patterns between types of international university organizations.  While characteristics were found which distinguish unique qualities, a further analysis has been undertaken to determine whether such entities evolved as a consequence of globalization (i.e. massification, transnational regulatory frameworks,  ICT networks and knowledge banks) or because of economic imperative related to internationalization strategies.  The paper suggests that globalization and internationalization policies and practices converge as well as diverge around the world and accordingly are fundamentally different in both response and action. Drawing upon data collected, the analysis considers the significance of higher education in economic returns to the nation-state, the influence of global governance and high technology, and current issues involving access, equity, and quality in higher education.

 

DISCUSSANTS:
Anthony Welch (University of Sydney)
Gita Steiner-Khamsi (Teachers College, Columbia University)