The emergence of the so-called “Rising Powers” – including but not limited to Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) – represents one of the key drivers of global economic and social change. Given the enormity of their potential impact on the global economy, they represent a priority challenge to social scientifc understanding with outcomes likely to be of importance to government, business and citizens.
The aim of the network, directed by Professor Harry Daniels of the Department of Education at The University of Bath, is to explore the likely futures for education, well being and human security as new economic conditions emerge in Brazil, Russia and South Africa. This Network will focus on the reciprocal, and as yet not fully understood, relationships between economic growth, education and well being which may well be understood differently in different economic and cultural contexts. The Network will organise seminars at each of these three sites to which relevant academics and policy makers will be invited. Visiting Fellows at each site will convene these seminars and take advice from colleagues in their own academic and professional networks as to who should be invited.
Participants will be chosen on the basis of their capacity to address some or all of the following questions:
- What changes are envisaged in educational provision and its objects in both the rising powers and elsewhere in order to ensure economic sustainability of rapid growth?
- What will be the likely educational consequences and responses to the social challenges of the urban rural divide, social and economic inequality and access to education including Higher Education?
- How will the lives of children be transformed and be made more or less secure as these changes are invoked?
- What will be the challenges for Africa as a result of new development roles being taken by the Rising Powers with regard to education?
- How are the relationships between economic growth, education and well being in general, and more specifically security, understood in each state?
ESRC Rising Powers Symposium 2011 