Globalization from above, globalization from below: Mechanisms for social disparity and social justice in higher education

This chapter examines the complex influences of globalization on higher education in the United States, and specifically considers how globalization has increased the international influence of American college and university student movements. We briefly describe various conceptions of globalization and look at the ways in which a capitalist-oriented form of globalization is infringing upon the social good purpose of higher education. This chapter primarily focuses on “globalization from below,” the ways that oppositional social movements, in this case led by students, use the mechanisms of globalization to promote social equity within, through and beyond higher education. Using the cases of the anti-sweatshop movement and the Sudan divestment movement, this chapter examines how student activists use mechanisms of globalization, particularly global economic connections and technology, to counter aspects of neoliberal globalization, and promote justice and democratization for marginalized people throughout the world.