Think local, act global : the regional university and transforming marginalisation

In the 1960s, a popular mantra among those who pursued alternative lifestyles was “think global, act local”, reflecting Marshall McLuhan’s (McLuhan & Powers, 1989) vision of a global village. This chapter reverses that mantra, arguing that it is the value given to local thinking and regional knowledge that will provide the basis for generating global empathy. This contention responds to the ways in which the coincidence of interests among global, corporate and governmental forces threatens to overwhelm local cultural expressions and forms of knowledge. This centralisation and government control of knowledge production lead to the devaluing and marginalising of forms of thinking and knowledge that don’t fit in with the accepted national and global agenda and that are attuned to particular local contexts. This chapter explores the ways in which a small regional university such as Central Queensland University can promote local thinking and regional knowledge that help to sustain marginalised constituencies in the face of globalisation. Indeed, it is by sustaining local difference and diverse cultural expressions that a vital and empathetic form of global action can be generated.