Within the prevalent logic of the neoliberal university, teaching and learning are subject to academic audits, performance indicators and quality assurance measures. These impact on the relationships between educators and students, placing an emphasis on self- over collective interests, aspirational mobility, and a culture of 'speed' and…

This article explores the powerful yet contradictory role of neoliberalism, its competitive mechanisms and emotional logics. Theoretically, it reviews the shifting state-higher education-market nexus through the lens of a critical cultural political economy paradigm. Conceptually, it closely examines Davies' work on the 'logic of competition'…

In the past decades, neoliberalism has permeated (foreign) language education, as has been discussed by critical research in the fields of: curriculum theory, applied linguistics, discourse analysis, language policy, language assessment, to name a few. Despite the fact that research on foreign language education and neoliberalism is certainly…

The student as consumer has emerged as a common motif and point of contestation in educational philosophy over the past two decades, as part of the critique of the neoliberal educational reform agenda that followed Lyotard's (1984) mapping of the postmodern condition. In addition, the consumer-orientated student has assumed a problematic presence…

In a research context marked by performance evaluation and knowledge commodification, attempts to visualize a future Knowledge University might be understood as a "politics of refusal" in that an emphasis on multimodality (image/text) confronts assumptions about the form of academic critique, calling into question the…

This conceptual paper is a future study aiming to shed light on the current state of higher education in the MENA region. The neoliberal agenda for higher education in the region presents a form of education that is commodified, corporatized and focused on STEM rather than on humanities. The paper further speculates on the state of higher…

Over the past few decades, the world has experienced a period of major social, economic and political change. Globalisation has placed increasing pressure on our work, families and communities and is continuously transforming the way we live in the 21st century. Internationally, and despite calls for freedom and equality, social and economic…

This commentary suggests that a countermovement for educational and social justice must learn from the dominant global neo-liberal movement and its successes in creating institutions and knowledge-making processes and networks. Local struggles for educational justice are important, but they need to be linked to a broader educational justice…

Knowledge here means something similar to but broader than science--it is reliable but not necessarily as systematic or explicit. A cooperative economy is contrasted with the competitive economy that has dominated political thinking almost everywhere for about half a century - the neo-liberal period. It is argued that the neo-liberal ideology and…

Market forces are being introduced in public spheres such as higher education and public health, which hitherto were closed to such forces. Ironically, it is the state that is responsible for this process of marketisation. Some see this state action as leading to a growing influence of the state in public policy while others see an attenuation of…

The term "globalization" does more than represent a set of material (and ideological) processes that have impacts on education and schooling. Additionally, "globalization" operates as a conceptual lens or set of interventions, which is significantly impacting academic discourses in Education and in other disciplines. Not only…

Based on recent ethnographic research, this article explores young people's opportunities of formal and informal democracy learning and expressions of such learning in the highly market-influenced Swedish upper secondary education. With its ambitious democracy-fostering goals and far-reaching marketisation, Swedish education constitutes an…

Higher education policy studies over the last decade have addressed the detrimental effects of neoliberalism, new public managerialism and audit cultures on the nature, organisation, form and meanings of higher education at a macro level. This article addresses the micro-practices through which the author, as doctoral candidate and knowledge…

New public management and the neo-liberal principles that sustain it have driven performance agendas in government across Europe and beyond. This has produced a loss of the traditional role of education in creating a coherent and persuasive collective myth of belonging, identity or purpose. This chapter discusses current developments in the policy…