HIGHER EDUCATION ‘REFORM’, HEGEMONY, AND NEO-COLD WAR IDEOLOGY

Abstract

Examining some of the specifics of educational ‘reform’ in the post-state socialist political landscape, this article argues that the reproduction of Western hegemony in Eastern Europe and within the academic global political economy is more complex than we can grasp through idealist critiques of travelling theory and of representations alone. We need to attend to the materiality of hegemony, including institutional and financial practices; the travels of theory, the importation of Western higher education structures, and the dissemination of interdisciplinary programs reflect a complex relationship between theory, ideology and funding in academic political economy. Acknowledging this reality helps us to better map the form post-Cold War Western dominance is taking in the name of ‘education reform’.