Global citizenship and marginalisation: contributions towards a political economy of global citizenship

Global citizenship education and Hong Kong’s secondary school curriculum guidelines

“…In the era of globalization, the notion of citizenship has been facing challenges, and there has emerged a concept of "global citizenship" (Balarin, 2001;Heater, 2004;Myers, 2010;Bates, 2012), which is a response to globalization. The subscription to global citizenship can be characterized as being expansive, holistic and concerned or affective, as well as cognitive, as its expression is sought via concrete achievements in terms of justice (Davies, 2010).…”

An ideology critique of global citizenship education

“…5. Promotors of global citizenship education within a critical democratic vein often privilege the transformation of identities and take a normative approach to education (Balarin, 2011;Mannion et al, 2011;Marshall, 2011;Pashby, 2011). Although recognising the political and economic dimension of the problem, the solutions proposed are often centred on changing 'mentalities'.…”

“…Critical democratic approaches to global citizenship education do not exist in a political vacuum; rather they occur within a wider society that is 'reproducing powerful corporate cosmopolitan ideals entrenched in a set of neoliberal and knowledge-economy norms' (Marshall, 2011, p. 424). As noticed by Balarin (2011), global citizenship discourses rarely recognise that this presumed 'empirical reality' is entrenched within a system where social injustice is not an error to be corrected, but an essential requirement of the system. As Glass (2000) reminds us, 'wittingly or not, schools rank, sort, and merge masses into an ideological order that unfairly reproduces an unjust status quo' (p. 278).…”

Rethinking the Future of Europe

“…This disproportionate trade-off results in either crowding-out, or surfaces in collective frustration (Mann, 2012). More often is the case that individual members of society are fragmented from the policy conversation or are perceived as the other/minor group (Balarin, 2011). The government-business framework (Shaffer, 2003) therefore needs to extend and explicitly include citizens' views (Saward, 2012;Greer, 2013).…”