Why the paradigm of the world-class university is an implausible dream for most institutions of higher education Universities have become major actors on the global stage. Yet, as they strive to be “world-class,” institutions of higher education are shifting away from their core missions of cultivating democratic citizenship, fostering critical thinking, and safeguarding academic freedom. In the contest to raise their national and global profiles, universities are embracing a new form of utilitarianism, one that favors market power over academic values. In this book, James Mittelman explains why the world-class university is an implausible dream for most institutions and proposes viable alternatives that can help universities thrive in today’s competitive global environment. Mittelman traces how the scale, reach, and impact of higher-education institutions expanded exponentially in the post–World War II era, and how the market-led educational model became widespread. Drawing on his own groundbreaking fieldwork, he offers three case studies—the United States, which exemplifies market-oriented educational globalization; Finland, representative of the strong public sphere; and Uganda, a postcolonial country with a historically public but now increasingly private university system. Mittelman shows that the “world-class” paradigm is untenable for all but a small group of wealthy, research-intensive universities, primarily in the global North. Nevertheless, institutions without substantial material resources and in far different contexts continue to aspire to world-class stature. An urgent wake-up call, Implausible Dream argues that universities are repurposing at the peril of their high principles and recommends structural reforms that are more practical than the unrealistic worldwide measures of excellence prevalent today.
This text presents a holistic and multi-level analysis of globalization, connecting the economic to the political and cultural, joining agents and multiple structures, and interrelating different local, regional and global arenas.
Few authors have sought to explain the links among development, global governance, and globalization, Contesting Global Order traces dominant values and patterns on a world level over the last half century. Including a framing introduction written for the volume, this book brings together for the first time James H. Mittelman’s most influential works, offering cross-regional analysis, and including fieldwork in nine countries in Africa and Asia.
Globalization is usually said to be about markets, power, and culture. This innovative book goes further, arguing that globalization may also be understood as a way of knowing and representing the world. Mittelman debunks several prevalent myths about globalization and 'anti-globalization', presenting alternatives to this force and indicating the prospects for a new common sense about future world order. Drawing on considerable original research, this book shows how globalization itself and globalization studies have changed since 9/11. Compact and accessible, Whither Globalization? is a major contribution to the study of globalization by one of the leading scholars in the field and is essential reading for students of international relations and international political economy.
A combination of heightened economic competition and an extreme concentration of power in geopolitics globalizes insecurity in the form of hyperconflict: a reorganization of political violence, a growing climate of fear, and increasing instability at a world level.
This text presents a holistic and multi-level analysis of globalization, connecting the economic to the political and cultural, joining agents and multiple structures, and interrelating different local, regional and global arenas.
Underdevelopment and the Transition to Socialism: Mozambique and Tanzania evaluates the promise and problems of socialism in the Third World by considering the political economies of Mozambique and Tanzania. The aim is to provide a basic account, for Marxists and non-Marxists alike, interested in alternative strategies of development in the Third World. It offers a materialist political economy approach that should be useful to an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners. The book is organized into four parts. Part I maps out purposes and procedures. Part II on Mozambique is a factually grounded analysis of an initial conjuncture in the transition to socialism—the capture of state power by workers and peasants. Part III on Tanzania focuses on another vital step on the way to socialism—the nationalization of leading financial institutions and the attempt to place them under the aegis of the immediate producers. Part IV knits together the main strands of the foregoing analysis and ties them to the broad themes discussed at the beginning of this book.
Development may be best understood in terms of the interplay among capital accumulation, the state, and class. Subject to globalizing structures, classes, in turn, are examined in light of their interactions with culture, especially gender and religion as well as ecology. Case-studies - Brazil, the Asian newly industrializing countries, China, and Mozambique - reveal three possibilities for overcoming underdevelopment: joining, leaving, or weaving through global capitalism. The conclusions do not fail to present specific principles upon which policies can be based.
A combination of heightened economic competition and an extreme concentration of power in geopolitics globalizes insecurity in the form of hyperconflict: a reorganization of political violence, a growing climate of fear, and increasing instability at a world level.
Contesting Global Order traces dominant values and patterns on a world level over the last half century. Including a framing introduction written for the volume, this book presents James H. Mittelman’s most influential essays. It offers cross-regional analysis, drawing on his fieldwork in nine countries in Africa and Asia. This research explores mechanisms by which prevailing knowledge about global order is implicated in its deep tensions: chiefly, the impetus for development and global governance embodies aspirations for attaining wellbeing and upholding human dignity; yet market- and state-driven globalization embraces basic ideas inscribed in power, thus increasing vulnerability and making the world more insecure. Rather than exalt one element in this quandary over another, Mittelman shows how different aspects of the relationship collide. Examining cases of specific localities, international organizations, and social movements, this grounded study unveils evolving structures that shape our times. It projects scenarios for future global order and how to make it work for the have-nots. Mittelman consistently forges a critical perspective throughout this collection. His reflections cut against conventions in international studies and, more generally, global order. This volume will be of great interest to all students and practitioners of development, global governance, and globalization.
ABOUT THE BOOK "The world of the Tipping Point is a place where the unexpected becomes expected, where radical change is more than possibility." Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference is an irreverent, fresh look at why some things become trends and others don't. We are all familiar with and a part of trends, fads, and cultural shifts, but often we don't understand them. It's easy to understand why specific things happen in our own lives, but most of us just stare off into space and shake our heads when we happen to think about why some shirt is in style or why a neighborhood is getting more dangerous. We don't know because there are too many moving parts to think about. In this book, Gladwell zooms in on the relatively microscopic people, aspects, and conditions that spread those trends. He uses the overarching metaphor of an epidemic as a visualization of how ideas spread. Do you know why suddenly some video of a little kid is everywhere on the Internet, or why Harry Potter became the most popular book in the world? Malcolm Gladwell thinks he does. For most of us, trends and ideas are just things that happen around us. Much of what Gladwell is doing makes causes and effects that are too big to think about more human and personal. In that way, he gives us something to grab hold of. It's as if he is taking massive spreadsheets and computer models of information and explaining them to you at a cocktail party over a martini. It works and he makes a lot of sense. Sitting there reading it over you'll think, "Yeah, of course. I already knew that' which is always the mark of a good explanation. Of course, it's impossible to ever know for sure why one fad happens and another doesn't make it out of the gate, but by the end of the book Gladwell has drilled down into the minutiae and created a compelling breakdown on how it generally works. We all understand things that we've never put into words quite succinctly. Gladwell is doing exactly that in this book. The strength of his pop science is that he gives concrete names to nebulous causes that create our world. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK "The Tipping Point grew out of an article I wrote as a freelancer for Tina Brown at the New Yorker, who ran the piece and then - to my surprise and delight - hired me. Thank you, Tina." Malcolm Gladwell is a prolific writer who lives in New York. His books and articles generate a lot of conversation and debate because they dig into highly contentious and often unanswerable issues. He is a special contributor to The New Yorker magazine, where he writes about things like the science of cool hunting, race and sports, physical genius, the concept of moral hazard and health care, and the difference between puzzles and mysteries. He has published several popular books, including Blink and Outliers. His articles and books are often called pop science because he takes research, rearranges it, and uses it to draw new conclusions about why things happen in our world. Most often his topics are questions that can't be definitively answered or investigations of concepts that are unresolved while being somehow both common and mysterious. His writing is widely read and his breakdown of the "tipping point" concept has been widely referenced and utilized throughout marketing circles... The revolutionary part of this chapter is that he actually pins down the right size of a group to make it the most productive. He takes a deep look at Gore, a fabric innovation company. The company is divided into 150 or so person teams that are separated...
The author of this work argues against reductionist accounts of human cognition, proposing a sociocultural theory whereby 'mediated action' and cultural tools shape cognitive processes and can explain how they are organized.
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