Neoliberal Thinking Research Articles

Student Choice in Higher Education—Reducing or Reproducing Social Inequalities?

A hallmark of recent higher education policy in developed economies is the move towards quasi-markets involving greater student choice and provider competition, underpinned by cost-sharing policies. This paper examines the idealizations and illusions of student choice and marketization in higher education policy in England, although the overall conclusions have relevance for other countries whose higher education systems are shaped by neoliberal thinking. First, it charts the evolution of the student-choice rationale through an analysis of government commissioned reports, white papers, and legislation, focusing on policy rhetoric and the purported benefits of increasing student choice and provider competition. Second, the paper tests the predictions advanced by the student-choice rationale—increased and wider access, improved institutional quality, and greater provider responsiveness to the labour market—and finds them largely not met. Finally, the paper explores how conceptual deficiencies in the student-choice model explain why the idealization of student choice has largely proved illusionary. Government officials have narrowly conceptualized students as rational calculators primarily weighing the economic costs and benefits of higher education and the relative quality of institutions and programs. There is little awareness that student choices are shaped by several other factors as well and that these vary considerably by social background. The paper concludes that students’ choices are socially constrained and stratified, reproducing and legitimating social inequality.

Homo neoliberalus: From personality to forms of subjectivity

Based on a Neo-Sprangerian approach to forms of life in Western cultures, and drawing on humanities-based ideas about personality, a critical-hermeneutic description of a neoliberal form of life and its corresponding form of subjectivity is presented. In the neoliberal form of subjectivity, the self becomes central, but in a way that the distinction between an ego and the self is no longer relevant. Neoliberal thinking is reduced to utilitarian, calculating thinking in all domains of life from work, to interaction, and to identity. Feeling is considered to be more relevant than thinking and is used to manage stress while aiming for happiness, which is core to this subjectivity. It is argued that agency is reduced to self- and family-interests while consequences for the conduct of life are presented. Concepts such as new nihilism, reduction of individuality, and (im)possibility of resistance in neoliberalism are discussed.

Exploring vet policy making: the policy borrowing and learning nexus in relation to plurinational states—the Basque case

ABSTRACTThe contrasting conceptions of policy borrowing and policy learning processes in relation to education and skills have been widely debated. Nevertheless, most analyses have focused on nation states and, subsequently, cases of sub-sections of a state have been insufficiently considered. This article examines the process of modernisation of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system in the Basque region of Spain since the 1980s. This article concludes that, although a National Qualifications Frameworks-like conception was introduced in the region, the prevailing neoliberal thinking of policy borrowing of reforms was not applied. Rather, the relatively high level of autonomy from the state provided the opportunity for policy innovation in VET. It will be argued that the particular policy borrowing/learning balance helped develop a collective capacity for policy learning and change that still remains and that explains the region’s advancement in raising the overall quality and status of VET. The following process from which this differentiated VET model emerged within the state merits an interest in plurinational systems of governance seeking to better adapt general policies to particular circumstances and socio-political environments.

Is Adversary Evaluation Worth a Second Look?

The adversary evaluation model emerged in a context that favored democratic debate. It was successfully used in a variety of sectors following its inception, but it was abandoned once neo-liberal thinking and goal achievement approaches became dominant. It is time to give it a second chance. The judicial evaluation model (JEM) relies on human testimony, rules of evidence, cross examination and principled deliberation. These features contribute to evaluation independence, a characteristic that is sorely needed in today’s fractured social environment. JEM promotes civil interaction among groups committed to different ideologies. It encourages tolerance and respects pluralism by combining professional authority with direct citizen participation and neutral facilitation. Competently designed and managed, it resists capture by vested interests and it holds promise as an instrument of progressive evaluation focused on the public interest. Since it is demanding and time consuming, it is especially relevant for large, controversial and complex interventions.

Las políticas públicas de inclusión social en la Argentina 2003-2015 ¿Desde la economía social hacia una economía civil?

A partir de la crisis económica y política de diciembre de 2001 en la Argentina, se implementaron nuevas líneas de políticas públicas de inclusión socio-laboral y, desde el 2003, se incluyó a la economía social como un eje destacado. En este artículo se propone examinar la propuesta socio-política y económica de la economía social que implementó el gobierno nacional desde el 2003 a fin de señalar su interrelación con la propuesta de la economía civil como modelo diferente al neoliberal. En primer lugar, se sitúan las concepciones teóricas y sus experiencias históricas en los distintos pactos sociales que sostienen modelos de economía y de protección social. En segundo lugar, se revisan las ideas asociadas a la promoción de la economía social por la política pública del Ministerio de Desarrollo Social de la Nación realizando un análisis del discurso. Se examinan los aspectos en los cuales esta política estatal rescata y reúne claves de la economía civil italiana. Se concluye que ambas propuestas de modelos económicos tienen en común claves que representan modelos comunitarios alternativos al pensamiento y políticas neoliberales.

Neoliberalism, education policy and the life of the academic: A poetics of pedagogical resistance

The papers in this special issue on the spaces of pedagogy speak to the failures of neoliberal thinking when applied to education. Their pedagogical critique of neoliberalism contributes to a considerable body of work focused on challenging the driving discourses of education (or more accurately, school) systems. The source of the tensions between four decades of policy-supported educational marketization and the accompanying objections, rejections and warnings, require careful questioning in terms of what the very debate reveals about education, learning, school, pedagogy and so on. In this paper, these questions are asked in relation to neoliberal thinking about indigeneity, knowledge and the individual. The idea of what to do, how to approach things differently, draws together these critiques of neoliberalism in higher education. The purpose of this paper is to amplify the collective critique of neoliberalism. Analyses and challenges to educational relationships that deploy neoliberal thinking are positioned to keep in question the nature and purpose of neoliberalism.

Stemming the Tide: Human Rights and Water Policy in a Neoliberal World by Madeline Baer

Reviewed by: Stemming the Tide: Human Rights and Water Policy in a Neoliberal World by Madeline Baer Christopher C. Robinson* (bio) Madeline Baer, Stemming the Tide: Human Rights and Water Policy in a Neoliberal World (Oxford University Press, 2017), ISBN 978-0-19-069315-2, 205 pages. Too often, studies of neoliberalism take on an elitist policy focus and corresponding abstractness that obscures the view to those victimized most by its policies: the poor and vulnerable. Water policy is an excellent window into the dehumanizing effects of neoliberalism if you study the formation of oppositional movements that express the idea that access to clean water and sanitation are human rights. From the perspective of the elites responsible for policy choices, however, the totalitarian and anti-democratic character of neoliberalism is depoliticized and reduced to claims about privatization or deregulation as efficient, if amoral ways to ensure clean water with the proviso that some democracy is possible if the state wills it. In Stemming the Tide, Madeline Baer attempts to escape and challenge the narrative of elites that seek to justify the efficacy of market forces as an able alternative to public administration, but while she gestures toward the counter narratives offered by oppositional movements, she focuses mostly on the way state power can preemptively blunting [End Page 484] neoliberalism or modify privatization through regulation.1 My two interrelated criticisms of Baer's study are that she offers an overly circumscribed perspective on neoliberalism that tends to equate it with privatization; and her observations on grassroots opposition to privatizing water and sanitation systems are not developed enough to give a sense of how activists see and are affected by the structures of neoliberal governance they oppose. Rather than wish aloud for a different book that studies the formation of political beliefs and strategies of water warriors, I want to examine the strengths and limits of Baer's analysis and her contribution to our understanding of the politics and legal framework of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRtWS). The strengths of Baer's analysis lie in its contribution to our understanding of the challenges that economic, social and cultural rights, framed as human rights, face in various national contexts and forms of state governance (authoritarian and representative). This work is dedicated to water and sanitation as sites of resistance to the neoliberal commodification of such basic human requirements for sustaining life. Readers alert to the struggle of indigenous water protectors throughout the Western Hemisphere, and the range of environmental justice issues exemplified by protests at Standing Rock and the exposure of children to elevated lead levels in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, will not require much convincing regarding the centrality of access to clean water as a vital issue of human rights. As Baer notes, "[o]ver 1.1 billion people currently lack access to clean water, and 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation. "The burden of water-related disease," she continues, "is heavy in the developing world, where 1.8 million children die each year from preventable diseases caused by dirty water."2 Thus the goal of universal access to clean water and sanitation is situated well in human rights discourse and worthy of ongoing political struggle. Disagreement arises, however, over whether this public good is defended best by state intervention or local and indigenous movement politics. The thrust of Baer's argument is in opposition to the application of market forces to the creation and maintenance of a clean water infrastructure. Still, she gives privatization a fair and scholarly hearing in her case studies of Chile and Bolivia. These cases also provide concrete contexts for analyzing the status of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which are viewed correctly as weak and difficult to enforce in comparison to and in isolation from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Indeed, it is not clear why potable water and sanitation are framed in the discourse on human rights as an economic right rather than, say, a political right. This strikes me as a brand of or predecessor to neoliberal thinking—the equation of cost/benefit analysis with rationality and its expansion into what were...

A fairytale narrative for community sport? Exploring the politics of sport social enterprise

ABSTRACTWith voluntary sports clubs operating within competitive leisure markets and local governments responding to austerity by transferring sport facilities to community groups, such organisations are encouraged to become social enterprises. Driven by social entrepreneurs embracing ‘Robin Hood’ business models, they apparently deliver innovative solutions to social problems. Such fairytale narratives are increasingly popular in Scotland with its reputation as a ‘happening place’ for social policy innovation. Using case study material from an award-winning football social enterprise, I outline how time spent in their deprived community establishing needs and ownership aided success. Also, recruiting local youth workers, developing authentic partnerships, and creating a non-judgemental environment delivered a positive ‘ripple effect’ beyond that possible from class-blind sport provision. However, ‘win win’ rhetoric ignores stresses from meeting financial requirements and moral dilemmas from trade-offs between social and business goals. The organisation’s ‘non-establishment’ nature is partially undermined by emphasising local poverty of aspiration and the psychological thinking within Dweck’s ‘Growth Mindset’ and Duckworth’s ‘Grit’ research. The resulting focus on individual effort and learning from failure chimes with neoliberal thinking, ignoring how widening societal inequality and politics causes local problems and the need for structural changes for wider social impact.

‘You Willingly Tie Yourself to These Leashes’ Neoliberalism, Neoliberal Rationality, and the Corporate Workplace in Dave Eggers’ The Circle

Eight and a half years after the global financial crisis, business is booming. Hypergrowth is the new normal, corporations from Exxon Mobil to IBM are spreading their assets worldwide to maximise their profits, and the United States continues to lead the world in its relentless drive for economic growth and competition. But most people are still suffering the consequences of the financial crisis; human life and ecosystems are being destroyed by environmental catastrophes associated with climate change; and individuals face the requirement to perform as market actors in all spheres of life. These conditions are not natural, but the result of more than three decades of neoliberal thinking and policy: a belief that the market should be free to do as it likes. Many American writers have sought to capture the realities of this unfettered capitalism. Dave Eggers, in his 2013 novel The Circle, delivers a dark satire of contemporary technoculture in the workplace to convey how easily individuals become governed by neoliberal rationality, and he critiques the ease with which we relinquish our freedom, and our lives, to corporate control.

Outsourcing extra-curricular activities: a management strategy in a time of neoliberal influence

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report on an exploratory study designed to illuminate the complexity of outsourcing extra-curricular activities (ECAs) in primary schools in a time of neoliberal influence and to examine the views of teaching professionals on the reasons, issues and considerations of outsourcing ECAs such as the dynamic relations between ECA coordinators and service providers, and between teachers and parents.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative research that informs this paper is conceptualized within the interpretive paradigm since it aims at understanding the thoughts of 20 teaching professionals including 16 teachers and four principals with regard to the outsourcing of ECRs in times of promoting other learning experiences in schools. This interpretive paradigm emphasizes naturalistic methods of inquiry.FindingsTwo major themes which demonstrated the driving forces for outsourcing educational activities as well as the dynamic relationship between teaching professionals and service providers arising in the process of outsourcing emerged from the interview data. This paper illustrates that the neoliberal impact on the implementation and quality of ECAs needs to be understood as a much more complicated process shaped by the local context.Research limitations/implicationsA major limitation is the small number of samples in primary schools in this qualitative study. Another area of possible investigation is the noticeable extension of the study area to the sectors of kindergartens and secondary schools.Practical implicationsFrom management perspectives the finding carries the implication that outsourcing must be carefully planned have explicit goals and systematically implemented.Social implicationsThe finding enriches the understanding of how neoliberal thinking creeps into management of outsourcing ECAs in schools.Originality/valueThe study does not aim at generalization of the findings but it attempts to illuminate the phenomenon of outsourcing ECAs in primary schools in Hong Kong. To support the empirical findings of the present qualitative study, it is recommended that follow-up quantitative studies be conducted, with larger sample sizes and more diverse sample groups included in the population.

The Saudi Tatweer Education Reforms: Implications of Neoliberal Thought to Saudi Education Policy

The King Abdullah Public Education Development Project or the ‘Tatweer’ education reforms were created to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Saudi Arabia. It was a response to develop generations of Saudis who would contribute to the economic well-being of the nation. The Saudi Tatweer education reforms have been important in highlighting questions about power, globalisation and divergence. Therefore, set against a background of neoliberal discourse, I will assess the influences and impact of the drivers within Tatweer – a seemingly market-driven set of education reforms. With reference to Foucauldian thought on power and governance, I will also raise some questions on whether the Tatweer reforms were rigorous and effective enough in improving the level of education within the Saudi context. Finally, I will consider the importance of Ball’s (2003) perspective on performativity, and how market forces and international influence have impacted on Saudi education policy reform.

Indonesia. Promises and predicaments: Trade and entrepreneurship in colonial and independent Indonesia in the 19th and 20th centuries Edited by Alicia Schrikker and Jeroen Touwen Singapore: NUS Press, 2015. Pp. 334. Tables, Figures, Bibliography, Index.

Promises and predicaments: Trade and entrepreneur ship in colonial and independent Indonesia in the 19th and 20th centuries Edited by ALICIA SCHRIKKER and JEROEN TOUWEN Singapore: NUS Press, 2015. Pp. 334. Tables, Figures, Bibliography, Index, doi: 10.1017/S0022463416000606 This edited book is a tribute to Thomas Lindblad, who contributed significantly to the development of Indonesian economic history in the Netherlands over the past thirty years. More importantly, it is an excellent and quite well-structured survey of current research on Indonesian economic history with contributions from both senior and junior players in this international field of study. The introduction, authored by both editors, sets out the thematic vectors along which Indonesia's colonial and postcolonial economy can be most fruitfully studied: trade and investment, entrepreneurship, and changing political regimes. Whilst the 2002 economic history by Howard Dick, Vincent Houben, Thomas Lindblad and Thee Kian Wee (The emergence of a national economy: An economic history of Indonesia, 1800-2000) focused on the intertwinement of globalisation, state-formation, and the emergence of a national economy, this volume addresses the interplay between foreign trade, economic actors, and the political economy. In doing so, it highlights the intersections between the economic activities of different socioethnic groups, the spatial distribution of economic activity, and temporal trajectories across the colonial and postcolonial regimes. The main part of this study consists of 16 chapters that are grouped into the three above-mentioned thematic domains. Changes and continuities in trade and investment are dealt with in the first section over four chapters. Anne Booth undertakes a long-term survey and analysis of the effects of imbalances in export and import growth between Java and the rest of the archipelago on regional development within Indonesia. Hal Hill compares the sectoral shifts, inter-sectoral labour productivity, and the demographics of six Southeast Asian countries and finds that, although structural change has been rapid everywhere, the phenomenon's multidimensionality has led to marked differences between the countries studied. Pim de Zwart et al. engage in a longue duree analysis of 'openness' (the share of trade in the total economy of Indonesia) and its impact on growth and wage levels. Contrary to neoliberal thinking, the correlation between the two was not straightforward; rather, it depended to a large extent on changing institutional contexts and unequal geographic distribution. Alex Claver examines the role of money in the Dutch colonial economy and perceives a gradual adaptation to the different needs of the European trading sector and the peasant economy. The second section on entrepreneurship, focusing on the economic roles of specific groups, consists of five chapters. Leonard Blusse addresses the role of Chinese sailors on VOC ships sailing to Europe during the late nineteenth century, and discusses recruitment arrangements as well as gives evidence on the harsh conditions on board. Freek Colombijn studies contractors and subcontractors in Medan's construction sector during the 1950s. He proposes the term 'complementarisasi to describe the economic relationship between actors belonging to different ethnic groups during the extended process of decolonisation in Indonesia, where some groups engaged in a single production chain and others divided the market by occupying certain niches. Roger Knight writes on the connection between sugar production in Java and Japan from the 1880s until 1945. This connection oscillated between coexistence and conflict, involved essentially Asian actors and was, at least for sugar production, marked by discontinuity. Bambang Purwanto deals with the informal, low-level military entrepreneurship in the 1950s and 1960s that affected society through entertainment and event organisation, a phenomenon that has until now been neglected within the existing historiography. …

Going for growth and managing decline: the complex mix of planning strategies in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia

In countries throughout the developed world, including Australia, large cities are growing while remote cities are shrinking. Unfortunately, planners in shrinking communities employ growth-oriented policies – influenced by neoliberal thinking – that have been found to be ineffective in addressing the effects of population decline. A growing number of researchers are calling for the adoption of so-called ‘decline-oriented’ planning (which involves accepting future decline and actively planning for it) in shrinking communities. In this paper, the case study of Broken Hill is used to explore the limits of the ‘decline-oriented ideology’. Firstly, Broken Hill’s planning challenges and strategies are outlined then the tension between growth-oriented strategies found in policy documents, and the actions of local officials, who are adopting elements of decline-oriented planning, minus the ideology is highlighted. It is argued that it is unlikely that local officials in Broken Hill will adopt the decline-oriented...

German Women's Writing in the Twenty-First Century ed. by Hester Baer and Alexandra Merley Hill

Reviewed by: German Women's Writing in the Twenty-First Century ed. by Hester Baer and Alexandra Merley Hill Barbara Kosta German Women's Writing in the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Hester Baer and Alexandra Merley Hill. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015. Pp. 208. Cloth $90.00. ISBN 978-1571135841. This engaging, provocative volume insists on a renewed focus on "women's literature" and on the significance of a feminist analysis to reflect critically on gender within a larger discursive complex of representation. Well aware of the potentially "loaded" meaning of the title given its associations with second-wave feminist approaches, Baer and Merley Hill assert their aim to develop "new ways of conceptualizing gender and feminism" in view of their analytical and political potential for German studies. In the introduction to German Women's Writing in the Twenty-First Century, Baer and Merely Hill thus caution against an essentialized, prescriptive understanding of gender, while advocating for placing gender at the center of analysis as one significant aspect of the many complex markers of identity. The volume, they explain, sets out to "consider women's writing by examining how the politics of gender continue to inform practices of reading, writing and representation … and [to address] how women's writing participates in the feminist project of transforming gender relations" (2). All nine contributors reclaim feminism, and redefine and demonstrate its critical effectiveness. Feminism is articulated in various ways, but at its foundation is a call for an attentive, critical engagement with gendered experiences as they relate to issues as disparate and intertwined as transnationalism, sexuality, ethnicity, consumerism, labor, and intimacy. Moreover, as Baer and Merley Hill write, "one key emphasis of this volume is to interrogate the ways in which women's writing—in aesthetic and representational terms—might contribute specifically to understanding the neoliberal present." Reading contemporary women's writing through a feminist lens, especially at a time when market pressures and neoliberal thinking deflect from a politicized literary practice, this volume boldly reclaims a feminist analysis of literature as an interdisciplinary, theoretical practice invested in examining how gender works in configurations of language and power. The nine contributors critically analyze a wide selection of themes and issues that contemporary women writers tackle, and the genres and trends that they employ and create, from popfeminism, to a new wave of women's writing that expands on the insights of 1970s feminism, to the Fräuleinwunder, a term coined to market the work of a group of young women writers. The range of aesthetic styles and topics and the reception of the works discussed in the nine essays reflect the vibrancy of women's cultural production and the complex "mosaic" of women's writing that seeks to question, unsettle, and confound notions of gender while historicizing and expanding articulations of gender within larger networks of identifications such as race, class, sexuality, ethnicity and religion, just to name a few. Merley Hill and Baer draw attention to discussions about intersectionality and Butlerian theories of gender performativity, and look to new theoretical approaches [End Page 710] to challenge and undo its normative representations. Significantly, the volume starts off with Necia Chronister's eloquent contribution, which identifies the queering of gender in works by Antje Rávic Strubel and Judith Hermann, whose fluid gendered personas confound heteronormative expectations. Other contributions focus on the experience of Germany's Nazi past and gender. Katherine Stone looks at memoirs in which women authors grapple with family histories to expand the narrative repertoire of women's complicity with and resistance to National Socialism. Valerie Heffernan recognizes in intergenerational matrilineal narratives a multiperspectival account that lends a voice to often marginalized historical actors with little known agency. Sheridan Marshall explores the intersection of gender, faith, and religion, both Christianity and Judaism, in narratives that work through Germany's fascist past and its legacies. Other topics include Lindsay Lawton's analysis of the stereotypes that are used to market Muslim women's writings that undermine the critical issues of ethnicity, motherhood, the body, and religion explored in these texts. According to Lawton, these texts exhibit "the way that gender intersects with and shapes other articulations of difference" (109). Mihaela...

The Public Good Created by Higher Education Institutions in Russia

The public/private distinction is central to higher education but there is no consensus on the meaning of ‘public’. Two different meanings are in use. Economic theory distinguishes non market goods (public) that cannot be produced for profit, from market-based activity (private). This provides a basis for identifying the minimum necessary public expenditure, but does not effectively encompass collective goods. In political theory ‘public’ is often understood as state ownership and/ or control. This is more inclusive than the economic definition, and recognizes the scope for norms and policies, but lacks clear boundaries. The first part of the article synthesizes these two approaches, developing an analytical framework with four quadrants (civil society, social democracy, state quasi-market, commercial market) that can be used to categorise activities in higher education and research. The second part summarises the findings of 30 semi-structured interviews in the Russian government and two universities, conducted in 2013, concerning perceptions of public goods produced in Russian higher education. While most interviewees saw research as a global public good, they were divided in relation to teaching and learning. Some understood the education function as a public good in both the economic and political sense and wanted the government to take greater responsibility for improvement in higher education. Others saw higher education as a private good in the economic sense, and while they acknowledged the need for government because of market failure, wanted public intervention and regulation to be reduced. This division in thought about public/private paralleled the larger division between Soviet and neoliberal thinking in the Russian polity, and also the divided character of higher education, which is evenly split between free government administered places and a fee-paying student market.

The Constitution of Liberty: Hayek on Law & Liberty

Friedrich v. Hayek is the cornerstone of neo-liberal thinking. His main concern still resonates among scholars and thinkers of this age: the relationship between individual freedom and government (as represented by political power). Hayek draws attention to the relation between the market (economics) and the law. He challenged the assumption accepted by free-market economists that it is the duty of government/state to enable and enact laws. Since the law is a political choice, it seems quite similar to market choices. The law is a decision made by someone who tries to gather others to support it. All the features of economic choice seem present even in political choice: order of values, assessment of probabilities, choosing strategies, calculating outcomes, etc. That is why true law promotes freedom and liberty by safeguarding the private space of individuals. The end-goal of a law is the promotion of liberty and make the individual feel secure from any intervention in his/her private space.

Don’t think of them as roads. Think of them as road transport markets: Congestion pricing as a neoliberal political project

For some time now, many planners have embraced the idea of congestion pricing, an idea that has its origins in the field of transport economics. A positive attitude towards pricing, however, seems to be at odds with values commonly held by planners. To clarify this paradox, we need to thoroughly understand the history and sociology of the idea, and to acquire such understanding, this dialogue discusses the claim that the history of thinking about congestion pricing can best be understood by seeing it as a discursive politics of the market. The current view on congestion and road pricing originated in the 1950s, and there is clearly a link between the dissemination of the idea of congestion pricing and the rise of neoliberal thinking in general, although a different, rather Keynesian, tradition has continued to exist since the early days. The article also presents some criticisms of congestion pricing based on technical, equity as well as normative arguments. Finally, some attention is devoted to the format of the paper, given that it is written as a dialogue.

The teacher ‘problem’: an analysis of the NSW education policy Great Teaching, Inspired Learning

ABSTRACTThis paper seeks to understand the construction of teachers within one New South Wales education policy, querying this construction in relation to both local and international processes and factors. As such, it also looks to contribute to a growing body of international literature which grapples with the role and nature of neoliberal policy development in education more broadly. To accomplish this, the paper analyses Great Teaching, Inspired Learning (GTIL), a policy with wide-ranging and potentially significant ramifications for teachers. Ultimately it is argued that although aspects of neoliberal thinking are evident in the policy, particularities of context have mediated this push. It is suggested that this has led to a particular neoliberalisation of policy that variously targets and supports individual teachers and the systems and structures surrounding them, while the place of GTIL within both local state politics and the global imaginary is questioned.

“I Rebel, Therefore We Are” (Albert Camus)

This article is an attempt to open discussion on the role of the individual, as opposed to the group, in contemporary progressive and radical politics. The phrase making a difference comes to mind. Academic ideas about the contexts and groups in which individuals operate are important yet require extensive revision. Jung’s ideas about the relationship of individuals and the social collective are useful as is Camus’ (1951/1953) book The Rebel. This article presents new thinking about individuals as fractured and broken as distinct from the autonomous unit promulgated by neoliberal thinking. Yet they remain individuals.

Transitions to Middle-Skill Jobs: Pathways Into the New Racio-Economic Structure of the 21st Century

College and Career Pathways is an educational policy initiative widely acclaimed as a commonsensical and effective measure to ease students’ transitions between secondary and postsecondary education and into the middle-skill jobs. This article investigates the internal dynamics of the Pathways’ curricular model as well as its underpinning assumptions and implications. First, it situates this development within the broader context of school-to-work reform efforts and explores its connections to the neoliberal ideological thinking. Drawing on Leonardo's (2012) critical raceclass theory of education as a conceptual lens, and with close attention to the new order of job categories, it then examines the rise of Pathways in light of the realities of class, race, and the asymmetrical power relations that characterize the modern nation state. The article concludes that pathways is best understood when situated within the dynamics of production and reproduction of a new class of workers for the new racio-economic structure of the 21st century.