The ‘new word order’: workplace education and the textual practice of economic globalization

Abstract

In the public rhetoric, economic globalisation is routinely and uncritically predicated on an educated, flexible and highly literate workforce. This article raises questions about the workforce education that economic globalisation demands. It starts from the position that economic globalisation can usefully be thought of as a set of social practices mediated by highly specific textual practices. These new textual practices are learned and often taught in workplaces that seek to participate directly in global economies. Frequently, they are presented as neutral or benign interventions in the discursive practices of work, seeming to expand the linguistic repertoires of employees and, therefore, the opportunities available to them in the workplace. Calling on part of an extensive study of the textual practice of a restructuring workplace in Australia it is argued that the new textual practices of economic globalisation are never neutral nor are they reliably benign. New textual practices always imply new working identities; new working knowledge and new working relationships in local workplaces, and these challenge existing identities, knowledge and relationships. This has significant implications for workplace education and for workplace educators.