Language Education and Globalization
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LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND GLOBALIZATION
I N T R O D U C T I O N : G L O B A L I Z AT I O N
In his oft-cited book on globalization and modernity, Anthony Giddens defines globalization as: the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. (Giddens, 1990, p. 64) A more elaborate definition, taken from Held, McGrew, Goldblatt and Perraton (1999, p. 15), is as follows: Globalization can be located on a continuum with the local, national and regional. At the one end of the continuum lie social and economic relations and networks which are organized on a local and/or national basis; at the other end lie social and economic relations and networks which crystallize on the wider scale of regional and global interactions. Globalization can be taken to refer to those spatio-temporal processes of change which underpin a transformation in the organization of human affairs by linking together and expanding human activity across regions and continents. In these two definitions, globalization is framed as the ongoing process of the increasing and intensifying interconnectedness of communications, events, activities and relationships taking place at the local, national or international level. However, while globalization theorists tend to agree on the general parameters of globalization, there are differing views about when it actually started. Robertson (1995) and Held et al. (1999) acknowledge that globalization is perhaps a premodern phenomenon with beginnings in the fifteenth century. According to these authors, it was at this time that the nation-state in Europe was born, and with it the beginnings of international economics and politics. In addition, at this time, the Catholic Church began to spread worldwide and thus became the first global religion. Finally, the fifteenth century was when the European superpowers, such as Portugal, Spain and England, began to spread outwards and colonize the world. However, other globalization theorists (e.g. Cox, 1996) take a more here-and-now position, situating the beginnings of globalization at the
S. May and N. H. Hornberger (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, Volume 1: Language Policy and Political Issues in Education, 31–43. #2008 Springer Science+Business Media LLC.
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time of the first major fuel crisis of 1973, the decline of traditional modes of industrial production and the subsequent move towards a demand-led economy. It was at this time that the developed capitalist states began to abandon ‘Fordism’, the post-World War 2 economic model of rationalized mass production, stabilized work routines, organized labour, wage-driven demand for more products and the welfare state. In its place came what eventually was called the Washington Consensus, which was about the dismantling of Fordism, especially unionized labour and the welfare state. In the globalization literature, there is also a question of whether globalizatio
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