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Developing a Global Perspective 19

the globalisation thesis seriously. As even some generally sceptical commentators
acknowledge, “while localities and national systems inflect the processes of globali-
sation differently and struggles are generated, convergences and homogenisation of
educational forms and modalities, driven by monocultural logics are very clearly
evident within and between settings” (Apple 2010, p.1).
Of course it is important to recognise at this early stage of our analysis that any
changes that can be identified will be iterative and cumulative in nature. In rejecting
the sceptical position we are not proposing instead that there is any identifiable
global force for change when it comes to education and technology. Instead, we
should simply acknowledge that there are a large number of changes in education
(both minor and major) that could be said to be associated to some degree with the
activities of a range of subjects of globalisation. Crucially, we need to acknowledge
that these changes are not reducible to any one dominant ‘effect’. Moreover,
these changes should not be seen to be reducible to the interests of any one particular
dominant organisation or subject. Yet on the other hand, many of these changes
clearly do relate to the issues associated with globalisation discussed throughout this
chapter. Certainly, then, one should not attempt to understand contemporary education
without considering the issues associated with the processes and discourses of globali-
sation. Central to the concerns of this book, of course, is how digital technologies play
a key role in all of these areas of global educational change. Yet we would be
mistaken to think that all of these changes are driven by technology alone. At best,
globalisation must be understood as a combination of “power relations, practices and
technology” (Schirato and Webb 2003, p.1).
The aim of the remainder of this book is therefore simple – to bring all these
concerns together, and to develop a detailed and critical understanding of digital tech-
nology in light of the wider global transformations of education. In order to achieve
this, we therefore need to problematise many of the ‘big’ ideas and assumptions that
we have been presented with in this opening chapter. This brings us back to Colin
Hay’s earlier distinction between viewing globalisation as process and as discourse –
reminding us that very little of what is presented under the label of ‘globalisation’ is
a matter of fact. Above all, then, it is important to acknowledge that notions such
as ‘globalisation’, the ‘knowledge economy’ and ‘information society’ are simply “sets
of value preferences” (Rizvi and Lingard 2010, p.32) – i.e. social imaginaries and
ideological formations that present common (and often persuasive) understandings
of how things ‘should be’ and ‘will be’. Thus, as this book progresses, we would do
well to resist the temptation to take every concept and every explanation that has
been outlined in this opening chapter at face value. As Nicholas Garnham (2002)
concludes, accepting unquestioningly the notion of something like the ‘information
society’ does not “serve as a useful starting point” for any thorough social science
analysis. Rather, the uncritical use of concepts such as these “merely and dangerously
distracts – as is often intended – from the real issues” (Garnham 2002, p.267).
It therefore makes good sense at this stage of our analysis to treat the notions of the
‘information age’, ‘knowledge economy’ and ‘globalisation’ as ‘problematic’– i.e. as