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, therefor..