Page 24 - Education in a Digital World

Developing a Global Perspective 11

of the modern condition are increasingly drawn under its conceptual umbrella”
(Hirst et al. 2009, p.4). There are a number of other ‘aspects of the modern condi-
tion’ that therefore must be borne in mind throughout our proceeding discussions
of globalisation. One major domain to be considered is the sphere of political glo-
balisation. Increasingly, political organisations around the world have been faced by
phenomena that have not been confined to – or easily addressed – within national
boundaries. Issues such as terrorism, the environment and climate, famine and other
humanitarian disasters have all merited multinational responses. One tangible outcome
of this has been a growing global reorganisation of legal and ethical affairs through
organisations such as the international criminal courts, international police and
‘peacekeeping’ forces (e.g. Interpol). Similarly, political governance and leadership
in a number of areas of policymaking and political control have been ceded to
‘intergovernmental’ and ‘supranational’ organisations such as the United Nations
and the European Union, as well as traditional world ‘superpowers’ such as
the United States who could be seen as acting on occasion as a de facto world gov-
ernment. In all these cases, politics would certainly appear to be an increasingly
internationally determined concern.
Other obvious aspects of globalisation beyond the economic include the
increasingly global nature of cultural change. This is perhaps most apparent in terms
of language – not least the growth of global forms of world ‘Englishes’, Spanish
and Mandarin as linguae francae.Also ofsignificance is the rise of global and interrelated
forms of world religious ideas and practices, alongside other non-territorially-based
‘world cultures’. For some commentators, this increased cultural ‘hybridisation’ is a
welcome element of contemporary life – leading to seemingly creative new global
forms and trends in spheres such as music, fashion and art. Mindful of the rise of
global media organisations and cultural brands such as Disney and Nike, other
commentators point more guardedly towards the tendency for “the artefacts of a
few dominant cultures to be spread much more widely across the world” (Unwin
2009a, p.15). Yet regardless of their desirability, such shifts and changes are clear
examples of the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of peoples and
cultures around the world.
Of course, it is important to remember that while all these economic, financial,
political and cultural changes are certainly intensified and accelerated, they are not
necessarily new. It could be argued that many of the changes and phenomena
described above were in existence long before the latter half of the twentieth cen-
tury. The key point to the globalisation thesis, however, is that these recent trends
and changes are unprecedented in terms of the extent of their scope, intensity,
velocity and impact. This is of course due to a number of interconnected factors.
On one hand, the structures supporting these recent intensifications are many –
including the rise of economic and military superpowers such as the US, USSR and
latterly China, as well as international economic and political responses (such as
the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’ during the 1980s). Yet perhaps even more
than these significant political realignments, however, it is crucial to recognise the