Kalantzis, Mary and Bill Cope. “On Globalisation and Diversity.”

Kalantzis, Mary and Bill Cope. “On Globalisation and Diversity.” Computers and Composition. 23.4 (2006): 402-411.

Summary: “Mary Kalantzis’s plenary address at the 2005 International Conference on the Humanities (Cambridge, U.K.) argues that globalization and diversity ground the world of our times. The article expands on this notion as Kalantzis and co-author Bill Cope describe three instantiations of globalization since the evolutionary processes of human beings began. The third globalization of which we are a part today, they argue, is characterized by layers upon layers of difference. These layers, moreover, are supported through new media and the Internet—and may indeed return us to ‘multilingualism, divergence, and enduringly deep diversity.”’

Area Clusters: 106, 

Methodology: Oratory

Citations: MKalantzis BCope SHuntington LLessig JGoody JPGee

Keywords: Globalization Diversity SymbolSystems; CommandStructures Modernity

Quotes:

Whether it is for the better or for the worse and whatever the root causes—small government conservatism, today’s globalisation, or the new dynamics of a post cold-war world—the realities of this change are everywhere to be felt. There is no alternative to creating governance structures within the communities of practice of civil society. The Internet is governed not by any state but through the community of experts and interested parties that is the World Wide Web Consortium. Diasporic communities are governed not by home governments but by highly distributed community organisations whose points of connection are common cultural principles rather than chains of command. As the state withers, a certain kind of society disappears, too, and a certain kind of politics. When a greater capacity to decide and act is devolved to civil society, a higher level of participation and reflexivity is required of citizens. This is fertile ground for a new globalisation of cultural divergence. (407)

Whether it be in the domains of governance, work, or cultural life, the command society is giving way to the society of reflexivity. We are in the midst of a transformation that is creating new forms of subjectivity and new kinds of personality. These interconnected developments can be viewed both from within a systems perspective and beyond it. From a systems point of view, these are the kinds of governance structures, the kinds of organisations, and the kinds of people required today for the most conservative, small government and pro-enterprise points of view. We hear these points of view expressed in the public rhetoric of innovation and creativity, the knowledge economy, and individual autonomy, and responsibility. Notwithstanding the high-sounding rhetoric, these transformations may only legitimate and even exacerbate systemic inequities—iniquities, indeed. (408)

So here we are, 5000 years after the beginning of the transition from the first globalisation to the second. The next globalisation may not be at odds with diversity to the same extent that the second one was. Indeed, diversity may be intrinsic to it. The historical narrative of this paper has, all too schematically perhaps, suggested an at least partial return to multilingualism, divergence, and enduringly deep diversity. It also tells of a shift back to balance in the political economy of agency. In this transition, we may hear echoes of the diversity of the first globalisation, the moment of our original humanity. But a third globalisation could never simply be a return. The future will be incomparably different to any of our pasts. (409)

Samuels, Robert. “Integrating Hypertextual Subjects: Combining Modern Academic Essay Writing with Postmodern Web Zines.”

Samuels, Robert. “Integrating Hypertextual Subjects: Combining Modern Academic Essay Writing with Postmodern Web Zines.” Kairos 10.2 (2006): <http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/10.2/binder2.html?coverweb/samuels/index.html>. 

Summary: “In this hypertext, I argue that the construction of a class web zine as a shared writing project can help students to integrate traditonal and non-traditional models of academic writing.1 In detailing my students’ production and reception of a web zine entitled “The Daily Brewin,” I turn to a hypertextual model of new media literacy and discuss how composition teachers can develop theoretical frameworks and pedagogical practices devoted to thinking across the institutional and subjective forces circulating in postmodern higher education and culture. Central to my analysis of the roles of writing and computers in postmodern universities will be an examination of how new modes of media are transforming the fundamental structures of literacy and how these transformations reinforce multiple digital divides in higher education.”

Area Clusters: 101, 106

Methodology: pedagogical reflection, 

Citations:  CSelfe JJohnson-Eilola JAlexander MCooper 

Keywords: CriticalAccess DigitalDivide Collaboration HyperText MultiLiteracies Postmodern Hybridity

Quotes:

In other words, hypertexts rework our conceptions of rhetoric and our sense of academic discourse. However, I will argue here that the mere use of hypertexts in a university writing class does not by itself resolve the various tensions pitting the desires of progressive teachers against current-traditional and modern educational institutions; rather, I posit that critical teachers of composition and computers need to carefully construct hypertextual assignments that help to bridge the gap between individualistic and social conceptions of writing and technology.

My student web zine and my own essay posit that there are multiple digital divides structuring the use of computers in university writing classes. These tensions are built around the following oppositions:academic discourse vs.individual expression;current-traditional authority vs. critical pedagogy; individualistic writing vs.collaboration; the modern delivery of universal knowledge vs. the social construction of relativism; progressive teaching vs. grading; democratic sharing vs. intellectual property, and globalized instruction vs. localized discourse communities. I argue that these binary differences are often hidden or repressed in most accounts of contemporary educational environments. Furthermore, I believe that the use of critical technology literacy and electronic discourse formats can work to bring these latent conflicts out into open.

My desire to integrate traditional academic essays with hypertexts exists, in part, because I think that educators must respond to often contradictory institutional demands. For example, we need to help students to write for their other classes by teaching them the conventions of the academic essay, and we need to incorporate strategies that focus on helping students to improve their computer literacies. 

From a pedagogical standpoint, we can define this cultural and historical opposition between old modern media and postmodern new media by distinguishing between the modern stress on individualism, universal rationalism, mass culture, and disciplinarity, and the postmodern emphasis on interactivity, cultural relativism, collaboration, and interdisciplinarity (Lanham, 1994)