The possibility of De-globalisation?

I attended a seminar at Monash earlier today held by Lord Meghnad Desai, from the London School of Economics and a member of the UK House of Lords. He spoke about the possibility that one day the world might once again move to de-globalise, after articulating the history of economic movement from the late 1800s to the present day. Lord Desai offered us many scenarios based on his wealth of knowledge and understanding of world politics and international economic developments.

Much of his discussion and the ensuing questions from the floor centred on the economic climate of the past, to the present day and projections into the future. Although this economic focus was strong Lord Desai made a strong artgument that if not for economics and the will of economies to make a profit, self interest would be kept 'at home'! In other words, money talks and it does so globally!

Lord Desai asked the question: if de-globalisation was to occur, what factors would initiate this occurrence?

Perhaps on the ground movement by anti-globalisation groups might topple the global phenomena? Perhaps fundamentalist groups will destabilise governments and economies? What about the aging populations around the globe? How might that affect labour markets and capitalist forces? What might happen to the welfare state (particularly for UK and Australia with strong public service provision)?

This is an open question and is being asked at all levels. Here are some earlier thoughts from Lord Desai as interviewed on PBS (2000) ... What are your thoughts?

Links about Globalisation

Globalisation and Education, Rikowski (for House of Lords, UK)

Globalisation in Education: Process and discourse (Berlin, Germany)

The Survival Guide to Globalisation 2000 (Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia)

The Learning Business, trade in education (OECD Observer)

The UK paper examines globalisation as being 'capitalist' globalisation and looks at its consequences for education.

The Berlin paper talks about globalisation and internationalisation almost in the same breath. It discusses the internationalisation of educational knowledge in societies. It brings this together with a comparative analysis of the phenomena that is 'globalisation' (as not being just the domain of economics) and discusses the way in which we communicate globally and that knowledge is dependent on the language and discourse structures used to communicate knowledge, thus being 'semantically constructed'.

Flinders University, Adelaide South Australia, runs a Globalisation program. This consists of papers written by students which have subsequently been published in book form. Some articles are avaialbel to read on the web.

In the words of the progam itself:

Globalisation students learn traditional skills, in a modern context, with an eye to the future. Particular emphasis is placed on developing an awareness of cultural diversity, and on communication skills. (online)

And again here:

The Globalisation program draws on expertise from across the university and all topics are taught by a team of staff from different disciplines.

Among other areas, it examines the economic, technological, sociological, legal, environmental, political, cultural and historical aspects of globalisation.

Within this framework students address issues as diverse as changing ideas of national sovereignty, moves towards the global regulation of economic activity, changes in the global environment, and the policy challenges of global diversity and inequality. (online)

The OECD Observer presents a telling article about the international trade of education and asks whether trade in international education works. It fosues on student mobility as the table below illustrates. An interesting look at transnational flows!



Source: OECD Observer

What do these varying sources tell us about the notion of globalisation? How can we discuss the concept of globalisation as generating a shared understanding?

I'm also really curious about how (or if) the notion of 'glocalisation' connects with globalisation and in what ways. See the June 17 post on "Glocalisation".