A European Politics of Education

Romuald Normand is Professor of Sociology at the University of Strasbourg, Research Unit SAGE (Societies, Actors and Government in Europe), France.

A European Politics of Education proposes a sociology of education establishing connections between empirical data coming from European-scale comparative surveys, normative assumptions structuring actors¿ representations and interpretative judgements, and a specific focus on Lifelong Learning policy areas. It invites readers to think about the place of standards, expertise and calculations in the European space from a common perspective, supported by a tradition of critical sociology and European political studies.

1 Introduction 2 Standards and Standardization in European politics of Education 3 Policy transfers in Europe: the European Union and beyond 4 The Praise of mutual Surveillance in Europe 5 Policy Learning and Expertise in European Education 6 Ranking and the Structuration of a transnational Field of Higher Education 7 Higher education: from « unclear technologies » to human resources management techniques 8 Universities, the risk industry and capitalism: a political economy critique 9 "Silencing the disbelievers": games of truth and power struggles around fact-based management 10 Compliance and contestation in the neoliberal university: reflecting on the identities of UK social scientists 11 Losing the plot, plotting the lost: politics, Europe, and the rediscovery of lifelong learning 12 How are European lifelong learning systems changing? An approach in terms of public policy regimes