Education, International Relations and the Net

Abstract

This analysis examines new forms of collective action made possible by Internetmediated communication. In particular, it reconsiders the operations of online higher education in network-based environments. It argues that the critics, like David Noble, and supporters, like Peter Drucker, of such undertakings need to be much more cautious about the potential of these technologies. However, the ways in which such online systems of education work also provide useful ‘denationalizing’ or ‘globalizing’ experiences that can serve as new social models for individuals engaged in cyberactivist movements, both intranationally and transnationally. Yet the workings of online education per se also constitute a new political environment by creating opportunities to study and teach at new flexible transnational sites that are less constrained by historically rooted territorial domains, cultural traditions, and social practices. These opportunities, in turn, create an unstable mix of negative and positive implications, but they are not absolutely either all positive or wholly negative.