(re)Imagining the global, rethinking gender in education

Abstract

This paper develops new lines of analysis for understanding the relationships between globalisation, the imagination and emergent models of the 'girl-citizen'. It begins by outlining a new critical framework for studying globalisation that takes as its object of study not what globalisation is, but what globalisation does. Making use of Foucault's analytics of governmentality, it argues that globalisation can be usefully understood as a complex and contradictory set of movements that establish new modes of regulation over the conduct of individual citizens. It further argues that within the current global milieu, the imagination operates as part of a broader neo-liberal project of government that situates the global citizen in the role of entrepreneur of the self. For girls and young women the imagination becomes a tool for constructing and governing their gendered selves alongside idealised models of global citizenship and cosmopolitan identity. Finally, it is proposed that examining the role and effects of the imagination in 'making' and 'managing' global citizenship-subjects is vital to understanding the emergent models of girl-citizenship both within and outside schooling contexts.

Preparing for life in the global village: producing global citizen subjects in UK schools

“…As Burns (2008) has suggested, accounts like these appear to draw on wider hegemonic neoliberal discourse. The ferocious marketing practices taken up in the prospectuses certainly seemed to draw heavily on this type of consumerist logic.…”

Untitled

“…Although the concept has gained increased presence in academic literature from a range of disciplinary back grounds, there is no unified definition of the term. Different views in cur rent academic literature reflect dissentions around the notio n of "global" and "globalisation" themselves, a contentious notion in academia, often criticised for being poorly theorised, despite the vast field of academic literature on the topic (Appadurai, 1996;Burns, 2008;Blommaert, 2010;Kamola, 2014;Steger, 2009). The lack of consensus around these notions is reflected in the dichotomies that frame debates around globalisation: in particular, the tension between emancipatory and alienating forms of globalisation (Beck, 2004;Burns, 2008;Welply, 2015, p. 231).…”

“…This includes new, transnational and multiple forms of affiliation (Banks, 2014;Appadurai, 1996) which call for reframing existing boundaries and categories (Welply, 2015). As such, imagination gives a new role to globalisation, allowing minoritized groups and individuals to negotiate global cultural trends (Appadurai, 1996;Burns, 2008), critically engage with globalisation (Delanty, 2009, p. 250) or cultivate "shared humanity" or cosmopolitanism through "narrative" or "sympathetic" imagination, as a foundation for global citizenship education (Nussbaum, 1998Appiah, 2006Appiah, , 2017. Here, imagination is not a mere fantasy, nor is it uncritical.…”

“…The global only ever happens and is interpreted at a local level, which participates in its symbolic meaning-making. The concept of global imaginaries, through a hermeneutic approach, also allows the analysis to overcome the dichotomy between alienating and emancipatory perspectives and discourses of the global (Appadurai, 1996;Burns, 2008;. The ways in which this divide can be transcended is the central focus on this paper.…”

Defining the ‘good mother’ and the ‘professional teacher’: parent–teacher relationships in an affluent school district

“…Success in a neoliberal economy requires citizens to be creative, entrepreneurial and businesslike, facilitating a range of self-management strategies to temper the risks associated with the global economy (Burns 2008). While the educational work done by mothers contributes to reproducing the class structure of the affluent community (Griffith and Smith 2005), the self-management strategies employed by entitled-minded mothers further heightens their own individual and family status within that same community.…”