One of the classes I'm taking this semester is "Globalization and Lifelong Learning". Two weeks ago, we were asked to work in small groups through one of the readings about lifelong learning and respond to some questions about the use of lifelong learning with some examples. Our group responded and submitted our answers. Fred (the professor running the course) responded back and pointed out that some of our examples didn't address globalization.
In my mind, globalization and lifelong learning weren't directly tied together so closely that you need to talk about one to understand the other. Certainly that is true when you talk about national governments and responses to national crises, but does one of our Chinese classmate's story about her grandmother's study of Chinese characters have to do with globalization? Certainly it is part of lifelong learning in my book. Is my podcasting hobby part of globalization? I connect it closely with social media and with ideas like openness and transparency, but I don't see it as being part of globalization, even though we have audiences in several different countries.
When I think about globalization, it's usually in terms of economics, politics, and the environment. When a company produces goods where the raw materials, manufacturing, assembly, and sale all happen in different countries, then that is part of globalization. When a company tries to influence the politics of a country in order to get more favorable conditions, that is clearly part of globalization. Leaders from around the globe get together to discuss the melting icecaps or disappearing islands, that is part of globalization.
If you draw more inclusive lines around the term "globalization", things get a bit more fuzzy, but potentially closer to home. You could say that globalization is the destruction of time and space that allows interactions and exchanges regardless of location, then I suppose my podcasting falls within the globalization phenomenon. But even so, globalization isn't the best instrument to bring to bear when investigating why I podcast, who listens, and how those connections take place. Globalization at that level is too big to be of much use.
So instead, let's be more specific. How about "globalization of informal education" or "globalization of media production". At that point, it starts to make some sense to me.
What really helped me was reading a chapter written by Dan Beveridge (University of Regina), about economic globalization. At one point, he talks about groups that gather to protest globalization, but I feel that they they aren't protesting all of globalization. They are protesting elements of economic globalization that lead to oppressive governments, unfair distribution of wealth, child labor, and pollution. After all, the protesters themselves certainly use tools that fall within the widely-drawn inclusive nature of the term globalization (web sites, e-mail lists, mass transportation, etc...). This point doesn't escape people who are trying to criticize the protesters.
Beveridge's chapter also talks about economic globalization as the commodification and corporatization of everthing. In that sense, my podcasts (which are personally produced and free) are in opposition to these large corporate economic forces. So if podcasting is part of globalization as a general phenomenon, that leads me to the conclusion that globalization isn't a unified trend in one direction. It has competing trends within it.
Several of the other authors that we have read so far have asked whether globalization is inevitable? I think it is, barring any worldwide event or fundamentalist movement that would effectively take us back to the Dark Age. But that doesn't mean that the specific trends within globalization are inevitable.
In my mind, globalization and lifelong learning weren't directly tied together so closely that you need to talk about one to understand the other. Certainly that is true when you talk about national governments and responses to national crises, but does one of our Chinese classmate's story about her grandmother's study of Chinese characters have to do with globalization? Certainly it is part of lifelong learning in my book. Is my podcasting hobby part of globalization? I connect it closely with social media and with ideas like openness and transparency, but I don't see it as being part of globalization, even though we have audiences in several different countries.
When I think about globalization, it's usually in terms of economics, politics, and the environment. When a company produces goods where the raw materials, manufacturing, assembly, and sale all happen in different countries, then that is part of globalization. When a company tries to influence the politics of a country in order to get more favorable conditions, that is clearly part of globalization. Leaders from around the globe get together to discuss the melting icecaps or disappearing islands, that is part of globalization.
If you draw more inclusive lines around the term "globalization", things get a bit more fuzzy, but potentially closer to home. You could say that globalization is the destruction of time and space that allows interactions and exchanges regardless of location, then I suppose my podcasting falls within the globalization phenomenon. But even so, globalization isn't the best instrument to bring to bear when investigating why I podcast, who listens, and how those connections take place. Globalization at that level is too big to be of much use.
So instead, let's be more specific. How about "globalization of informal education" or "globalization of media production". At that point, it starts to make some sense to me.
What really helped me was reading a chapter written by Dan Beveridge (University of Regina), about economic globalization. At one point, he talks about groups that gather to protest globalization, but I feel that they they aren't protesting all of globalization. They are protesting elements of economic globalization that lead to oppressive governments, unfair distribution of wealth, child labor, and pollution. After all, the protesters themselves certainly use tools that fall within the widely-drawn inclusive nature of the term globalization (web sites, e-mail lists, mass transportation, etc...). This point doesn't escape people who are trying to criticize the protesters.
Beveridge's chapter also talks about economic globalization as the commodification and corporatization of everthing. In that sense, my podcasts (which are personally produced and free) are in opposition to these large corporate economic forces. So if podcasting is part of globalization as a general phenomenon, that leads me to the conclusion that globalization isn't a unified trend in one direction. It has competing trends within it.
Several of the other authors that we have read so far have asked whether globalization is inevitable? I think it is, barring any worldwide event or fundamentalist movement that would effectively take us back to the Dark Age. But that doesn't mean that the specific trends within globalization are inevitable.
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