Globalizing Knowledge

Heralding a push for higher education to adopt a more global perspective, the term "globalizing knowledge" is today a popular catchphrase among academics and their circles. The complications and consequences of this desire for greater worldliness, however, are rarely considered critically. In this groundbreaking cultural-political sociology of knowledge and change, Michael D. Kennedy rearticulates questions, approaches, and case studies to clarify intellectuals' and institutions' responsibilities in a world defined by transformation and crisis. Globalizing Knowledge introduces the stakes of globalizing knowledge before examining how intellectuals and their institutions and networks shape and are shaped by globalization and world-historical events from 2001 through the uprisings of 2011–13. But Kennedy is not only concerned with elaborating how wisdom is maintained and transmitted, he also asks how we can recognize both interconnectedness and inequalities, and possibilities for more knowledgeable change within and beyond academic circles. Subsequent chapters are devoted to issues of public engagement, the importance of recognizing difference and the local's implication in the global, and the specific ways in which knowledge, images, and symbols are shared globally. Kennedy considers numerous case studies, from historical happenings in Poland, Kosova, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, to today's energy crisis, Pussy Riot, the Occupy Movement, and beyond, to illuminate how knowledge functions and might be used to affect good in the world.

Heralding a push for higher education to adopt a more global perspective, the term "globalizing knowledge" is today a popular catchphrase among academics and their circles. The complications and consequences of this desire for greater worldliness, however, are rarely considered critically. In this groundbreaking cultural-political sociology of knowledge and change, Michael D. Kennedy rearticulates questions, approaches, and case studies to clarify intellectuals' and institutions' responsibilities in a world defined by transformation and crisis. Globalizing Knowledge introduces the stakes of globalizing knowledge before examining how intellectuals and their institutions and networks shape and are shaped by globalization and world-historical events from 2001 through the uprisings of 2011–13. But Kennedy is not only concerned with elaborating how wisdom is maintained and transmitted, he also asks how we can recognize both interconnectedness and inequalities, and possibilities for more knowledgeable change within and beyond academic circles. Subsequent chapters are devoted to issues of public engagement, the importance of recognizing difference and the local's implication in the global, and the specific ways in which knowledge, images, and symbols are shared globally. Kennedy considers numerous case studies, from historical happenings in Poland, Kosova, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, to today's energy crisis, Pussy Riot, the Occupy Movement, and beyond, to illuminate how knowledge functions and might be used to affect good in the world.

This book presents a radically innovative view on trade shows as knowledge-rich places, where firms learn through observation and interaction with other economic actors, and as enablers, rather than mere consequences, of globalization. Traditionally seen as marketing tools, trade shows are conceptualised as temporary clusters that facilitate the creation and diffusion of knowledge across geographical distances, even in the age of social media. The book is organized in four parts. Part I lays out the conceptual foundations of the knowledge-based perspective, from the early development of trade fairs to modern-day events. Part II analyses specific global developments, focussing on the trade show ecologies of Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region. Part III investigates differences in the nature of knowledge generation practices across international hub shows, exports shows, and import shows in different industries, and investigates competition between such events. Part IV discusses the implications of a knowledge-based conceptualisation of trade shows. The book will be of interest to scholars and students in economic geography, management, marketing, organization studies, political science, and sociology. It also has practical implications for trade show organisers on how to make their events more competitive through knowledge-based strategies; for industry associations and cities, on how to use these events for collective/place marketing purposes; and for policy makers, on how to use trade shows for export promotion and innovation policies.

In communications, health care, and economics, events, discoveries, and decisions that originate beyond national borders today routinely influence national policies and practices. But how are our system of education, and particularly our universities, affected by globalization? A New World of Knowledge examines how globalization has obliged universities in Canada to reassess and rethink the international dimension of their mission and practice. All now include an international dimension in their mission statement. Is this a true statement of educational principles? Or is it simply a marketing message intended to position the university to cope with budget reductions through the sale of educational services? A New World of Knowledge looks at the important role that Canadian universities have played in shaping Canada's response to the problems of international development. It provides the historical backdrop and level of analysis needed to properly inform choices for the future of higher education in Canada and abroad. The book will interest teachers and administrators in institutions of higher education, especially in international affairs and educational studies; practitioners in organizations that depend on university linkages (such as in NGOs and research-granting organizations); government officials in the education sector; and students looking for an international education.

Globalization, Knowledge and Society addresses the issues involved in the development of sociology as a global discipline and the increasing interpenetration of national traditions, cultures and economies through global change. Classic issues of relativism and universalism are raised in a new context. The related problems of tensions between national sociological traditions and the international discipline are explored. Finally the book considers the transnational process of social change, particularly as exemplified in international actors such as the Green and peace movements. This innovative volume, drawing on papers from International Sociology, addresses key questions for all those interested either in th

This is the fourth in a series of occasional papers that analyze the changes taking place in U.S. undergraduate education. This essay examines two streams of reform on the campus and in the curriculum--internationalization and diversification--and suggests that these separate movements must come together in a new paradigm of higher education in which diversity would be taught as the historical result of multiple overlapping diasporas created by the evolving process of globalization. Concomitantly, an understanding of deeply different cultural and political perspectives from outside the United States would develop the intercultural skills students will need in an increasingly diverse and globally interdependent nation. Part 1 of the paper, "Separate Streams: The Legacy of American Exceptionalism," focuses on the internationalization of U.S. higher education, diversity, reconceptualizing identities and locations, globalization, diasporas, interculturalism, and positionality (identity politics). Part 2, "Educational Goals for U.S. Students in the Twenty-first Century," offers four interrelated goals that follow from the changes identified in part 1: understanding diverse cultures; developing intercultural skills; understanding global processes; and preparing for local and global citizenship. (Contains 56 references and 6 endnotes.) (CH)

This book begins from the central premise that progressive social change requires collective struggle underpinned by a clear strategy, and that processes of neoliberal globalisation have altered the cartography upon which social struggle takes place. Drawing on insights from the knowledge production processes of labour movements around the world, this research seeks to highlight the central importance of knowledge production and processes of learning within social movements. Providing both a comprehensive theoretical and empirical introduction to the relationship between globalisation, knowledge and social movement strategy, the authors contend that the production and dissemination of alternative knowledge is central to a resurgence of working-class power. By presenting a wide range of case-studies, the book highlights the centrality of knowledge production and circulation processes to the potential expansion and revitalization of the role of civil society in the promotion of social democracy. The chapter contributors include activist-scholars, whose work represents a broad perspective on ‘labour’ including the unemployed, the self-employed at the margins of the labour market, the unorganized, and those who work in the informal economy. Delivering work which is at once theoretically rich and yet empirically informed, this work will be of interest to students and scholars from a range of disciplines including International Relations, Development Studies, Critical Labour and Social Movement Studies, and Education. It will also be of relevance to activists and practitioners engaged in strategy development and education in various social movements.

The contributions to this volume enter into a dialogue about the routes, modes and institutions that transferred and transformed knowledge across the late antique Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. Each contribution not only presents a different case study but also investigates a different type of question, ranging from how history-writing drew on cross-culturally constructed stories and shared sets of skills and values, to how an ancient warlord was transformed into the iconic hero of a newly created monotheistic religion. Between these two poles, the emergence of a new, knowledge-related, but market-based profession in Baghdad is discussed, alongside the long-distance transfer of texts, doctrines and values within a religious minority community from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the mountains of the southern Arabian Peninsula. The authors also investigate the outsourcing of military units and skills across religious and political boundaries, the construction of cross-cultural knowledge of the balance through networks of scholars, patrons, merchants and craftsmen, as well as differences in linguistic and pharmaceutical practices in mixed cultural environments for shared corpora of texts, drugs and plants.