This conceptual study explores the dominant ideologies influencing the economic governance of higher education (HE) and shaping competition within the sector and among universities. It delineates and contrasts four key ideological positions -- neoliberalism, managerialism, shareholderism, and stakeholderism -- and outlines four corresponding types…

This study focuses on what people working in edu-business want to achieve. The aim is to explore (1) how the edu-business sector is discursively constructed as a work-place and part of the education system, and (2) how this discourse is organized within an affective economy -- that is how the valuation of emotions distinguish what are considered…

Even though Norway is one of the Nordic countries that has been hesitant when it comes to implementing privatization policies, the influence of market-led reforms has facilitated an educational landscape where private companies increasingly serve public education. In this article, the interrelation between marketization and privatization is…

With the rise of neoliberal reforms and efforts to privatize education, there is a growing need to examine how actors and groups from the public and private sectors influence educational policy change together. In this article, we advance a critical approach to understanding the changing discursive space of educational politics by following…

The multi-billion-dollar university rankings industry purports to offer insights into the quality of institutions, but the extent to which it does so has consistently been refuted. Critics argue that problematic proxies, composite indexing, homogenising effects, and several other issues make them both unscientific and neo-colonial. This article…

Marketization of education in South Africa accelerated at the crossroads of the postapartheid democratic transition and global neoliberal turn, reflecting both educational policy impacts of the country's protracted negotiated settlement and transnational trends. A controversial 2018 provincial amendment further entrenched marketization in the…

A provision of India's Right to Education Act requires private schools to enrol 25% of children from 'disadvantaged' and 'economically weaker' backgrounds. Described as a unique public-private partnership, this policy has been widely debated for its promotion of private actors in ensuring equity and access to education. Within this controversial…

The role of the middle manager has proved to be a difficult one to define due to the fluid nature of the tasks performed and the heterogeneity of understanding that exists for the term. This is further complicated by the differences associated with the context in which individual manager's work. This research, which explores the drive towards…

In this article, the author argues that the Obama Administration's My Brother's Keeper (MBK) initiative serves as an exemplar of neoliberal governmentality, in which Black young men and boys are constructed as essentially damaged, as problems in need of a technocratic public--private solution. More than simply an ideological imposition from above…

This paper addresses a particular gap in the further education (FE) literature offering an analysis of Incorporation within a theory of social change developed by Fligstein and McAdam, in their work "A Theory of Fields". The authors argue that FE was subjected to the introduction of a quasi-market in advance of wider neoliberal reforms…

The controversy surrounding Sri Lanka's privatising education system is one of the most pressing social and political issues facing the country today. This paper explores the history of this debate by drawing connections to broader processes of colonialism and neoliberalism. Particularly, this paper traces the shifting sociocultural functions of…

Scholars who document neoliberal trends in education argue that privatization and corporatization in schools is dehumanizing and discourages democratic participation. These scholars assert that neoliberal education policies heighten social inequity by emphasizing individualism, marketability and colorblindness without interrogating social…

In this article, we examine the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as an example of a unique node within larger policy networks composed of new policy entrepreneurs (e.g., venture philanthropists, think tanks, private "edubusinesses" and their lobbyists, advocacy organizations, and social entrepreneurs). These new policy…