Interrogating global flows in higher education

The paper critically reviews the concept of ‘global flows’, beginning with the discussions of flows and networks in Appadurai (1996 Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalisation, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  Google Scholar]), Castells (2000 Castells, M. 2000. The rise of the network society, Oxford: Blackwell. Crossref] Google Scholar]) and Held et al. (1999 Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D. and Perraton, J. 1999. Global transformations: politics, economics and culture, Stanford: Stanford University Press.  Google Scholar]). Emphasising the need to embed ‘global flows’ in agency and history, and to explore global connectedness in terms of situated cases, the paper develops an analytical framework for analysing global flows in higher education. It then applies that framework in an examination of global ‘scapes’, impacts, transformations, situatedness and relations of power in two national universities, research leaders in their nations but located in contrasting nations: Universitas Indnesia and the Australian National University.