Globalization, New Institutionalisms, and the Political Dimension
Résumé
Abstract This chapter looks at the political dimension involved in the globalization of education from a neoinstitutionalist perspective, based on a literature review. This review shows that since the 2000s, three major research strands have sedimented. The first is structured around world culture theory and the debates it has generated. The second questions the institutional mediations of globalization at work in different educational contexts. The third focuses on institutional change and the new institutional constructions to which this globalization gives rise. These strands imply different visions of globalization and the role of policy and politics in the changes being studied. While world culture makes globalization the core concept but devotes little attention to the political dimension, research strands 2 and 3 do the opposite: They give an unclear status to the globalization concept but offer rich conceptualization of the political dimension of globalization. The chapter concludes that the political dimension should be included more frontally in neoinstitutionalist conceptualizations of globalization in education, and it suggests a related research agenda.