Page 28 - Education in a Digital World

Developing a Global Perspective 15

explanation belies the fact that many of the concepts, explanations and analyses
outlined so far in this chapter are by no means as clear-cut and certain as they are
sometimes presented. This is especially the case with the notion of globalisation.
Indeed, as Rizvi and Lingard (2010, p.23) remind us, ‘globalisation’ is a “highly
contested notion”. As such it is important to retain a sense of critical distance and
perspective when considering the actual significance of many of the ideas and
arguments presented so far in this chapter – however forcibly and assertively they
may have been argued. Indeed, it can be countered, for example, that terms such as
‘globalisation’, ‘knowledge economy’, ‘information society’ and the like are often
used within educational debate in a decidedly empty manner – i.e. as labels and
signifiers to lend a sense of gravitas, significance and urgency to otherwise contestable
actions. In one sense, then, many of the discussions and debates of the globalisations
of contemporary education and the associated role of digital technology could be
accused of being little more than what Ellen Meiksins Wood (1997) rather cuttingly
describes as ‘globaloney’.
Thus having acknowledged the tone of current discussion and debate, it is
important that we develop our own more appropriate and more measured take on
the complex nature of – and complex relationships between – globalisation, global
economics, education and technology. In particular, it would seem important to
resist the temptation to produce too universal an analysis. For example, it is
important to not overstate the case for the emergence of a wholly global economy,
a wholly global tide of educational marketisation and decentralisation, or a blanket
impact of globalisation on all economic, social, political and cultural aspects of
education and society. Correspondingly, it is important not to overstate the irrelevance
of national economies and domestic strategies of national economic management.
As we shall remind ourselves at regular points throughout this book, it is especially
important not to overstate the case and succumb to the notion of the ‘powerless state’.
If we are to develop a more considered understanding of the globalisations of
education and technology then a useful framework to turn to is David Held and
colleagues’ differentiation of three main approaches towards globalisation that have
emerged within the social sciences since the 1980s. First is what Held identifies as
the dominant view of globalisation within much of the social science literature
as well as in popular, political and commercial accounts – i.e. the ‘globalist’ (often
referred to as the ‘hyper-globalist’) perspective. Indeed, a globalist sense certainly
pervades many of the arguments already considered in this chapter about education,
technology and society. In more detail, a globalist stance sees most aspects of society
as influenced by the rise of the global economy, the emergence of institutions of
global governance and the development of global culture and civil society. In this
sense, globalist accounts perceive the world as having entered a ‘global age’ defined
by flows and scapes of capital, goods, services, people, technologies, information
and ideas. Globalists point to the demise of the nation state as a dominant form of
leadership and governance. Instead, the nation state is seen as having been super-
seded by the rise of global markets and forms of international cooperation and