Building Global Education with a Local Perspective: An Introduction to Glocal Higher Education by Emmanuel Jean Francois (review)

Engagement and the “Glocalization” Agenda

The depth and duration the Great Recession, coinciding with the intensification of competitive capitalism, has raised alarm. Especially in developed societies, there is concern about whether there is the capacity and capability to fuel and sustain economic recovery and global authority. At the same time, problems of feeding and housing our populations, protecting our environments, generating sufficient energy, supplying enough clean water, growing urbanization, and reducing poverty and social inequalities have drawn our attention to what have come to be called “societal grand challenges.” While different in scope and impact, these developments highlight the interconnectedness and codependence of world events, and the realization that solving these challenges requires a more sophisticated and complex set of intellectual, social, and political relations than heretofore.

Emmanuel Jean Francois’ book “Building Global Education with a Local Perspective: An Introduction to Glocal Higher Education” seeks to develop an educational response to these issues through “glocalization” (see Goddard, Hazelkorn, Kempton, & Vallance, 2016).

Glocalization is a broader concept than internationalization, which arguably can be construed as unidirectional. Instead, glocalization draws on the understanding that “global processes or networks are inherently connected to local processes” (64). As a good illustration of how the global and local are intertwined, we need look no further than the 2008 global financial crisis, jihadi extremism, Mediterranean migration, the Ebola epidemic, and the effects of climate change—events that appear to occur at a distance but soon have immediate implications. As a partial response, there has been, at a national and supranational level (e.g. OECD, UNESCO, World Bank, European Union), increasing interest in transforming the imperatives around education and research and reformulating the “societal contract.” The aim has been to focus more acutely on the contribution that higher education can/should make to society and the economy with greater emphasis being placed on societal value and benefit.

Theorizing Engagement

There are three broad schools of thought or perspectives which underpin this engagement agenda: i) social justice, ii) economic development, and iii) the public good.

The social justice model draws on John Rawls, and emphasizes education’s responsibility and societal duties. There is a strong tendency within this literature to envision engagement as a leitmotif for a social movement seeking to transform both the academy and surrounding society through empowerment and community improvement (Boyer, 1996; Butin & Seider, 2012).

At the other end of the theoretical spectrum, the economic development model stresses the importance of higher education as a driver of social and economic growth. This has amplified the university’s “regional mission,” on the basis that “universities can create benefits that are not easily replicated elsewhere” (OCED, 2007; Pinheiro, Benneworth, & Jones, 2012).

The public good approach sits roughly between these positions, operating as a bridge. Calhoun describes higher education as actively and holistically using its capacity and capability to “educate citizens in general, to share knowledge, to distribute it as widely as possible in accord with publically articulated purposes” (2006). Research seeks to demonstrate greater evidence of impact, benefit, and relevance, while teaching goes beyond simply widening access to incorporate issues around curriculum relevance and problem-based learning, learning outcomes, employability, entrepreneurship, etc.

Caught between the demands for greater local responsiveness and pursuit of global “world-class” excellence, higher education is under increasing pressure. For example, to what extent does pursuance of global engagement or internationalization ignore the community or issues on the university’s or college’s door-step (Editorial, 2010)? Francois’ concept of “glocal” attempts to reconcile these different dimensions, stressing an “integrative relationship between global systems and local cultures, communities, and societies. …”

Institutional Action

The engagement agenda has encouraged a new focus on higher education’s relationship with the wider world. It has underpinned the necessity for interdisciplinary, collaborative, and cross-border inquiry and action. The management of relationships between higher education and myriad stakeholders has shifted from what might...