An Interview with Bill Radford: Post-secondary Internationalization and Hyper-diverse City Contexts
Channel: UBC Education Research
Date: 2013-12-13

The purpose of Dr. Radford's study is to contribute to an understanding of particular trends in internationalization in post-secondary education.  It posits that the field is immured in a discursive crisis and raises the hypothesis that emancipatory, humanistic, or social aspects of internationalization are largely invisible.  A dominant theme is the apparent predominance in the field of a theoretical paradigm that, when combined with globalization, privileges commodification to the detriment of nurturing enlightened cosmopolitanism.  Linking emerging theories of cosmopolitanism, internationalization, and global city systems, the study suggests that the real existing life worlds and cosmopolitan potential of global hyper-diverse cities offer the possibility of more humane kinds of internationalization of the universities.  The study further proposes that if we are poised to enter a period of increasing planetary urbanization, the role of post-secondary internationalization in engendering inclusive intercultural sensibilities and cooperation within the context of diverse cities may become increasingly important.

This interview with Dr. Donald Fisher was filmed on November 20, 2013 in the context of Dr. Radford's seminar at the Centre for Policy Studies in Higher Education & Training (CHET).