Globalization has become one of the most recurrent concepts in social and political sciences. More often than not, however, the concept is handled without much of a properly articulated theory capable of explaining its historical origin and expansion. For education researchers attempting to elucidate how global changes and processes affect their…

Politics is inseparable from conflict. But we often have the idea that the political process has to simply "solve" conflicts and in so doing make the conflict disappear. And because the politicians are not able to do this and instead simply continue arguing, we get the impression that we have incompetent politicians, whom we cannot…

The historical origins and development of comprehensive schooling have seldom been analyzed systematically and comparatively. However, there is a rich comparative and historically grounded literature on the development of welfare states, which focuses on many relevant policies, but ignores the education system. In particular, the power resources…

The reunification process in Germany and its effect on distance education policies and practices in the East provide an occasion to test the relevance of the Fordist framework. Discussion includes characteristics of a neo- or post-Fordist distance education system, the failure of Fordism as a theory of industrialized society, and the Fordism…