Maggi Leung

Immobile Transnationalisms? Young People and Their in situ Experiences of ‘International’ Education in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, the number of international degree programmes available locally to students has proliferated in recent years, and British universities are the largest provider of so-called ‘transnational education’ in the territory. This paper draws on the findings of a qualitative project examining British degree programmes offered in Hong Kong, and their implications for local young people. In particular, it explores the fact that the vast majority of these ‘international’ qualifications involve no travel whatsoever, and are taught and awarded entirely in Hong Kong. Interviews with students/graduates, with direct experience of a British degree, elucidate the relationship between (im)mobility and the accumulation of cultural capital through international education. It is suggested that immobility does have an impact upon young people’s experiences of higher education. The findings contribute to discussions around the relationship between education, mobility and class, and the implications of a consolidating international education industry for class reproduction and social inequalities.

Young People and the Reproduction of Disadvantage Through Transnational Higher Education in Hong Kong

This paper examines the role of transnational higher education in reproducing local patterns of disadvantage in Hong Kong. Specifically, it considers the expectations and experiences of local students undertaking British degree programmes, drawing on the findings of a recent qualitative research project. In this paper, we argue that through the introduction of so-called ‘top-up’ programmes, British universities are providing degree-level education to students unable to access local higher education (HE) in Hong Kong through the ‘traditional’ route. Drawing upon our interviews with students and graduates, we show the immense cultural and social expectations, placed upon young people in Hong Kong, to obtain a university degree, and the role of ‘international’ education in (partially) offsetting the shortfall in domestic university places. However, we also suggest that these students/graduates are in various ways relatively disadvantaged by these degrees - they often have less cultural capital and social capital on which to draw, and find that their degrees are less valued than their local equivalent. There are broader implications of our findings for understanding the role of transnational educational provision in localised reproduction of (dis)advantage, especially in East Asia.

Social Mobility via academic mobility: reconfigurations in class and gender identities among Asian scholars in the global north

ABSTRACT Geographic mobility is increasingly perceived worldwide as a key to academic excellence, career advancement and upward social mobility. Drawing on long-term qualitative fieldwork data, this paper interrogates the impact of academic mobility in reconfiguring class and gender identities among students, early professionals and their families from Hong Kong and Indonesia who have studied or received further training in Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. This analysis problematises the crude ‘academic mobility → upward social mobility’ formula and considers international academic mobility as a contextual, dynamic and multi-directional process. Through this process social positions and identities of the moving individuals and families are negotiated in an on-going manner as migrants insert into, depart from and re-insert into the various social milieus where their mobility trajectories touch ground. Narratives of interviewees illustrate the complexity and contradictions in class and gender configurations as students move across borders. They show how these individuals are inserted in contrasting social positionings, and experience how a particular social class or gender position carries different connotations. The paper concludes with a few conceptual and methodological reflections.

Rethinking Migration in the 2030 Agenda: Towards a De-Territorialized Conceptualization of Development

While the 2030 Development Agenda was being prepared, Europe experienced a massive inflow of refugees. In response, many western European donors pointed to the need to bring about ‘development’ in the regions of origin, in an attempt to halt the inflow of people. As such, development is often conceptualized as a place-bound process that focuses on enabling people to achieve a better quality of life ‘at home’, implying that migration is an indicator of development failure. Moreover, the mobility of some is celebrated, whereas that of lower skilled migrants is framed as problematic. Such interpretation of development was also reflected in the millennium development goals, which hardly referred to migration. During the preparation of the 2030 Agenda, there were insistent demands to include migration in the new development agenda. In this article, we analyse the 2030 Agenda and its framing, and consider the potential strengths, weaknesses, potentials and risks in relation to migration. The article questions the ability of the Agenda to reflect the translocal and de-territorialized characteristics of our global economy, and the complex relationships that link livelihoods and lifestyles across distant places. We argue that the tension between migration and development is not a new phenomenon and that the 2030 Agenda will not be able to deliver fundamental changes to the present place-based notion of development and do justice to a mobile world.

Unsettling the Yin-Yang Harmony: An Analysis of Gender Inequalities in Academic Mobility among Chinese Scholars

This paper highlights the gendered nature of international academic mobility. Drawing on a qualitative research on Chinese scholars who have professional mobility experiences overseas, specifically in Germany, the paper demonstrates how the practice, meanings and perceptions of academic mobility are highly gendered. Research findings highlight how gender, intersecting with other axes of differences, shapes the power geometries of the transnationalized academic field, and in turn, facilitates and inhibits academic mobility differently among women and men. By bringing forth the gender inequalities in academic mobility, this paper contributes in opening up spaces to challenge and eliminate structural and normalized gender bias in the field.

Trans-knowledge? Geography, mobility and knowledge in transnational education

Is there anything more mobile and less sticky than the knowledge imparted and created through transnational higher education (TNE)? Transnationalism implies an inherent mobility and fluidity—a process at ease with geographical distance and difference. By definition, the mobility of knowledge lies at the heart of TNE; it crosses, transects, and overcomes the parochialism and embeddedness of national education systems, to deliver educational programs to students who are both culturally and spatially removed from home. TNE provides, argue the authors, a fascinating case study of the mobility of knowledge, not least because it lies at the forefront of recent, hugely significant developments in the internationalization of higher education (HE), globally, and yet, very little is known about the geographies of knowledge within this innovative form of teaching and learning. This chapter critically examines the mobility of knowledge as a consequence of the growth and expansion of TNE, focusing specifically on the movement of academic programs between the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

The exclusive nature of inclusive productive employment in the rural areas of northern Ethiopia

Inclusiveness, with its emphasis on productive employment, has become central in development policy. From this perspective, unwaged-work is condemned for not being sufficiently productive; that is, for failing to lift incomes above a poverty threshold. However, insights from the sociology of work reveal a range of unwaged activities that are potentially highly productive in their contribution to self-reliance. The article explores whether these activities are undermined by the promotion of inclusiveness. The case study takes place in Tigray, Ethiopia. Through semi-structured interviews, the activities of different households were classified according to a typology of work based on the work of Gorz, Illich, Wheelock, Taylor, Williams and others. Results show the heterogeneous character of work and shed light on the meaning of productivity. The article ends with a discussion on the risk that inclusiveness may be achieved by replacing activities ‘that count’ with activities ‘that can be counted’.

Educators sans frontières? Borders and power geometries in transnational education

ABSTRACT Education work denotes a relational encounter among individuals positioned along axes of intersecting differences. Transnational education (TNE) offers a particularly intriguing context for conceptualising borders and power relation in knowledge production. Drawing upon empirical work conducted in the UK and Hong Kong, this paper interrogates the notion of border in TNE and analyses how ‘flying faculty’ involved in UK TNE programmes in Hong Kong perceive, manage and experience socio-cultural, institutional and other borders. We contextualise the personal experiences of these ‘educators sans frontières’ in the broader power geometries in which they are embedded. Our findings reveal the presence and strength of diverse borders in the TNE field. These borders are contexts of control and capital accumulation, where existing power relation is being negotiated and contested on a daily basis. We also highlight the rapidly changing power geometries in the field marked by the rise of the new powers, like Hong Kong, in the international higher education system. The paper ends by calling for more appreciation and efforts in harnessing the generative and creative potential of borders. Exploring borders as contexts of exchanges and co-production would contribute to more equitable partnerships among diverse stakeholders in the expanding TNE sector.

Transnational education: teaching and learning across borders : An introduction

Transnational Education (TNE) combines two broad terms, “transnational” and “education.” The meaning and purpose of “education” has been forced to evolve to meet the needs of the early twenty-first century with its significant advances in information technology and unprecedented access to knowledge. “Transnational” on the other hand emphasizes the development of cross-border movements of people, institutions, systems and programs that have led to many new phenomena. The guest editors of this special issue come from different academic disciplines and backgrounds. We believe that a more in-depth understanding of the intricate tapestry of TNE requires study from various perspectives including historical, migratory, as well as social work research. Hence, in this issue we have attempted to provide an interdisciplinary view on, and understanding of, Transnational Education (TNE) that includes definitions and perspectives derived from research in education, historical studies, and human geography and migration research. First and foremost, the modern nation state and the modern educational system, which is associated with state regulation, professionally trained teachers, binding curricula and compulsory schooling, only emerged from the beginning of the nineteenth century. The nation-building process and the formation of school institutions are inseparably interwoven. Education is primarily classified as a national endeavor. It is a tool for nation-building and cultural homogenization and for the “creation and reproduction of citizens who carry and continue this project” (Adick, 2005, p. 245; Radtke, 2008). Legitimacy and acknowledgement of educational institutions by nation states always depend on their orientation toward, and integration into a nationally regulated education system. However, in recent times we see that education is increasingly shaped and institutionalized transnationally. Transnationalism is not a modern phenomenon, but looking through a transnational lens is a new approach. The focus topic of this issue is based on a broad understanding of the term “transnational.” According to the Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History, it refers to “people, ideas, products, processes and patterns that operate over, across, through, beyond, above, under, or in-between polities and societies” or addresses “the flows of people, goods, ideas or processes that stretched over borders” (Iriye & Saunier, 2009). Border-crossing is not limited to crossing nation states but covers a wide range of geographical, political,

Knowledge (im)mobility through mirco-level interactions: An analysis of the communication process in Chinese-Zambian medical co-operation

Abstract Although Chinese medical aid to African countries is not a new phenomenon, the scale and scope of these engagements has changed significantly after the turn of the Millennium. Chinese government officials don’t grow tired to represent their country as new alternative for African medical development, a narrative that is accompanied with a host of figures such as money donated, Chinese personnel deployed, African practitioners trained and patients treated. However, little is known about the actual events behind these numbers. Drawing on the academic debate around the relationality of mobility and knowledge this paper is looking at the embodied experiences of Chinese-Zambian medical co-operation. By proposing a communication model as conceptual framework, this paper addresses recent criticism that too much scholarly attention has been given to the successful transfer of knowledge, whereas factors that prevent exchanges were largely ignored. Through the application of this model to analyze data obtained during six weeks of fieldwork in Zambia, it was possible to identify several prisms which affect the exchange of knowledge between the Chinese and Zambian teams in our case study decisively.