Suarez-Orozco, Marcelo M., and Desiree Baolian Qin-Hilliard, eds. Globalization: Culture and Education in the New Millennium. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. 275 pp. ISBN 0-520-24125-8, $19.95

MAXIMILIAN C. FORTE

Concordia University, Canada

mcforte@kacike.org

This unique volume presents us with what is possibly one of the more interesting and original contributions to a burgeoning mass of publications on the theme of “globalization.” Written in accessible language, with challenging insights and provocative theoretical positions, this collection could meet the needs of a wide variety of courses in the social sciences. The volume emerged from two major scholarly retreats and seminars that were organized and funded with the support of Harvard University and the Ross Institute of New York, starting in 2002. Contributors to the collection include scholars in education, social studies of science and technology, immigration, history, economics and demography, Latin American studies, Asian American studies, and Chinese studies. At least two of the eleven contributors are anthropologists. Among the themes addressed in the volume are a historical overview of globalization; digital technologies and cognition; “pop cosmopolitanism” and immigrant youth cultures; globalization in Asia from an anthropological perspective; the formulation of identity; and, the relationships between globalization processes and the responses of educational institutions in terms of curricular innovations.

The premise for the collection involves investigating the relationships between globalization and education, which the editors rightly recognize is one of the few remaining uncharted territories in the wide landscape of globalization studies across the disciplines. This is where readers are immediately confronted with the challenges of putting together such a volume, for two reasons. First, few of the contributors seem to agree on what constitutes a basic definition of globalization, and thus several of the ten chapters diverge in the ways the authors conceive, perceive and apply the globalization framework. In addition, given the wide range of studies collected from a variety of disciplines, it is not clearly apparent what the individual contributors consider to be “education.” The last observation speaks to the second problem to be found in the volume. As a volume on “globalization and culture,” this collection has only a few competitors. Conversely, as a volume on “globalization and education,” the collection has even fewer competitors but now appears rather more ramshackle and loosely held together. Only three of the ten chapters explicitly address education as their central issue. Most of the remaining chapters address education almost as an afterthought, often relegating discussion to the final page of a 30-page chapter, or a few concluding paragraphs often consisting of predictable generalities and familiar truisms. Considering that the contributors met, discussed and debated at two seminars, it was surprising to see the limited degree of correspondence between the chapters.

The preface by Courtney Ross-Holst did little justice to the volume and could alienate readers. Ross-Holst’s comments included a series of rigid dictates about the need to have more technology in the classroom (technology is good), to have students “adapt” to globalization and strive to be “successful citizens,” especially as globalization is seemingly an unstoppable supra-human force that requires educational institutions the world over to “respond.” Howard Gardner insists that globalization cannot be “reversed,” which betrays a teleology that admits no other forms of discontinuity. Prediction and prescription are thus confused with one another. While a few of the contributions seem to treat globalization as an evolutionary highpoint, some are instead quite critical and open to the contradictions and ambiguities of the current, allegedly new, phase of globalization. James Watson and Sunana Maira separately reveal ways in which globalization processes are themselves reworked, exploited, or otherwise modified in local settings to suit local purposes, so that globalization is by no means a unidirectional process to which we must all uniformly adapt.

The frequent lack of dialogue between the chapters results in the neglect of some critical debates. I will list just a few examples. While Ross-Holst insists that youths be trained in information technology, Antonio Battro argues that digital skills are innate and require no formal education, and Sherry Turkle is critical of the spread of software such as PowerPoint because, she argues, it fosters cognitive standardization and subordinates the development of coherent arguments in favor of lists of points. A number of the authors speak of the need to “tolerate difference,” while other contributors point out that the different others are themselves already quite cosmopolitan (transnational youth cultures). Some argue for the need to develop new curricula to meet the changes wrought by globalization, while Gardner notes that there is already evidence of standardization of curricula across the globe. While the editors stress that “globalization” should not be reduced to cultural imperialism, Gardner, argues that people in countries whose language is not spoken outside of their national borders should learn English. The implication is that multicultural skills are worth having, if they can be communicated in one language. Carola Suarez-Orozco maintains there is “an unprecedented flow of immigrants worldwide,” (p. 173) seeing this as uniquely distinctive about this phase of globalization, a theme that John Coatsworth establishes beyond doubt that “current migration flows are proportionally smaller than in previous periods” (p. 15). Apart from a lack of agreement on what globalization is, the authors do not seem to be equally convinced of the importance of the present phase.

This volume will indubitably stimulate much thoughtful debate about consequences of globalization that have received little coverage to date. While the contributions infrequently complement each other, collectively they provide critical contextualizations of the relationships between globalization, culture and education. What remains lurking in the background is an unresolved tension between tradition and modernity.