World-systems analysis in comparative education: an alternative to cosmopolitanism

This paper begins by connecting cosmopolitanism to notions of universal and particular knowledge in contemporary conditions. Drawing on the work of Immanuel Wallerstein, we then outline a world-systems approach to knowledge. This approach focuses on the capacity of epistemological structures to either reinforce existing inequalities or produce more egalitarian ways of being. This work centres on links between constructions of universal knowledge and the ways in which their articulation has historically underpinned the inequalities of our current world-system. Through a brief review of work in comparative education elaborating a world culture of education, we argue that like cosmopolitanism, this approach inadequately engages with the historical and political angle of a world-systems approach. We conclude by arguing for world-systems comparative research that maintains a focus on the role of knowledge in the world-system, and how such knowledge may contribute to a more just, equal and democratic world-system.