Globalisation and Marginalisation in Higher Education

Education cannot escape being influenced by the process of globalisation based on the principles of neo-liberal economic reform, a process that increases inequalities and marginalises already muted voices. The neo-liberal economic rationality of ­globalisation has framed the restructuring of education in such a manner that its function has changed from the production of knowledge to the production and management of wealth. As such, the interplay of market forces in higher education has undermined a vision of democratic society due to the superordinate influence of economic and political globalisation (Zajda 2008a and Zajda 2008b). As a result of accepting the dominant discourse of the neo-liberal, globalisation agenda ­without much critical analysis or debate regarding its consequences, education has forfeited its basic function of producing democratic citizens (see also Zajda, 2005; Zajda et al., 2008).

Globalisation is a popular and multidimensional concept. Political, economic, social and cultural dynamics of the contemporary world are subsumed within globalisation. In its political manifestation, globalisation refers to the dual phenomena of post-Cold War United States unipolarity, demonstrated by political and military hegemony. In its economic dimension, globalisation signifies, on the one hand, the neo-liberal economic agenda (also referred to as McDonaldisation) that is sweeping the world and, on the other, growing regional economic configurations. In the domain of culture, globalisation has come to signify both increased cultural contact (mainly but not exclusively through information and communication technologies; or ICTs) and cultural fragmentation manifested in the resurgence of micro, local and national cultural identities. Globalisation as a phenomenon is thus not a monolith, as it is often portrayed. It subsumes contradictory tendencies and forces, signifying tensions of cohesion on a scale hitherto unknown while suggesting the fragmentation of political, cultural and social identities at all levels (Zajda et al., 2006). To say that this process has affected almost all walks of life in one way or another would not be an exaggeration. The degree, level, and intensity of the impact vary from one society to another and from one institution to the next, depending on the space these societies occupy, their relative power, levels of their embeddedness in world economics and politics and the relative lead or lag they have with respect to information and technology integration. Education, like any other social institution, cannot escape the influence of globalisation, and these influences have varied from one educational system to another depending on their contact and interaction with the larger world (see also Lyotard, 1984; Zajda, 2005; Zajda et al. 2008a).

The original version of this chapter was revised. An erratum to this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9547-4_12