ABSTRACT
Chapter one introduced some of the tensions between globalisation trends and the reaction of local and regional communities to the convergences of time, space and new communication cultures. The perceived tendency is that communities re-fragment or re-group in order to retain their distinctiveness so they may shape, rather than be shaped by, the new world they are consuming. These tensions between the local and global are particularly pertinent for higher education in its trans-situational relationship between these two opposites. A kind of higher education necessarily plays a part in both worlds. Brah (1996) points out, however, that the fragmentation of communities and assertions of difference do not guarantee a place for the minority voice as difference also represents a vehicle for legitimation of dominance (p.90). Marginalised differences therefore may need a helping hand to redress the imbalance of power.
