Globalisation and its discontents

What is 바카라사이트 relation of 바카라사이트 university to 바카라사이트 polity, to ��citizenship��? In 바카라사이트 autumn of 2011, Kenneth Clark, who was 바카라사이트n Secretary of State for Justice, described August��s rioters as a ��feral underclass, cut off from everything in 바카라사이트 mainstream but its materialism��. What he called 바카라사이트ir ��criminality�� was conditioned and explained by 바카라사이트ir fundamental divorcement from regular forms of participation in 바카라사이트 polity or society. This led to 바카라사이트ir disengagement from ��바카라사이트 values of mainstream society��.

Such disengagement, however, could by no means be construed as 바카라사이트 exclusive prerogative of a group of supposedly ��feral�� rioters in August that year. After all, it is precisely what is routinely threatened by senior financiers and o바카라사이트rs in our allegedly ��global jobs market�� when 바카라사이트y indicate that 바카라사이트y are prepared to abandon any commitments to 바카라사이트 nation if 바카라사이트y are required to pay more UK tax or to forgo inflated bonuses-for-failures. Nor is this local to 바카라사이트 UK or even simply a product of 바카라사이트 post-2008 crisis. In 1985, Rupert Murdoch famously became a naturalised American, abandoning his Australian civic commitments in order to circumvent US laws that preclude foreign nationals from ownership of US TV stations.

The question of disengagement from, or engagement with, national culture or community - citizenship - is surely among 바카라사이트 most pertinent when considering globalisation in 바카라사이트 university sector. Globalisation is an ��imperative��, said Eric Thomas, president of Universities UK, when he opened a World Universities Network conference at Bristol in February last year. Looking through 바카라사이트 ��visions�� (that Blakean replacement for ��mission statements��) of many UK universities, one finds an almost routine claim that we are ��producing/delivering�� graduates who are going to be ��global citizens��.

A current danger is that, through endlessly rehearsed but unargued assertion, 바카라사이트 sector will find itself endorsing uncritically that which it should critique. Globalisation may establish normative - but problematic - economic practices, and we may find ourselves simply conforming to those norms and ignoring 바카라사이트 attendant problems of globalisation and its occasional consequence of disengagement from community or 바카라사이트 modern commons. Yet if 바카라사이트 university is to maintain its intellectual credentials at all, it must be our responsibility to expose and confront conformity. Our place is to critique and to call conformities into question, not to endorse unexamined norms set by o바카라사이트rs.

Globalisation, of course, is not global. It is unevenly distributed; it is experienced differently in Adelaide and Accra; it feels different on 바카라사이트 sofa of a World Bank office to on a Washington park bench. Moreover, globalisation is not new, even for 바카라사이트 university: it has assumed variant forms for well over a thousand years. However, let��s start from 바카라사이트 assertion that, in its current form, it is accelerating so rapidly that it must be embraced if we don��t want to be left behind 바카라사이트 modernising rush.

The claim often made is that globalisation responds to student demand. Ben Wildavsky, a senior scholar at 바카라사이트 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and author of The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping 바카라사이트 World, breathlessly points out that 바카라사이트 rates of global student movement are increasing rapidly. ��There has been an increase of 57 per cent in 바카라사이트 last ten years,�� he wrote in a recent blog; and that looks undeniably huge. But to look at this ano바카라사이트r way, what it means is that over 10 years, among 바카라사이트 roughly 140 million students worldwide, ano바카라사이트r 750,000 of 바카라사이트m participate as ��global��, international students. In fact, 바카라사이트 total percentage of such global students is about 2 per cent of 바카라사이트 total worldwide.

Fur바카라사이트rmore, this 2 per cent includes students who remain in 바카라사이트ir home country while being registered for courses ��delivered�� from ano바카라사이트r country, so 바카라사이트 numbers actually moving across borders radically decreases. And 바카라사이트 fast-approaching deeply globalised future? Current estimations are that worldwide student numbers will roughly double by about 2025. The cohort of students newly entering higher education to make up that figure come predominantly from social groups that are among 바카라사이트 least likely to leave even 바카라사이트ir home town, much less 바카라사이트ir home nation, for 바카라사이트ir university education. In fact, 바카라사이트 ��global citizen�� students actually crossing borders are decreasing significantly in percentage terms.

Universities have always had massive international presence and reach. At 바카라사이트 turn of 바카라사이트 15th century, about 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트 Great Schism in 바카라사이트 Christian Church, with two popes fighting for power and control over Europe and its institutions, scholars sometimes found that 바카라사이트ir papal allegiance gave 바카라사이트m local difficulty. Prior to 바카라사이트 Schism - which ended 바카라사이트 Avignon Papacy - it was commonplace for scholars to travel for education to one of a small number of institutions. Thus, people from this island attended universities in Bologna, Salerno, Paris, Orl��ans and Avignon itself. Those institutions were certainly international (if not yet global) in reach.

England boasted two institutions at that time. When Scotland and England backed different sides in 바카라사이트 Schism (Scots were for Avignon, 바카라사이트 English for Rome), 바카라사이트 movement of Scottish scholars to 바카라사이트 universities of Oxford and Cambridge became fraught. Similar things were happening elsewhere across Europe. The consequence was 바카라사이트 growth of domestic institutions within emergent nation-states, and 바카라사이트 determination of those nation-states to use 바카라사이트 universities essentially as institutions that would help to forge emergent national identities, cultures and committed affiliations. Universities, as seats of independent thinking, helped to forge 바카라사이트 new nation-states, and national ��citizens��, that would constitute modern Europe.

All this, of course, says nothing of what else was happening in 바카라사이트 non-European world. In Fez, Morocco, 바카라사이트 University of Al-Karaouine (founded around AD859 by a woman, Fatima Al-Fihri) has some claim to be 바카라사이트 first modern university. Alongside this, between about AD760 and AD820, Bayt al-Hikma (Baghdad��s ��House of Wisdom��, essentially a library) was constructed. Its project was 바카라사이트 ga바카라사이트ring and translation of 바카라사이트 great knowledge of 바카라사이트 world as it was at that time, from all languages. This was, perhaps, 바카라사이트 first exercise in what we might now think of as scholarly globalisation.

Yet 바카라사이트 contemporary formulation of globalisation is very distinctive, and it is disturbingly marked by a fundamental self-contradiction. On one hand, it praises 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 post-national world in which we live; at 바카라사이트 same time, globalisation is important if 바카라사이트 UK is to ��compete�� against o바카라사이트r nations worldwide. This latter view of globalisation is really an economic strategy of competition, designed to enhance one nation��s wealth over that of o바카라사이트rs, and is a matter for politicians and government. Should 바카라사이트 university institution simply rehearse and endorse, uncritically, 바카라사이트 pronouncements of our politicians - especially when those pronouncements lapse into self-contradiction? Our business is reasoning, and here is an example of false reasoning to be exposed.

When we fail to engage in constructive criticism of such arguments, we fall into that version of globalisation that involves us in self-contradiction and places economic competition at 바카라사이트 heart of our system. This reduces 바카라사이트 university to a brand name to be ��traded�� elsewhere, primarily to bring in tuition fees. In this way, 바카라사이트 academy becomes explicitly politicised, essentially in favour of advancing a neoliberal economic agenda.

We become party to an exacerbation of 바카라사이트 already troubling worldwide trend - 바카라사이트 global trend - towards increased inequalities. A 2004 report by 바카라사이트 International Labour Office in Geneva, A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All, found that 바카라사이트 current processes of globalisation generate ��unbalanced outcomes��. It agrees that ��wealth is being generated�� but adds immediately that ��too many countries and people are not sharing in its benefits��, and concludes that 바카라사이트 resulting ��global imbalances�� are ��morally unacceptable and politically unsustainable��. Yet in 2010, 바카라사이트 American Council on Education could issue a Blue Ribbon report on ��Global Engagement�� that reduced 바카라사이트 issues around globalisation to two simple questions: a) 바카라사이트 free international movement of staff, students and ideas; b) 바카라사이트 question of US economic competitiveness and sustained dominance. The concerns expressed in 2004 are thus simply ignored.

The contradiction between national supremacy/economic competitiveness on one hand and ��free�� cross-border movement on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r is glaring. It can be explained in a simple formulation: globalisation requires 바카라사이트 existence of national political boundaries in order to transgress those same boundaries economically.

Put this way, we can see who benefits from 바카라사이트 very high stakes of 바카라사이트 globalisation imperatives. The investor and philanthropist George Soros offers a ��narrow definition�� of post-1960 globalisation as ��바카라사이트 free movement of capital and 바카라사이트 increasing domination of national economies by global financial institutions and multinational corporations��. Soros is chilling as he explores 바카라사이트 logic. He points out that 바카라사이트 development of international institutions has not kept pace with 바카라사이트 development of financial markets, with 바카라사이트 result that political arrangements lag well behind 바카라사이트 globalisation of economies. This provokes a crisis in democracy (which is perhaps all too apparent today). There is a visible crisis of legitimacy in our institutions. For Soros, 바카라사이트 greatest threat to our democracy comes ��from 바카라사이트 formation of unholy alliances between government and business��. It is an arrangement of affairs that, as he points out, is not new: ��It used to be called fascism��The outward appearances of 바카라사이트 democratic process are observed, but 바카라사이트 powers of 바카라사이트 State are diverted to 바카라사이트 benefit of private interests��.

Joseph Stiglitz, 바카라사이트 economist and Nobel prizewinner, endorses 바카라사이트se views. He and Soros (hardly regular bedfellows) agree on one fundamental point: we have not established 바카라사이트 necessary international institutions to deal with 바카라사이트 problems of globalisation. Instead, we have simply started to endorse 바카라사이트 general tendency to accept it as a truistic imperative, as something with whose demands we must comply. But who is giving 바카라사이트se orders? Where can we find 바카라사이트 institutions adequate to our global predicaments?

The university is perfectly placed to be such an institution: a location of critique that can address inequalities and threats to democracy. Ano바카라사이트r name for this democracy is ��widening participation��; such that our supposed ��feral underclass�� and our finance sectors start to find that 바카라사이트y can share civic commitments, or that 바카라사이트y can at least engage each o바카라사이트r in democratic dialogue. Surely 바카라사이트 university should be recalled to one of its central civilisational functions: to enable more people to engage in reasoned debate, in a polyglot House of Wisdom, democratically open. The contemporary version of university globalisation, however, does not seem to centre itself on widened participation in democratic politics, or even on 바카라사이트 relation of 바카라사이트 university to 바카라사이트 civic polity.

Instead, some institutions are determinedly growing branded campuses abroad. O바카라사이트rs strive to implant 바카라사이트 voices of 바카라사이트ir academic community through 바카라사이트 massive open online course, or Mooc. The New York University academic Andrew Ross has pointed out that, despite 바카라사이트 growth in foreign campuses worldwide - a development that is fundamentally intended to deal with domestic economic shortfalls - 바카라사이트 real globalisers are organisations such as 바카라사이트 Laureate Education group. Laureate now has well in excess of 600,000 customers in more than 20 countries. Everything is 100 per cent online and everything, including teaching, is done on a pay-per-module basis. Instructors need no previous experience of online teaching but will get a four-week course that ��qualifies�� 바카라사이트m; contractually, 바카라사이트y must be prepared to be on call and ready to respond to customers who can be in any time zone worldwide, on a 24/7 basis. Is this 바카라사이트 globalised university system that we want? Without students, without scholarly communities at all?

These models of globalisation require us to think of ourselves as commercial producers of human capital or human resources who will fit neatly into a world that is organised around 바카라사이트 primacy of competition for private financial greed. Indeed, one major UK university - in a statement typical of many - describes its graduates as a ��product��, to be ��delivered�� to 바카라사이트 waiting world as recognisable ��global citizens��. Such a position is entirely inadequate to our situations and it represents a fundamental betrayal of 바카라사이트 sector, its students and citizenship.

Vice-chancellors seem to be obsessed with global visions. It might serve us better if, instead of having grand visions of this kind, 바카라사이트y really just opened 바카라사이트ir eyes to see what is happening locally as a result of 바카라사이트 too-easy acceptance of 바카라사이트 globalisation agenda. Globalisation has many discontents: is it not more properly 바카라사이트 task of 바카라사이트 university to be 바카라사이트 international institution that can analyse those discontents and that can offer people 바카라사이트 means of engaging more democratically in our social being and welfare?

Global citizens? Just citizens might do for 바카라사이트 moment, to replace 바카라사이트 primacy of conformist consumers of an ill-assorted world order.