Teaching globalisations

Taking off from the non-American spelling of ‘globalisations’ (with two letters ‘s’), this chapter invites readers to consider the pedagogical need to address the plurality and heterogeneity of global integration patterns while nevertheless also attending simultaneously to the singularizing effects and integrative imperatives associated with market-led global neoliberalization. Making this distinction also makes it possible to question the necessity of neoliberal reforms which are so frequently justified in terms of Globalization. Denaturalizing this discourse in turn demands careful evidence-based critiques of the myths of new-ness, inevitability and levelling that commonly come with all the appeals to Globalization. It is argued here that critical geographies of globalisations can be usefully drawn on in efforts to teach against these myths. Such critical pedagogy can help students start to think about alternatives to Globalization too. And, even within the confines of corporatizing universities, this can in turn assist students and teachers alike in turning neoliberal governmentality’s trademark emphasis on personal responsibility into new and more enabling forms of response ability for life lived interdependently in a globalising world.