Globalisation, Societies and Education …

1 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLEThis article was downloaded by: [University of Bristol Library]On: 12 February 2011 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 773509252]Publisher RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UKGlobalisation, Societies and EducationPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: ~content=t713423352 Corporatisation, competitiveness, commercialisation: new logics in theglobalising of UK higher educationSusan L. Robertsonaa Centre for globalisation , Education and Societies , University of Bristol, Bristol, UKOnline publication date: 22 June 2010To cite this Article Robertson, Susan L.(2010) 'Corporatisation, competitiveness, commercialisation: new logics in theglobalising of UK higher Education ', globalisation , Societies and Education , 8: 2, 191 203To link to this Article: DOI: : terms and conditions of use: article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes.

2 Any substantial orsystematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply ordistribution in any form to anyone is expressly publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contentswill be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug dosesshould be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss,actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directlyor indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this , Societies and EducationVol. 8, No. 2, June 2010, 191 203 ISSN 1476-7724 print/ISSN 1476-7732 online 2010 Taylor & FrancisDOI: , competitiveness, commercialisation: new logics in the globalising of UK higher educationSusan L.

3 Robertson*Centre for globalisation , Education and Societies , University of Bristol, Bristol, UKTaylor and , Societies and Education1476-7724 (print)/1476-7732 (online)Original Article2010 Taylor & Francis82000000 June paper examines the changing form and scope of higher Education in the UKwith a specific focus on contemporary globalising developments within thesector and beyond. Situated within an analysis of transformations under way in thewider global and regional economy, and drawing on Jessop s strategic relationalapproach (SRA), I examine the way higher Education in the UK has beenrestructured through the mobilisation of three key logics (corporatisation,competititiveness, commercialisation) to play a central role in the realisation of aglobally-competitive Education services sector and imagined knowledge-basedeconomy.

4 The main argument of this paper is that from the early 1980s onward,successive rounds of neo-liberal political projects shaped by these logics weremobilised to rework the basis of capital accumulation. A central outcome was tostructurally predispose UK HEIs, over time, toward new regionalising andglobalising horizons of : higher Education ; globalisation ; commercialisation; corporatisation;competitiveness; UKIntroductionThis paper examines the changing form and scope of higher Education (HE) in the UK with a specific focus on contemporary globalising developments within the order to show why, how and with what consequences HE in the UK is being glob-alised, I look at the crucial turning point for western capitalist economies; the collapseof the Fordist settlement by the late 1960s and its role in post-war nation-building.

5 The search for a new solution to the problem of ongoing capital accumulation includingthe contribution of higher Education to this; the opening up of economies around theglobe as a result of decisive neo-liberal interventions, including New Public Manage-ment s emphasis on corporatisation that reworked the boundaries around the highereducation state economy civil society relation; the advance of labour flexibility and competitiveness as a rationale for this ongoing transformation; and the suturing ofcompetitiveness and commercialisation into these social relations through the emer-gence of a new economic imaginary the development of a knowledge-based will be arguing that this ongoing reorganisation has structurally and strategicallytransformed the sector, and its insertion into and alignment with the economy continuesto be regarded as key to the development of a competitive nation.

6 Indeed, as the govern-ment currently responds to the financial crisis and recession, HE policy in the UK isreinforcing this model of corporatisation competitiveness commercialisation, rather*Email: By: [University of Bristol Library] At: 12:32 12 February 2011192 Robertsonthan its questioning (Mendelson 2009; BIS 2009). The paper begins by outlining themain theoretical anchor shaping my analysis before turning to the the globalisation of higher Education an approachContemporary studies of UK higher Education by HE researchers tend to focus uponorganisations and their transformation as a result of the implementation of New PublicManagement (Hood 1991). Such approaches, whilst important and useful, are notparticularly helpful in understanding how these social processes are tied to changes inthe nature of contemporary capitalism and changing national and world orders.

7 Whenhigher Education studies do focus on the global, there is a tendency to privilegephenomena and outcomes that are the self-evidently out-there global rather than themany ways in which the global is also transforming the in-here within national terri-tories. As Sassen observes, entry into global space is predicated on and in turnfurther strengthens particular forms of denationalisation . And as she shows, bothprocesses, the self-evidently global and denationalising dynamics destabilise existingmeanings and systems (Sassen 2006, 2). What is crucial, therefore, is that analysestake a relational view of horizons of action to reveal the (uneven) inward andoutward flows of projects and programmes, and their institutional materialisation,which in turn transforms the higher Education response to the theoretical and empirical challenges posed by a relationalview of globalisation is to draw upon a critical theory (see Cox 1996) and strategicrelational approach (SRA) (Jessop 2002, 2005)

8 To examine UK higher theory orients our analysis through its insistence that to understand projects,power and change, we need to place the objects for analysis within accounts of trans-formations and struggles taking place at multiple scales in the wider cultural question, however, of how particular kinds of social structures and socialrelations emerge requires more than the insistence that ideas, structures and materialcapabilities matter. We also need a theory of social change. This means makingclear the relationship between actors and society, and thus between agency and s SRA is particularly useful for this purpose. He highlights the co-constitu-tion of subjects and objects, is concerned with the structural properties and dynamicsthat result from material interactions, is attentive to the ecological dominance ofcapitalism whilst at the same time highlighting the contingent and tendential nature ofstructural constraints, and gives an important role to the cultural dimensions of sociallife (reflexivity, semiosis).

9 A key move in SRA is Jessop s innovative approach to structure and agency, asselectively and strategically formed. In his words: .. structures are thereby treated analytically as strategically selective in their form,content and operation; and actions are likewise treated as structurally constrained, moreor less context sensitive, and structuring. To treat structures as strategically selectiveinvolves examining how a given structure may privilege some actors, some identities,some strategies, some spatial and temporal horizons, some actions over others. Likewise,to treat actions as structurally constrained requires exploring the ways, if any, in whichactors (individual and/or collective) take account of this different privileging throughstrategic context analysis when undertaking a course of action.

10 In short, the SRA isDownloaded By: [University of Bristol Library] At: 12:32 12 February 2011 globalisation , Societies and Education 193concerned with the relations between structurally inscribed strategic selectivities and(differentially reflexive) structurally-oriented strategic calculation. (Jessop 2005, 48)Second, particular importance is given to structures and actors having distinctivespatio-temporal selectivities. For example, the state s neo-liberal policies in highereducation have enabled the advance of particular actors in the sector; those who canmobilise social, political and economic resources enabling them to strategically andselectively act beyond ( , non-protectionists, globalising universities setting upbranch campuses) and below ( , regional development agencies) those boundarieswhich had defined the national state s historic governance of higher Education in thepost-war , Jessop emphasises the relational dimension of structure and strategy.