IR, the Critic, and the World: From Reifying the Discipline to Decolonising the University

2020 ◽  
pp. 030582982093706
Author(s):  
Isaac Kamola

Why does IR scholarship seem so resistant to travel into other disciplinary spaces? To answer this question, I look at the tendency for scholars within our discipline to talk to the discipline, about the discipline, and for the discipline. We obsess over ‘IR’ and, in doing so, reify IR as a thing. I turn towards Edward Said’s arguments about the worldliness of texts, and how reification shapes how ideas travel. I then provide two illustrations of how scholars have reified IR as a thing: Robert Cox’s approach to critical theory and Amitav Acharya’s call for a ‘Global IR’. In both cases, contrary to expectation, the authors reify IR as a thing, portraying the discipline as distinct from the world. IR is treated as something with agency, ignoring how disciplinary knowledge is produced within worldly institutions. I conclude by looking at three strategies for studying worldly relations in ways that refuse to reify the discipline: showing disloyalty to the discipline, engaging the political economy of higher education, and seeking to decolonise the university. Rather than reifying IR, these strategies help us to engage our scholarly work in a way that prioritises worldly critical engagements within our disciplinary community, and the world.

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kinga Magdolna Mandel ◽  
Anargul Belgibayeva

The aim of our research was to describe, compare, and analyze the development of business and educational co-operation between Kazakhstan and Hungary over the past 19 years. The research was prompted by the university-level co-operation between the two countries that star ted in 2018, which was made possible by the strategic partnership that is the topic of the present article. We started from the hypothesis that both business and educational co-operation has developed linearly and significantly during the last 19 years. Our research methodology was based on gathering and analyzing secondary macroeconomic, trade, and educational co-operation data in the period between 2011 and 2020. The data were obtained from publications, national offices (statistical, commerce, and education), and international bodies (like TempusPublic Foundation, Eurostat, International Monetary Fund [IMF], and the World Bank). In this paper, we intend to link the main political, social, and macroeconomic endowments with business and educational developments of partnership in the two countries, trying to map out prospects for co-operation. One conclusion is that, although in the political communications of the two countries we were able to identify significant governmental efforts on both sides to support and enforce economic and educational co-operation, the data indicate a decrease in the size of business investments. At the same time, however, the educational co-operation between the two parties continues to develop further.


Author(s):  
Jeff Lilburn

This paper responds to recent work exploring the relationship between the political economy of globalization and institutions of higher education. It considers implications of this relationship for the library as a unit within the university and for the role librarians play as teachers helping to produce informed and active citizens.Cet article répond à des récents travaux explorant la relation entre l'économie politique de la mondialisation et les institutions d'enseignement supérieur. Seront examinées les conséquences de cette relation sur les bibliothèques en milieu universitaire ainsi que sur la tâche de formateur des bibliothécaires qui produisent des citoyens informés et actifs. 


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 244
Author(s):  
Maureen Irish

Serving Whose Interests is an examination of the General Agreement on Trade in Services [GATS] since its inception in 1995, with several case studies that discuss services trade in specific applications around the world. The scholarship i s extensive and detailed. Jane Kelsey, law professor at the University of Auckland, has criticized the pro-market services trade regime i n her role as a political activist. In this book, her goals are to make the technicalities of trade rules accessible and to show their effects on people and communities.


Author(s):  
N.R. Madhava Menon

The purpose of looking at Indian universities in a comparative perspective is obviously to locate it among higher education institutions across the world and to identify its strengths and weaknesses in the advancement of learning and research. In doing so, one can discern the directions for reform in order to put the university system in a competitive advantage for an emerging knowledge society. This chapter looks at the current state of universities in India and highlights the initiatives under way for change and proposes required policy changes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 712
Author(s):  
Andrea Okanović ◽  
Jelena Ješić ◽  
Vladimir Đaković ◽  
Simonida Vukadinović ◽  
Andrea Andrejević Panić

Growing environmental problems and increasing requirements of green jobs force universities around the world not only to transform their curricula but also to enrich existing ones with contents related to the promotion of sustainable development. This paper aims to show the importance of measuring and monitoring the share of green contents in all university activities, as only in that way it is possible to monitor trends and give realistic assessments of their effect and importance. The paper presents a comparative analysis of different types of methodologies for assessing sustainable activities at universities as well as research conducted at the University of Novi Sad in Serbia and its comparison with the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). This research aims to point out the importance of increasing competitiveness in higher education through assessment of green content in a curriculum and its promotion. In this way, through eco-labeling methodology, it would be easier to identify those contents that, in a certain share, contribute to the promotion of sustainable development. Furthermore, this methodology can easily be extended across the country and the region, which would bring positive effects to all stakeholders in higher education.


1996 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 140
Author(s):  
Richard N. Cooper ◽  
Bernard Hoekman ◽  
Michel Kostecki

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (18) ◽  
pp. 91-97
Author(s):  
Gloria María Pérez Montero

The presence in the world of the pandemic known as Covid-19 has brought with it challenges and challenges in all areas, but especially in the educational context. The University of Granma responds to the intention of promoting the use of technologies in the improvement of Higher Education and in current times has had to enhance this aspect due to the need for social distancing. This work presents some of the alternatives that have been adopted in the House of Higher Studies and how young people have assimilated them, based on the experiences obtained in the teaching of the Communication course, which belongs to the Sociocultural Management for Development career from the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences. The epidemiological situation has not prevented the training of comprehensive and competent professionals, on the contrary, it has enabled students to achieve self-management of knowledge and meaningful learning, using virtual teaching- learning environments.


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