Terra Incognita: The Challenging Forces of the Unprecedented Twenty-first Century Globalized Societal Context

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to survey present globally present societal trends in the era of globalization, which are creating a new context for education and for the field of Comparative and International Education. The trends include the ecological crisis, the population explosion and demographic dynamics, increasing mobility, the technological revolution, especially the ICT revolution, growing affluence, the neo-liberal economic revolution, the rise of a knowledge society, the fourth industrial revolution, changing social relations, democratization, the demise of the once omnipotent nation-state, the persistent but new presence of religion, and the rise of the Creed of Human Rights. These powerful, interrelated set of societal changes, which are getting spread worldwide on the wings of globalization, is creating a new world, of (in Comparative Education nomenclature) an unprecedented new context, forcing the scholars in the field to tread unknown territory. These forces depicted in this chapter constitute a framework for subsequent chapters in the book, where the response of humanity in the education sector, to meet the challenges these forces constitute, will be the theme.

Citation

Wolhuter, C.C. (2022), "Terra Incognita: The Challenging Forces of the Unprecedented Twenty-first Century Globalized Societal Context", Wolhuter, C.C. and Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) World Education Patterns in the Global North: The Ebb of Global Forces and the Flow of Contextual Imperatives (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 43A), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-36792022000043A002