Claustropolitanism at the End of the World: Rethinking Post-Pandemic Globalization and Higher Education

Abstract

This theoretical article develops a new trope for understanding globalization after the COVID-19
pandemic. Science fictional genres are filled with - and fuelled by - dystopic narratives of endings,
wars, apocalypses, famines and – indeed – zombies. Yet the benevolent cosmopolitan sociology
developed by Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman and Scott Lash at the turn of the 21st century, did not
provide a rationale or understanding for September 11, the Global Financial Crisis, or the
pandemic. Beck’s ‘zombie concept’ was no match for the – metaphoric – zombie hoards overrunning popular culture and higher education. Multiculturalism and the belief in the public good
were crushed by an unregulated banking sector, a lack of funding for public health and public
education, and a political system run on post-expertise, opinion and subjectivity. In response to
this intellectual gap, absence and lack, this article develops a post-disciplinary claustropolitanism.
Deploying the research from Paul Virilio and Steve Redhead, a new intellectual dance is
commenced, between ‘end times’ and ‘new times,’ to provide momentum for higher education at
the end of the world. Claustropolitanism is a lens to understand the foreclosed times of
unemployment, under-employment, inelegant university and industry ‘partnerships,’ and a
declining respect for expertise. Why was it necessary to enforce the sloganized salve of ‘Believe
the science’ during a global pandemic, when scientific methods were required to enable the
survival of millions of citizens? Noting this post-pandemic paradox, this article reveals the
consequences of toxic globalization, and how claustropolitanism can renew a commitment to
trans-localism, and learning.