The shadow sovereigns of global education policy: a critique of the world society approach

Abstract

This contribution explores how multinational companies (MNCs) have managed to develop their own policy that sets international standards for education, in particular in the sphere of corporate education. It criticises education policy studies for leaving the study of corporate education mainly to management and human resource studies. As a consequence, education researchers tend to ignore an important policy area that has emerged out of the public limelight. This contribution is informed by a retroductive methodology and explores the ‘extrastatecraft’ of companies by combining empirical research with a theoretical discussion of transnational private authority. Any speculation about the return of the nation state that does not account for the privatisation of policy making and the influence of multinational companies as the new global shadow sovereigns risks failing to see that the nation state as we know it no longer exists. © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Further education Multinational companies critical management studies Firm based education global diffusion of norms world society approach

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

Funding & Acknowledgements

Seventh Framework Programme, FP7

This work was supported by the H2020 European Research Council: ERC-SG-SH2 -\u00A0ITEPE. [ITEPE-312331]; A very early version of this paper was presented in 2016 at the conference on University Futures at the Danish School for Education, which was organised by the EU funded project \u2018Universities in the Knowledge Economy\u2019 (UNIKE). I would like to thank the conference participants for their comments. My thanks also go to Susan Robertson and two anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments on subsequent drafts. Last but not least, I like to thank all the experts I interviewed for this research project for sharing their knowledge and insights with me. The usual disclaimer applies.

European Commission, EC

Grant: 312331

This work was supported by the H2020 European Research Council: ERC-SG-SH2 -\u00A0ITEPE. [ITEPE-312331]; A very early version of this paper was presented in 2016 at the conference on University Futures at the Danish School for Education, which was organised by the EU funded project \u2018Universities in the Knowledge Economy\u2019 (UNIKE). I would like to thank the conference participants for their comments. My thanks also go to Susan Robertson and two anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments on subsequent drafts. Last but not least, I like to thank all the experts I interviewed for this research project for sharing their knowledge and insights with me. The usual disclaimer applies.

European Commission, EC

This work was supported by the H2020 European Research Council: ERC-SG-SH2 -\u00A0ITEPE. [ITEPE-312331]; A very early version of this paper was presented in 2016 at the conference on University Futures at the Danish School for Education, which was organised by the EU funded project \u2018Universities in the Knowledge Economy\u2019 (UNIKE). I would like to thank the conference participants for their comments. My thanks also go to Susan Robertson and two anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments on subsequent drafts. Last but not least, I like to thank all the experts I interviewed for this research project for sharing their knowledge and insights with me. The usual disclaimer applies.

H2020 European Research Council, ERC

Grant: ERC-SG-SH2 - ITEPE

This work was supported by the H2020 European Research Council: ERC-SG-SH2 -\u00A0ITEPE. [ITEPE-312331]; A very early version of this paper was presented in 2016 at the conference on University Futures at the Danish School for Education, which was organised by the EU funded project \u2018Universities in the Knowledge Economy\u2019 (UNIKE). I would like to thank the conference participants for their comments. My thanks also go to Susan Robertson and two anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments on subsequent drafts. Last but not least, I like to thank all the experts I interviewed for this research project for sharing their knowledge and insights with me. The usual disclaimer applies.

H2020 European Research Council, ERC

This work was supported by the H2020 European Research Council: ERC-SG-SH2 -\u00A0ITEPE. [ITEPE-312331]; A very early version of this paper was presented in 2016 at the conference on University Futures at the Danish School for Education, which was organised by the EU funded project \u2018Universities in the Knowledge Economy\u2019 (UNIKE). I would like to thank the conference participants for their comments. My thanks also go to Susan Robertson and two anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments on subsequent drafts. Last but not least, I like to thank all the experts I interviewed for this research project for sharing their knowledge and insights with me. The usual disclaimer applies.

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The shadow sovereigns of global education policy: a critique of the world society approach

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