Post secondary internationalization and hyper-diverse city contexts

The purpose of this study is to contribute to an understanding of particular trends in internationalization in post-secondary education. The thesis 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.This dissertation 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.The dissertation seeks to synergistically link emerging theories of cosmopolitanism, internationalization, and global city systems, thereby unlocking the interdisciplinary potential inherent in the intersections of these fields. The thesis suggests internationalization’s gaze cannot ‘see’ the diverse global city in its entirety due to the field’s current fixity in a hegemonic methodologically nationalist capitalist framework that excludes the emancipatory requirements of the myriad fluid hybridities of diverse cities and their banal cosmopolitanism.In proposing that internationalization adopt methodological cosmopolitanism as a replacement theoretical framework the study offers a way forward for the much-diminished humane tendencies in the field, potential for further research, and support for the equitable development of global cities.