Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

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Critically reviewing globalization

Ergin Bulut, Viviana Pitton, Rachel Dane, Majhon Phillips, Jodi Rund, Brian
Sutliff, Brian Wallace & Risa (Lisa) Zenno

To cite this article: Ergin Bulut, Viviana Pitton, Rachel Dane, Majhon Phillips, Jodi Rund, Brian
Sutliff, Brian Wallace & Risa (Lisa) Zenno (2010) Critically reviewing globalization, Discourse:
Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 31:1, 149-163, DOI: 10.1080/01596300903465484

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Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education
Vol. 31, No. 1, February 2010, 149
163

REVIEW ESSAY SYMPOSIUM

Critically reviewing globalization
Ergin Bulut* and Viviana Pitton*, with Rachel Dane, Majhon Phillips,
Jodi Rund, Brian Sutliff, Brian Wallace and Risa (Lisa) Zenno

Educational Policy Studies-College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

IL, USA

The globalization of nothing 2, by George Ritzer, Thousand Oaks, USA, Pine Forge
Press, 2007, 264 pp., US$41.95 (paperback), ISBN: 978-1-4129-4022-1

Paradoxes of culture and globalization, by Martin J. Gannon, Thousand Oaks, USA,

Sage Publications Inc, 2008, 288 pp., US$42.95 (paperback), ISBN: 978-1-4129-
4045-0

Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes everything, by Don Tapscott and

Anthony D. Williams, New York, USA, Penguin Group, 2006, 324 pp., US$27.95
(hardback), ISBN: 978-1-5918-4138-8

Wikiworld, by Juha Suoranta and Tere Vadén, London, UK, Pluto Press, 2009, 208
pp., US$29.95 (paperback), ISBN: 978-0-7453-2891-1

Globalization of education: an introduction, by Joel Spring, New York, USA,

Routledge, 2009, 250 pp., US$29.95 (paperback), ISBN: 978-0-4159-8947-3

Making globalization work, by Joseph E. Stiglitz, New York, USA, W.W. Norton &
Company, 2006, 358 pp., US$26.95 (hardback), ISBN: 978-0-3930-6122-2

Introduction
Globalization is a buzzword about which there is hardly any consensus, despite the
large number of books written on the topic. Let alone its consequences, scholars
cannot even come to an agreement on the origins of it. While some date it back to
the emergence of humankind on earth, we also come across accounts which either
take us back to the several centuries earlier or the late 1970s. With the recent
financial crisis, this phenomenon has once again been foregrounded both in the
media and in popular discourse. A ‘single’ event has seemingly simultaneously
triggered debates, meetings (G-20 in London) and protests around the world. This
alone demonstrates that globalization, with its contradictory outcomes, is central to
the immense changes and images we have witnessed during the last three or four
decades. These immense changes have been related to many spheres, including

*Corresponding authors. Email: bulut1@illinois.edu and vpitton2@illinois.edu

ISSN 0159-6306 print/ISSN 1469-3739 online
# 2010 Ergin Bulut and Viviana Pitton with co-authors
DOI: 10.1080/01596300903465484
http://www.informaworld.com
150 Review essay symposium

economy, politics, culture and social life, with all their complexities. Along with these
complexities, the changing nature of the nation state has made it difficult to
comprehend the processes of policy making and evaluation, without taking
globalization into account.
To address these issues, research centres have been founded around the world
carrying the name ‘global’. Educational institutions have sought to adjust their
curricula in line with the supposed imperatives of globalization. Diverse programs
have also emerged at the undergraduate and graduate level focused on the ways in
which social, cultural, political and economic formations are being re-shaped by an
increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. Many of these programs have
sought to help students acquire knowledge and skills for understanding the
significance of global processes and explore the ways of incorporating international
perspectives into the school curriculum and pedagogy. This is precisely the goal
underlying the creation and development of the Online Masters Program of Global
Studies in Education (GSE, gse.ed.uiuc.edu) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, USA. Established in 2004, this program seeks to develop critical skills
to understand the changing economic, political, and cultural contexts within which
education takes place nowadays.
Departing from the recognition of the challenges brought about by the
increasingly complex and globalized world, the students, mostly educators, enrolled
in this program from around the world. Participants are expected to reflect on how
globalization affects their own practices and how they might guide their own
students to understand and navigate issues of interconnectivity and interdependence
and to become critically reflective ‘global citizens’.
Bringing together a number of diverse elements, ranging from curriculum and
policy to technology and cultural issues, the GSE courses do not present a single
authorized account of globalization but attempt instead to develop skills of critical
reflection and intercultural communication. The introductory course, ‘Globalization
and Educational Policy’ developed and taught by Dr Fazal Rizvi, explores
competing accounts of globalization and their implications for understanding policy
processes in education. The course is predicated on the assumption that while the
political authority of the nation-states has not entirely declined, as some globaliza-
tion theorists suggest, the nature of this authority is now differently configured
around various global policy networks constituted by diasporas, intergovernmental
organizations and transnational corporations.
To understand how the development of these policy networks is shaped by global
processes, the students enrolled in this course during Spring 2009 needed first to
critically examine popular representations of globalization and explore how these
representations often defined the ways in which education policy is now constructed.
To pursue this task, each student was asked to review in 1000 words a recently
published popular book on globalization. They were asked to engage in a critical
reading of the key argument of the book, especially as it related to its representation
of globalization. In this way, they were expected not only to synthesize the book’s
ideas and discuss its arguments based on the various theories of globalization they
had encountered in the course, but also derive from this discussion implications for
education policy and practice.
 Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 151

The books chosen by the 26 students enrolled in the course addressed a diversity
of issues relating to globalization: theory, culture, media, technology, education and
economics. In what follows, six of these book reviews are presented.
. Majhon Phillips reviews George Ritzer’s The Globalization of Nothing 2,
where Ritzer provides an account of theories of globalization and, addition-
ally, introduces new concepts such as Grobalization and something
nothing
continuum.
. Risa (Lisa) Zenno’s review of Martin Gannon’s Paradoxes of Culture and
Globalization reflects on the usefulness of paradoxical reasoning for under-
standing cross-cultural differences as the world becomes more globalized and
intertwined.
. Jodi Rund’s review of Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams’ Wikinomics: How
Mass Collaboration Changes Everything reminds us to be cautious about the
new web applications, and their implications in terms of how knowledge
economy may not really be emancipatory or egalitarian as it is argued.
. Rachel Dane reviews a book on technology: Wikiworld by Juha Suoranta and
Tere Valden. Dane’s review explores debates about digital divide and access
issues in education.
. Brian Wallace’s review of Joel Spring’s Globalization of Education:
An Introduction describes and engages critically with the different discourses
identified by Spring as currently influencing educational policies around the
world.
. Finally, Brian Sutliff analyzes Making Globalization Work by Joseph E.
Stiglitz, which in his view, is a hopeful, yet realistic, source of ideas on how to
better manage the most negative consequences of economic globalization.

Even though this sample of works represents only a quarter of the course reviews on
globalization, it offers a rich overview of the multifaceted impact of global processes
on contemporary life generally, and on education policy and practice in particular.
Although we have taken some editorial license to organize the student reviews and to
make minor corrections, we are presenting them in their original form. The order of
the reviews doesn’t follow any specific logic or hierarchy. The reviews are followed by
a conclusion about their contribution to the literature on globalization and
education policy.

1. The globalization of nothing 2

Reviewed by Majhon Phillips
In this book, The Globalization of Nothing 2, George Ritzer (2007) extends his
critical analysis of globalization and transnational corporations, continuing to use a
term he coined in an earlier book, ‘McDonaldization’. In it, he revises and re-
introduces his idea of the something
nothing continuum as a way of developing his
analysis of concepts such as Glocalization and Grobalization, as well as of the
complex relationship between the local and the global. He holds steadfast to serious
critiques of American consumption, credit cards, de-humanization in service, and the
impersonalization of global ideals, i.e. the internet, mega shopping centers, fast-food,
and even automobile companies.
152 Review essay symposium

The first of his eight chapters focuses on theories and terms associated with
globalization. He looks at neo-liberalism and realism from the political viewpoints,
the world system theory from an economist’s stance, and cultural differentialism,
cultural convergence, and cultural hybridization from the cultural theories. He
objectively identifies and describes each of the aforementioned theories, but
determines that his point is best described through the idea of grobalization and
glocalization. Grobalization is the idea of corporations growing and expanding
through globalization, using the same premise from one store to the next, imposing
on the locals and becoming a part of ‘local culture’. Glocalization is a little harder to
tackle. This is the outcome with the global mixes with local culture. One example
Ritzer used to introduce glocalization was McSpaghetti in the Philippines and
McFalafel in Egypt. In this sense, it seems to be a cyclical effect from localization
changing to grobalization (i.e. the American food system being exported around the
world), from grobalization to globalization (the success of McDonalds and Wal-
Mart around the world), back down to glocalization (Wal-Mart carrying local
products to seem like a local store, or the pretension of being local), then around to
authentic localization again, repeating the process infinitely.
The next four chapters discuss the something
nothing continuum. Ritzer
expresses that ‘something’ is typically local, hand-made, comfortable, communal,
and individualized. ‘Nothing’, the opposite extreme, is global, sterile, impersonal,
machine-made, and mass-manufactured. There are seldom places, people, or things
that fall into either extreme; however, most things certainly can lean more one way
than the other. Take for example, as Ritzer points out in Chapter 5, from opposite
extremes something would be a craft barn with the crafts person giving demonstra-
tions, whereas Disneyworld with an actor playing Goofy selling Mickey-Mouse hats
would be nothing (Ritzer, 2007, p. 120).
The last three chapters are dedicated to furthering the ideas and theories
explained in the beginning of the book: the imposition of globalization in localized,
small-town cultures, the rebuttal and acceptance of grobalization and the effects
therein, and finally the future of globalization. His term ‘something’ cannot be
globalized, because it would lose all of the descriptors which make the term what it
is, something is only truly something in its native environment, for example the first
McDonalds in California. Therefore, all we can globalize is ‘nothing’. With the rapid
increase of globalization, the more rapid increase of non-humans, non-places, non-
services, and the loss of what Ritzer calls ‘great-good places’ (Ritzer, 2007, p. 63).
Great good places invite people to engage with one-another, linger, be comfortable,
and create conversation. This is in total opposition to fast-food restaurants, which
surreptitiously ask customers to quickly order, find an uncomfortable seat in the
bright colours and uncomfortably bright lights, eat, and exit without communicating
with the other non-people in the building. The only way to battle this phenomenon,
Ritzer says, is for NGOs and INGOs to outwit and grow to strengthen true locality,
authentic services, real people and great good places.
The Globalization of Nothing 2 is a primarily easy read for academia. He uses
terms and ideas that are not familiar to the general public. However, his topics are
interesting and important for people of all backgrounds to think about. He states his
opinions vividly and doesn’t hesitate to critique or rebuke others’ views. In Chapter
Six, where Ritzer is discussing theorizing globalization, he writes a six-page (pp. 148

153) response, almost tirade, towards James Watson, who had critiqued some of
 Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 153

Ritzer’s ideas on McDonaldization. To a reader who is not actively involved in the

field or does not know these scholars, this section may be seen as slightly exaggerated
or unnecessary; however, to the same point he doesn’t vary with his information, and
his viewpoints are clear, strong, precise, and understood.
The something
nothing continuum is an idea most people recognize, whether or
not they have a term to describe it. It permeates our lives daily, and we see its effects
become more and more consistently prevalent. He even describes it taking place in
education. He states that small private universities are undoubtedly on the
‘something’ side of the continuum, whereas online universities are in extreme
opposition. There can be no sense of community, no locality, and no personalization.
I tend to disagree with this summation. I attended not a private school, but a
small state school in the Midwest USA with a very small student-to-faculty ratio for
my undergraduate degree. However, in my first semester in an online program, I have
been fully involved in my community of students, faculty, and advisors; received
personalized attention from moderators and professors; and created many personal
relationships with people across the country and the world.
In education and in corporations, I think we need to be aware of the theories and
occurrences that George Ritzer introduces in his literature. However, instead of
fighting it, I believe we need to recognize it and strive to create a locality through it.
I don’t see ‘grobalization’ as extinction of the local, per se. However, it does put a
strain on what is considered community. During this stage of globalization,
educators should strive to teach students about community and locality, while
exposing them to the differences of culture and globalization. I don’t believe we need
to choose the global or the local. With the proper outlook and reactions, both can
remain equally present and strong in the twenty-first century.

2. Paradoxes of culture and globalization

Reviewed by Risa (Lisa) Zenno
Globalization involves the increasing interactions and interdependence of govern-
ments, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and citizens of numerous nations in a
number of areas, including finance and technology. With the use of paradoxical
reasoning, in Paradoxes of Culture and Globalization, Gannon (2008) is able to
integrate fields of sociology, anthropology, economics and business, through a cross-
cultural lens.
Formal studies of cultural anthropology are usually divided into two perspectives:
etic and emic. Etic studies attempt to be more culture-general, while emic studies
attempt to be culture-specific, looking at each national culture in depth, exploring the
unique distinctions between each culture. Gannon adds a third perspective where the
integration of ethnic and national culture emerge creating an overall critical influence.
Paradox, as defined by Gannon, is ‘a statement consisting of inconsistent or
contradictory or even mutually exclusive elements that seems to be untrue but is in fact
true’ (p. 6). Gannon’s book emphasizes that culture and globalization can be directly
linked via paradoxes and paradoxical reasoning allows us to understand these cross-
cultural paradoxes and why they exist in our globalizing world (p. 1). By dividing his
book into three parts with an overall count of 93 paradoxes, Gannon compels readers
to think critically and interpret the analysis of culture and globalization.
154 Review essay symposium

Part I: Conceptual Foundations engages the reader to take part in thinking

paradoxically. Why are paradoxes important? They are important because it allows
us readers to either (1) accept both truths in each of the paradox even if they are
contrasting, or (2) reframe the situation, or (3) accept the paradox but look for a
cultural explanation (p. 6). Instead of focusing on the national and ethnic cultures,
Gannon takes a higher analysis of culture asking questions like how do individua-
listic cultures differ from collectivistic. It is important to realize that in this book, no
answer is wrong, however, the answer becomes clearer as you change the lens you are
examining the paradoxes from. Thinking and reasoning paradoxically is not an easy
task. It requires thought and at times emotional commitment, especially, when
dealing with different cultural norms. After presenting a paradox, Gannon carefully
offers an explanation to the paradox, allowing readers to go over what they may have
thought of, making it easier to facilitate the discussion.
As the book progress, Part II: Behavioral Issues examine paradoxes in the themes
of leadership, motivation, group behaviour, communication across culture, and
negotiation across cultures. Part III: Broader Context explores how economic
development and globalization creates paradoxes in immigration, business strategy,
and international human resource managements.
Gannon’s incorporation of his studies in 25 nations, as well as his expertise in
cross-cultural management enhance the overview of this book, as it allows readers to
capture globalization from not only an anthropological perspective, but from a
managerial and business world. The two topics of business and economics are not
often paired with cross-cultural matters; however, Gannon carefully weaves these
dynamics together using paradoxes. He shows that businesses run differently around
the world, as the culture within the companies differ dramatically on how it takes
risks, how the leaders are defined, and how the organizational culture varies,
depending on the culture.
What’s intriguing about this book is that the 93 simple paradoxes have a deeper
underlying analysis depending on context. Whether you are a teacher, a cross-
cultural facilitator, managerial businessmen, or even a student, the answers you come
up with will at times be different from another reader, as you may be raised and
exposed to different forms of cultures. Ironically, your own answers may change
within the next five years or so, as our world will be more globalized and intertwined.
The paradoxes listed in this book will never change, though the discussions built
through these paradoxes will change as our cultures shift along side with
globalization. ‘We need to take advantage of as many ways of looking at reality as
possible’ (p. 9), says Gannon. ‘Sometimes the use of specific units of analysis and
particular methodologies creates distortions in our globalizing world and limits the
topics that can be considered’ (p. 13). Perhaps looking at our world from a
paradoxical reasoning is not a bad lens to use after all.

3. Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes everything

Reviewed by Jodi Rund
The premise of Wikinomics is simple: the more businesses let in outsiders, turning
the business over to the masses, the more problems are solved, new ideas generated,
and new products developed. To flourish, businesses must build thriving online
 Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 155

communities through new media platforms (blogs, instant messaging, wikis, chat-
rooms, podcasting, etc). Wikinomics is built around four doctrine ideas: openness,
peering, sharing and acting globally to show why and how mass collaboration does
not reduce, but rather enhances profitability.
In their book, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything,
Tapscott and Williams (2006) argue that being open means maintaining porous,
non-secrecy organizational boundaries and being open to globalization and trade.
‘To ensure they remain at the forefront of their industries, companies must
increasingly open their doors to the global talent pool that thrives outside their
walls’ (p. 21). BMW created a ‘platform for participation’ by opening all of the code
for its car’s computer, and then online collaborators fixed, updated, and improved
the code. This ‘opening up’ allowed for a huge amount of research/development
(R&D) performed at no cost to the company.
Peering communities are the new way to learn, socialize, share, entertain,
innovate and transact. On Amazon.com, customer reviews allow new prospects to
get quality feedback on products before making a purchase. Companies are engaging
its customers directly and letting them participate in the design and testing of their
products, saving everyone money and obtaining quicker products. Companies are
even encouraging/supporting ‘hacking’ because it helps with creating new features/
uses. Customers turn into ‘prosumers’, who produce goods and services rather than
simply consuming the end product. Consumers hacked the Apple iPod and iPhone to
act as personal digital assistants, not just music/phone devices. This increased
demand by broadening the product’s purpose and customer base. Consumers get
more of what they want, and companies get free enhancements to their products
allowing presumption to become ‘one of the most powerful engines of change and
innovation that the business world has ever seen’ (p. 147).
Sharing is a conceptualization of the intellectual property market providing users
with free software, source code, and ideas. ‘Ideagoras’ are the marketplaces for these
ideas. Businesses can post their R&D needs to the masses and reward the problem-
solvers. ‘A large, diverse network of talent will solve well-defined problems faster and
more efficiently than an internal R&D group’ (p. 99). These online marketplaces
have a twofold purpose: finding answers for people with questions and providing
questions for people with answers.
Being/acting global harnesses the power of human capital from anywhere on
earth. In this ‘wiki workplace’ where people connect and collaborate to create new
sources of value, employees drive performance. In doing so, they create a ‘global
plant floor’ allowing firms to create and join their global networks to produce value.
A new form of academic organization is emerging, a challenger to the traditional.
Wikinomics represents departures from traditional hierarchical knowledge struc-
tures. Already many Web 2.0 applications are burgeoning in higher education: Wikis
as collaborative writing spaces in many writing-intensive courses; professors’ lectures
uploaded to the Internet from various universities like Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton,
Stanford and Yale; and MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) which has made its course
contents (syllabuses, lecture notes, teaching materials) widely available to everyone.
Under proprietary software structures, companies like Microsoft are the ultimate
computer software source. These companies sell their products to the masses, who
use the software but lack operational knowledge and are unable to make alterations.
Likewise, in traditional education, the teacher is the ultimate knowledge source and
156 Review essay symposium

responsible for passing it onto the waiting masses, who in turn simply absorb the
knowledge and regurgitate it for an exam. There is little effort to make the
information relevant to the student’s daily life. In open education, however, teachers
and students alike are able to contribute their work, and users are able to modify the
resources to make them relevant to the user’s particular needs. Wikiversity, like
MIT’s OCW, is a collection of learning materials, but the difference is all the learning
materials and courses are produced and edited by Wikiversity volunteers. There are
no admissions criteria and no ‘professors’ just ‘course leaders’. Anyone can
contribute course materials, create a faculty/school, and lead a course. This
education will probably not displace the traditional but will likely exist alongside
it, as direct competition. Wikinomics represents a shift from a top-down organiza-
tion of knowledge to a more horizontal model in which citizens are no longer
dependent on some authority figure, be it a professor or a software company, to
provide a necessary resource.
The potential is huge, but there are risks when mass collaboration and digital
gifts can be considered under a capitalist logic. The implicit assumption is that
Wikinomics’ changes are for the better because, eventually, all actors benefit. New
business models would ‘drive new innovation, create jobs and wealth, and add
tremendous value for customers’ (p. 234), but Wikinomics fails to mention
capitalism is a system that never benefits all. Resembling Taylorism, the Web 2.0
accumulation strategies are based on the cost-cutting effects of outsourcing global
labour, supported by the internet. By contributing ‘free’ insights, the consumers’ rate
of exploitation increases because they become producers of surplus value. This
unpaid labour which benefits certain companies could create more unstable jobs and
living conditions by increasing the income gap between top corporate workers and
bottom temporary/unemployed workers. The media and technology advance the
overall system by giving users the impression their work is fun, participatory,
rewarded, acknowledged, etc. Hence, Wikinomics, one could argue, is a subtle form
of exploited unpaid labour although the prosumers do not realize it because
exploitation now seems fun and entertaining.
Although new technologies offer slightly new spins, Wikinomics’ models are not
so different from prior ones. Globalization isn’t new, collaborating/soliciting ideas in
the workplace isn’t either. In the end, it really is still all about profit-making and
achieving overall capitalist economic goals. Wikinomics’ strategies are just more
subtle as they seize and convert spare-time into labour-time. It is an important book
for any company/person trying to thrive in an age where traditional top-down,
command-and-control structures are being aggressively challenged.

4. Wikiworld
Reviewed by Rachel Dane
At a time when universities are converting to e-based texts (Gross, 2009) and printed
news is becoming increasingly obsolete, the evolution of digital media has significant
implications for global communication. Juha Suoranta and Tere Vaden’s (2009)
Wikiworld explores the progressive digital transformation that is taking place within
society and education from the ‘institutionalized and individualized forms of
learning to open learning and collaboration’ (p. 1). Wikiworld is a concept promoted
 Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 157

by the authors that embodies the social and technological spheres created within the
World Wide Web, including forums for collaboration and activism in which profit-
orientation is eliminated and value is instead placed on knowledge and genuine
intellectual interest. The Wikiworld is emerging through a voluntary, participatory
ethos; its contents are free, available to all, as well as editable and improvable.
However, economic abundance in limited regions of the world has created a wide
prosperity gap between global communities; a division the authors believe is leading
to the digital isolation of much of the world’s population.
Suoranta and Vaden state that the world is experiencing a profound digital
divide, defined as unequal access to information and communications technology
(ICT). This imbalanced access leads to the disproportionate development of related
skills. Collectively classified as digital literacy, these skills include:
the ability to use digital technologies to locate, create and evaluate information, but also
and more importantly to build alliances to increase material, social and individual
justice and enable social transformation. (p. 7)
Due to political and economic inconsistencies within and among nations, the
digital divide is hindering education and social revolution in the economically
disadvantaged southern hemisphere, therefore detracting from global digital literacy
and communal activism. Additionally, Suoranta and Vaden state that the precedent
of owning digital information has been set in the wealthy northern hemisphere,
contributing to further inequalities between the north and the south. Patents
enforced by transnational corporations and the World Trade Organization not only
allow for the commoditization of digital knowledge and the almost exclusive
architecture of digital technology, but also aggravate the scarcity of intellectual
property in developing nations. In other words, too much of the world’s technology is
privatized, and is held in the hands of a few profit-oriented monopolies. The inability
to gain access to ICTs will continue to place the south at a social and educational
disadvantage in our increasingly digitalized world.
In its strongest passages, the book suggests that ICT access is about much more
than just technology. It is indicative of a profound global struggle involving
governments, economies, and individual freedoms. The authors argue that digital
media has the potential to pave the way for criticism, democracy, and activism, and
that the world’s underprivileged must unite against capitalistic dominance by
producing online communities that are hubs for civic engagement. In order for
this to occur, however, digital media need to be participatory on a global scale and
digital access should no longer be treated as a commodity. Rather than perpetuating
the tradition that knowledge is the sole possession of a single institution or nation,
community engagement in the production, distribution, and reorganization of
knowledge should be celebrated. Wikipedia and its sister projects (like Wikiversity
and Wikispecies) are examples of the promotion of collaborative literacies that
transcend institutional and national boundaries. Free and open source software,
peer-to-peer production, and open access are all systems designed to encourage
global participation and bridge the digital divide. Because open collaboration
represents progressive knowledge production and legitimization, an educational shift
from ‘learning as having to learning as being’ (p. 26) will inspire more intrinsic
motivation for knowledge sharing. This concept of collaborative literacies is
158 Review essay symposium

replacing the banking concept of education, in which a single expert deposits

information into passive recipients.
As a story about global inequalities and northern domination, Wikiworld is a
success. However, the book claims that a credibility gap is being created between
peer-induced informal learning environments and the environments experienced
through formal, institutional education
that at the university level, delivery of
information via lectures will be archaic in a matter of decades. Instead, learning
environments in which ‘teachers along with their students compare information from
various sources, negotiate their knowledge and experiences together, and interpret
the world’ (p. 122) are envisioned. This may indeed materialize in the field of social
sciences, but is not a credible alternative in the natural or physical sciences, or in
mathematics. Regardless of the amount of collaborative information that exists
digitally about, for example, quarks or black holes, there are numerous fundamental
scientific concepts that demand conceptual understanding rather than cooperative
experiences. It is doubtful that the majority of first-year university students have
much to offer in the way of knowledge negotiation with professors. Where will future
generations of surgeons and aerospace engineers come from, if not formally
instructed in concept and practice? Supplementing the verbal transfer of information
with collaborative digital technology seems like sound educational practice, but to
rely almost exclusively on the digital transmission of information leaves no room for
immediate feedback, two-way dialogue, or real-time question and answer sessions
between readers and authors.
Even if Suoranta and Vaden fail to offer a compelling argument for the total
digitalization of higher education, they succeed in highlighting the power of digitalized
media. Within the new digital emphasis on interacting socially while sharing
information, innovative opportunities for teaching and learning can be created.
From an educational policy perspective, the traditional transfer of information and
skills should be complemented by skills in multiple digital literacies. Educators at all
levels can model and encourage active participation in knowledge sharing, and both
formal and informal learning should be the focus of teaching and assessment
with a
specific concentration on collaborative learning.
While the authors highlight some of ICT’s negative consequences, such as child
prostitution and youth crime, is it reasonable to expect educational policy to address
such effects? Because the tremendous positive potential of digital access far outweighs
the associated risks, perhaps more reasonable is the expectation that digital exposure
in developing nations must not be delayed any longer; it is, in fact, long overdue.

5. Globalization of education: an introduction

Reviewed by Brian Wallace
As is appropriate in a text that proposes to be an introduction to the globalization
of education, this book surveys the forces that are shaping educational policies
around the world. In this book by Spring (2009), Globalization of Education: An
Introduction, the author examines the current state of discourse on education by
presenting theoretical approaches through which researchers and policy analysts
view the subject, as well as the role of the prominent intergovernmental organiza-
tions and corporations invested in influencing the direction and outcomes of
 Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 159

educational policy. In addition to the most visible trends and players, Spring
introduces what he identifies as unexamined approaches to education, and argues
that theoretical biases prevent globalists from exploring the fullness and complexity
of educational models practiced in the world. While recognizing the value of the
various globalist analyses of the phenomena at work in education, Spring is critical
of the limiting effect of ideology, and calls for a recognition that the complexity of
the factors influencing the globalization of education cannot be captured by any one
perspective. His method is to describe the complex network of forces shaping
education, then to separate the individual elements of the network to show the
strengths and shortcomings of the current discourse.
Spring describes the globalization of education as a dynamic network of
institutions and discourses. The World Bank, OECD, UNESCO, myriad IGOs
and NGOs and single-issue groups focused on the environment, women’s rights, and
human rights all contribute to discourse on the knowledge economy, lifelong
learning, global migration, and the development of human capital. He presents three
overlapping but divergent theoretical perspectives for understanding this dynamic
system. World Educational Culture Theorists and World System Theorists recognize
the dominance of wealthy western institutions in the promotion of increasingly
uniform educational systems, but differ in their assessment of the reasons for the
uniformity and the effect that it has on diverse populations. The World Education
Culturalists see acceptance of western-style educational methods as a key step in
economic progress, a choice made by developing nations as a matter of self-interest.
The World System Theorists, Spring also refers to this group as Postcolonialists, see
the imposition of western ideas on developing nations as a mechanism for
maintaining western dominance. As the author describes them, both of these groups
of theorists point to western intergovernmental organizations as the engines that
drive the uniformity of educational goals.
Spring’s examination of the agendas of the major intergovernmental organiza-
tions observes that these entities are neither unified nor coordinated in the business
of promoting educational standardization. With chapters exploring the role of the
World Bank, OECD, and UNESCO, Spring presents an argument that these
organizations operate in different spheres with different purposes and different
outcomes. Specifically, he identifies the focus of the World Bank on influencing
emerging economies, educating for the knowledge economy, and providing for the
lifelong learning necessary to the development of an adaptable and reliable
workforce. By comparison, the OECD is presented as sharing the World Bank’s
focus on the knowledge economy, the development of human capital, and narrow
definition of literacy, but with a different set of goals. As OECD member states are
already relatively prosperous and have developed western-style economies, the focus
is on social capital, as well as human capital. By social capital, Spring means the
development of shared values in a multicultural environment in order to foster
intercommunity cooperation that results in a stable workforce.
As further evidence that the western institutions are not working in unison to
influence educational practices and develop a global educational system, the author
points to the work of UNESCO. Unlike the World Bank and OECD, UNESCO’s
approach to lifelong learning is designed to engender social and political activism,
and in recent years, environmental awareness. Also, UNESCO promotes education
in local languages rather than the English-focused approach of the World Bank and
160 Review essay symposium

OECD. Spring’s presentation of the agenda promoted by UNESCO suggests greater

commonality with progressive and indigenous educational methods than global
standardization.
The third school of thought which Spring identifies, Culturalists, rejects the
proposition that educational systems are converging; rather, this group sees local
educational systems borrowing and adapting ideas from the global network, and
developing educational methods based on progressive theories and religious
and indigenous traditions. Progressive forms of education, religious education, and
indigenous forms of education are identified as countervailing trends that compete
with education for the knowledge economy and standardized testing. The traditional
forms of instruction are based on other ways of knowing, different kinds of
knowledge that have no place in the standardized curriculum promoted by IGOs.
The role and influence of these educational methods is growing, according to Spring.
He points to the educational theory of Paulo Freire and the role of education in the
development of political and social consciousness, a humanist approach to education
which is in opposition to the human capital model of education. Spring also points
to the development of religious nationalism in the USA, India, and Egypt as a
rejection of global modernity. Spring’s contention that that there is a multidirectional
transfer of educational ideas, with indigenous and traditional ways of knowing
informing the discourse at the global level is tenuous at best. While there is
theoretical interest in Freire’s work, for instance, it is unlikely that the influential
institutions marketing educational practices will promote ideas that will undermine
their own interests.
Spring’s interest in indigenous populations and previous work on multicultural
education informs his Culturalist perspective. While he contends that World System
and World Educational Culture theorists see the various intergovernmental entities
spreading western educational values as a unified impetus to globalization, it is not
clear that this accurately reflects the understanding of these groups. Spring’s work
makes clear the differing objectives of the proponents of the knowledge economy,
but it is not necessary for these entities to be working in unison
conspiratorially

for their activities to have the cumulative effect described by these two schools of
thought. Spring is correct to recognize the shortcoming of ideological intransigence
in the analyses of phenomena, but there is value in these perspectives as a heuristic
which serves as a starting point for a Spring’s critique.

6. Making globalization work

Reviewed by Brian D. Sutliff
Academic and policy analyses of globalization run the gamut from the cheerleading
of hyper-globalism, such as Thomas L. Friedman, to the more extreme criticisms
that globalization is little more than a convenient guise for neoliberal economic
policies and neoimperialism. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz,
former Chief Economist for the World Bank and a member of President Clinton’s
Council of Economic Advisors, concludes in his recent book, Making Globalization
Work (2006), that the ‘problem is not with globalization itself but in the way
globalization has been managed’. Stiglitz’s criticisms of the management of
globalization reflect both his academic training and professional experiences; more
 Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 161

importantly, though, he provides vital solutions into the best ways to emphasize the
positive aspects of globalization and to simultaneously mitigate and even prevent the
most negative consequences of globalization through the strengthening of interna-
tional development and economic institutions.
Stiglitz analyzes the pace and profundity of globalization and ultimately
concludes that ‘economic globalization has outpaced political globalization’. His
analysis is borne out both empirically as well as by many other writers and observers;
while the European Union has achieved a significant degree of political integration,
no other regional grouping has done so to this point, yet all have lowered barriers to
trade and reduced or eliminated controls on the use and disbursement of financial
capital. While economic globalization is supposed to bring enormous positive
benefits to all, Stiglitz clearly points out how the distribution of gains from
globalization has been highly unequal both within and across countries. Further-
more, countries that have liberalized very rapidly without establishing appropriate
safeguards and social protections for their peoples have often found themselves
further impoverished or marginalized by globalization. The remedy, then, according
to Stiglitz is for countries to effectively manage their openness to globalization.
A number of Asian countries, especially China, have managed their transition to
more liberalized markets far more effectively than the former Soviet bloc economies
and other developing countries, many of whom undertook very sharp and painful
transitions to neoliberal capitalist economies in the 1990s and early years of the
current decade. During the heyday of the ‘Washington Consensus’ of the 1990s, IMF
and World Bank-sponsored structural adjustment programs forced many countries
to eliminate significant areas of regulation and social safety nets with dire
consequences.
The results were grim: poverty in the former Soviet bloc countries increased from 1987
(shortly before the beginning of transition) to 2001 by a factor of ten. The contrast
between the claims of free market advocates, who predicted an unleashing of forces that
would bring record prosperity, and the unprecedented increases in poverty that actually
occurred could not have been greater. (Stiglitz, 2007, p. 39)
Stiglitz then points to the managed transitions of China and Vietnam, in which
China’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 135% between 1990 and Vietnam’s grew by
75% in the same period, and concludes that countries will enjoy many more of
globalization’s benefits if they carefully manage when and how they liberalize their
economies.
In a further contrast to the unbridled enthusiasm of globalization’s cheerleaders,
Stiglitz notes that ‘globalization bypassed Africa’ and that globalization has often
increased inequality within and between countries. In his analysis, he notes that there
is a serious and sustained ‘democratic deficit’, especially in the management of the
international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the IMF and the World Bank.
Because of this ‘democratic deficit’, Stiglitz argues that these IFIs lack fundamental
legitimacy and that they must be thoroughly reformed in order to promote a real
development agenda. In his conclusion to Making Globalization Work, he promotes
the concept of a new global identity for citizens of the world’s various countries and
a new ‘global social contract’ between the highly developed countries and the
developing and Least Developed Countries (LDCs). In her very positive review of
this book, Constance Scharff (2007) argues that ‘this concept is obviously well
162 Review essay symposium

intentioned and might even be a positive course of action, but it seems overly
optimistic’ (p. 626). Creating a new global identity and a new ‘global social contract’
will be difficult as Stiglitz himself acknowledges. Powerful entrenched interests often
see little immediate incentive to reform a system that has brought them so many
short-term and long-term benefits. Reforming this system to ensure a more equitable
distribution of benefits will ultimately require not only changes in governmental
attitudes and policies but increased demands on the parts of citizens for an
international system that is fundamentally based on fairness as well as a concern for
the environmental and security challenges that already confront our world.
Situating Stiglitz within the ongoing globalization debate is not an easy task as
his analyses do not clearly conform to any dominant paradigm. Constance Scharff
praises Stiglitz’s work as being ‘exceptional’ and asserts that Making Globalization
Work ‘is a compelling and urgent call for an action, not just among governments, but
also average citizens with a voice and a greater desire for social justice’ (p. 627).
Robert Skidelsky, a former Chief Opposition Spokesman for the Conservative Party
in the British House of Lords, however, concludes that Stiglitz is far too ‘gloomy’
about globalization’s prospects and does far too little to acknowledge the progress
that he believes has been made in reducing extreme poverty in many developing
countries. Stiglitz’s work belongs in the highest pantheon of analyses of globalization
because he not only evaluates its immense potential promise and its all too evident
flaws and shortcomings but he goes further by providing hopeful yet realistic
solutions. Policy makers and academics would do well to read this book very
carefully, particularly in the midst of this current global economic crisis.

Conclusion
The six reviews above demonstrate the various and complex representations and
outcomes of globalization. They show that despite the assumptions we have about
globalization, the fast-changing nature of global shifts make it difficult to jump into
easy conclusions about globalization. Here, Ritzer’s book
analyzed by Majhon
Phillips
introduces a new concept, Grobalization, and leaves a cautious remark to
those who are utterly optimistic about the role of corporations in shaping public
policy and simultaneously make us think to what extent we need the something

nothing continuum concept to understand global processes. Similarly, Risa (Lisa)
Zenno’s review allows us to reflect on the importance of thinking critically and the
usefulness of adopting theoretical approaches conceived to deal with the complex
and diverse ways in which people experience globalization around the world and deal
with its cultural implications. Jodi Rund’s review comes almost as a rebuttal of the
assertions that openness as a virtue presented by global capitalism will help establish
a more collaborative society. In a similar vein, Rachel Dane’s review presents an
excellent critique of technologically determinist understandings of globalization and
brings the issue of politics back. Likewise, Brian Wallace’s review puts into question
the contention on the multi-directionality of contemporary educational policy
transfer and invites us to ponder the extent to which indigenous and traditional ways
of knowing have been incorporated into the policy discourse at the global level.
Finally, Brian Sutliff’s analysis suggests that in a time of global economic crisis, the
search of new policy alternatives foregrounded on social justice is not only desirable,
but also possible.
 Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 163

By no means do these reviews entail a comprehensive examination of the most

recent literature on globalization, but rather, they show how different authors
represent the contemporary global processes and the kind of reactions that their
theoretical ideas leave on students struggling to understand and analyze such
processes. As a dynamic and uneven process, globalization is likely to continue to be
a matter of hot debate, which requires rigorous, elaborate analyses and critiques.
This seems to be essential since only such analyses can help to unfold globalization
as a process made up of human activities and relations, or put it differently, as a
historically constructed process, rather than as a reified one often conceived merely
‘as denoting the universal, boundless and irreversible spread of market imperatives’
(Colás, 2005, p. 71). As the reviews have demonstrated, the more collaborative and
critical these analyses are, the more chance we might have to comprehend these
global processes which constantly impact our economy, politics, culture and
everyday lives. With the valuable contributions of our collaborative reviewers, we
hope to have achieved this goal.

References
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D. Johnston (Eds.), Neoliberalism: A critical reader (pp. 70
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Gross, Sylvia Maria (2009). Paper cut [Radio news article]. Retrieved from National Public
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