Per-Anders Forstorp

Eduscapes: interpreting transnational flows of higher education

‘Knowledge society’ and ‘knowledge economy’ are current buzzwords in the visions of the future made by nations, regions and federations on a global scale. A concrete outcome of this is the globalisation and intensification of higher education and research. The visions based on a knowledge component should be treated as expressions of an ideology. In this article we use the notion of ‘eduscapes’ and ‘imaginaries’ as analytics for an understanding of such visions as these are expressed by individuals and institutional actors involved in educational landscapes. The argument is made that this notion is less ideological and more apt for an analysis of globalisation of higher education.

Visuality Without Form: Video-Mediated Communication and Research Practice Across Disciplinary Contexts

Visuality is a concept that crosses boundaries of practice and meaning, making it an ideal subject for interdisciplinary research. In this article, we discuss visuality using a fragment from a video meeting of television producers at Swedish Television’s group for programming in Swedish Sign Language. This example argues for the importance of recognizing the diversity of analytical and practice-derived visualities and their effect on the ways in which we interpret cultures. These different visualities have consequences for the methods and means with which we present scholarly research. The role of methods, methodology, and analysis of visual practices in an organizational and bilingual setting are key. We explore the challenges of incorporating deaf visualities, hearing visualities, and different paradigms of interdisciplinary research as necessary when visibility, invisibility, and their materialities are of concern. We conclude that in certain contexts, breaking with disciplinary traditions makes visible that which is otherwise invisible.

Key Concepts and Themes

This chapter outlines the key concepts and themes addressed in this book: Eduscapes; Imaginaries; Critical Anthropology: Knowledge Society/Economy; Globalization; and Higher Education and Mobility. Eduscape as the core concept in this book will be the vehicle with which to understand institutional practices and the strategies employed by groups and individuals. As an encompassing and eclectic concept, eduscapes can be investigated on various levels and from a number of different aspects: flow of ideas, mobility practices, university and government policies, commodification and massification of higher education, spatial imaginaries, ethnic and gendered student communities, epistemic communities, and virtual and open universities.

Knowledge Society as Ideology and Practice

The introduction introduces the key argument advocated in this book. It is that the vision of a knowledge society/economy, maintained both by individuals and by institutions, needs to be perspectivized beyond the taken-for-granted conditions and meanings. We wish to take the readers beyond the standard understanding of knowledge society/economy as a techno-political fix in a relatively neutral sense, and to show its cultural embedding (practice) as well as its ideological underpinnings (theory). This chapter further gives an introduction to the outline of the book.

Going Global: How to Kickstart a Global HEI

Particular universities and other HEIs act both autonomously and according to grand plans designed by aggregated authorities. This is visible for instance in the marketing of higher education by these actors, at the web, in brochures and catalogues, in advertisements, and in ‘designed journalism’. In this chapter, these attempts at marketing and promotion of a particular institution will be at focus of the analysis inspired by critical marketing studies, yet the overarching goal is to contribute to an understanding of the eduscapes of the institutions.

The Empirical Complexity of Knowledge Society: Material and Methodological Framework

In this chapter, we introduce the empirical material and the methodological framework. The empirical material is divided into three groups. First, we have conducted fieldwork at HEIs in different cultural contexts (India, Malaysia, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and the UAE), including opportunities for interviewing faculty. Secondly, we have conducted 90 interviews with international students in Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Malaysia. Third, we have studied texts and documents collected from regions, nations, and HEIs in the countries mentioned as well as from higher education fairs/exhibitions in India and the Middle East. We also explore the methodological conditions for making the analysis, which is done in two consecutive steps. First, through an exploration of the discursive dimensions of the analysis and second through an attempt at interpreting the notion of interference.

The Gender Politics of Eduscapes

In this chapter, we focus on the gendered dimensions of student mobility in different national and educational contexts. With examples from Sweden, Iran, India, Pakistan, Russia, and Norway, we will illustrate commonplace gendered themes in the educational biographies that we have collected since the early 2000s. In the educational biographies that we have gathered and built our analysis upon, we have come across various forms of sexism, expressions of patriarchal dividends, and gender conservatism in general. These gendered dimensions are often key motivational ‘push’ factors to start thinking about or beginning an education somewhere else, for leaving a homestead and finding a less pressing educational environment in terms of gender normativity and sexuality.

The European Union as Eduscape

In this chapter we will apply the concept of eduscape to processes of regionalization and globalization within the EU. The EU is just one among many regional actors that regard improved quality and access to higher education as primary measures of building a knowledge society. Through close readings of policy papers, white papers, and guidelines used in implementing policy, the ideological framework of higher education and globalization will be articulated. Comparative dimensions will be introduced in order to illustrate the ‘unique ordinariness’ of EU policy in this domain.

Becoming an Exporter of Higher Education: Positioning Sweden as a Knowledge Nation

In this chapter we use the example of Sweden as a small ‘knowledge nation’ and as a member of EU to show that national priorities and aspirations are not ceasing while being part of a region. While negotiating with regional bodies, the nation carries its own agenda, fuelled, not the least in the case of Sweden, by a perceived history of being a leading science nation and space for innovation. This particular blend of historical consciousness and regional negotiation forms an eduscape in between the national and the regional.

Roots and Routes: Transnational Families and Global Horizons

In this chapter we focus on how various combinations of kin and family background, ethnicity, politics, nationality, national systems of education, and not least financial resources or the lack thereof have shaped and channeled individual and collective orientation with regard to global eduscapes. It is a textual journey through individual biographies and family histories, a journey into multilayered and multidimensional experiences with particular geographies and temporalities, and in this chapter and the next two chapters we present educational biographies from different parts of the world.