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Descriptors:
Water; Commercialization; Privatization; Neoliberalism; Global Approach; Ethnography; Rural Areas; Case Studies; Barriers; Resistance (Psychology)

Abstract:
Bottled water sits at the intersection of debates regarding the social and environmental effects of the commodification of nature and the ways neoliberal globalization alters the provision of public services. Utilizing Polanyi's concept of fictitious commodities and Harvey's work on accumulation by dispossession, this article traces bottled water's transformation from elite niche item to a product consumed by three fourths of U.S. households. Drawing on ethnographic research with participants in two cases of proposed spring water extraction from rural communities by industry leader Nestle Waters, we make two principal arguments. First, the case of bottled water necessitates a reevaluation of existing theoretical frameworks regarding water privatization and commodification. Municipal tap water networks pose substantial barriers to capital accumulation, leading one influential scholar to frame water as an "uncooperative commodity." However, bottled water's characteristics enable it to evade many of these constraints, rendering it a "more perfect commodity" for accumulation. Second, expansion of the market good of bottled water alters the prospects for the largely publicly provided good of tap water. We conclude that the growth of this relatively new commodity represents a more serious threat to the project of universal public drinking water provision than that posed by tap water privatization. (Contains 1 table and 8 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Neoliberalism; Instruction; Privatization; Race; Public Education; Elementary Secondary Education; Higher Education; Universities; College Role; Resistance (Psychology); Social Action

Abstract:
Henry A. Giroux argues that countering the disasters of neoliberalism requires facing "the challenge of developing a politics and pedagogy that can serve and actualize a democratic notion of the social" (2011). The authors suggest that Immanuel Wallerstein's notion of "middle-run" temporality (2008) and Stuart Hall's discussion of "middle-level" theory (1986) point the way toward a framework for considering new interventions and producing new possibilities in these intemperate times. Gramsci's concept of hegemony is also helpful in understanding how practices of cultural persuasion support what Giroux calls "neoliberalism as a public pedagogy" (2005), and how pedagogies for the neoliberal subject can be analyzed, explained, and countered. They argue that its public pedagogy papers over neoliberalism's many contradictions, its simultaneous deployment and denial of its racial project, and its attempts to establish all sites outside of the market as "insubordinate spaces." The university is an important site of struggle in this argument. As a set of "insubordinate spaces," the university offers opportunity for critique and argument that can counter neoliberalism and its racial project. They also argue that educators need to expand their imagination about the spaces where counter-pedagogies take place. Both the university and the community offer possibilities for insubordinate spaces; in this article the authors delineate the challenges and opportunities in academia and activist community cultural work. (Contains 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Disabilities; Public Schools; Private Sector; Social Work; Partnerships in Education; Privatization; Social Services; School Community Relationship; Special Education; School Districts; Income

Abstract:
Privatized service delivery within Medicaid has greatly increased over the past two decades. This public program-private sector collaboration is quite common today, with a majority of Medicaid recipients receiving services in this fashion; yet controversy remains. This article focuses on just one program within Medicaid, school-based services for children with special education disabilities--the Medicaid School Program. A survey of public school districts within a region of one Midwest state found some expected results: Most districts were enrolled in the Medicaid program and receiving reimbursements for services; annual revenues were moderate; and a majority of districts provided most of the available Medicaid services. However, it was also found that almost every school district contracted with an outside private company to perform most of the Medicaid administrative functions (eligibility, billing, compliance), and almost every district was extremely satisfied with this collaborative arrangement--benefiting both entities. Support for this type of partnership is discussed in the context of public schools' and the social work profession's current fiscal and political challenges. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Educational History; Latin American History; Historiography; Government School Relationship; Public Education; Elementary Education; Public Schools; Privatization; Citizenship Education; Culture; Sex Role; War; Violence; Educational Research

Abstract:
ISCHE 33 was convened in San Luis Potosi to re-examine a relationship--that between society, education and the state--that had been largely taken for granted in official histories of education of modern nations. This theme was inspired by the bicentenary celebrations of the relatively early nineteenth-century movements (from 1804 to 1824) that instated independent nations in most of Latin America. National educational systems, there and elsewhere, were created largely with the aspiration of building uniform, modern nations of equal, illustrated citizens, yet research has shown that they also organised diversity and reproduced inequalities, creating and separating categories of class, gender, religion, ethnicity, race, generation, status and ability. ISCHE 33 brought historical research to bear upon the very categories used to talk about education. In this article, the authors first present discussions on this theme that have emerged in the historiography of Mexico, the venue of the conference. They then examine alternative conceptual tools, with reference to the papers in this special issue, used to study the actual configurations that have joined or opposed actors identified with the "state" or "society". By historicising these concepts, rather than assuming them as constants, one may gain insight into the particular import and alignment of the social and political collectivities involved in education. (Contains 49 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Computer Assisted Instruction; Educational Policy; Politics of Education; College Faculty; Teacher Attitudes; Evaluation Methods; Educational Assessment; Government Role; Educational Change; International Education; Educational Technology; Commercialization; Educational Administration; Technical Institutes; Privatization; Neoliberalism; Global Approach; Technology Integration; College Instruction

Abstract:
In this article, the authors argue that educational technology is chiefly and increasingly being used as a tool for the privatization of education and the commodification of people by way of top down evaluative structures put in place by governments in collusion with neoliberal interests. This analysis began as a study that sought to illuminate the reasons why teachers in Taiwanese technical colleges have been reluctant to integrate educational technologies for actual instruction. However, what the authors actually found was that teachers in Taiwan are experiencing a forced obsession with top down evaluations and these evaluations are locking teachers in what may be called an amplifying causal loop. By looking up the proverbial food chain of the top-down evaluations, the authors found socio-political and economic forces at work that were less Taiwanese and more global in scope and character and less about teachers and classrooms and more about the rise of educational administration for neoliberal advancement. This article argues that a collusion between neoliberal interests, an obsession with evaluation, and the uninterrogated implementation of educational technologies are giving rise to processes that are wreaking havoc on the Taiwanese education system and similar processes are at work throughout the world. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
African Americans; Civil Rights; Race; Occupational Mobility; Private Sector; Privatization; Public Sector; Governance; Social Change; Work Environment; Males; Racial Differences; Income; Disadvantaged; Equal Opportunities (Jobs)

Abstract:
New "governance" reforms entailing shifts toward privatization have permeated the public sector over the last decade, possibly affecting workplace-based attainments. We examine the consequences of this reform for African American men, who during the civil rights era reached relative parity with whites. We analyze race-based inequities on one socioeconomic outcome-downward occupational mobility-among professionals, managers and executives. Results from a Panel Study of Income Dynamics sample indicate that the "new government business model," characterized by increased employer discretion has disproportionately disadvantaged African Americans. Narrower racial gaps in the incidence, determinants and timing of downward mobility found in the public sector, relative to the private sector, during the pre-reform period (1985-90) eroded during the reform period (2002-07) because of widening racial gaps in the public sector. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Educational Finance; Educational Opportunities; School Districts; Privatization; School Support; Student Transportation; Food Service; Cost Effectiveness; Operations Research; Strategic Planning; Statistical Distributions; Statistical Surveys; Contracts; Outsourcing; Sanitation; Shared Resources and Services; Program Effectiveness; School Administration; Ancillary School Services; Financial Problems; Economic Impact

Abstract:
Michigan's School Aid fund increased once more this year, but many school administrators in the state continue to hunt for effective measures to reduce spending due to increased pension costs and phased-out stimulus money. Many options available for trimming costs, such as enacting pay-to-play for sports, are extremely unpopular for districts and may reduce the quality of education available to students. However, privatization of support services such as food, custodial and transportation services is a promising opportunity for many districts to save money without reducing educational opportunity. Over 60 percent of Michigan school districts have now contracted out at least one of these three services and have saved Michigan taxpayers millions in the process. 335 of the state's 549 public school districts, or 61 percent, have now privatized one or more major support services. Sixty-six districts began a support-service contract within the past year. This growth continues a decade-long trend of increased contracting by Michigan schools, which the Mackinac Center has studied since 2001. Each of the three major support services saw a growth in privatization over the past year. The 2012 Survey Results include: (1) 61 percent of districts (335 out of 549) contract out for at least one of their food, custodial or transportation services; (2) 126 districts contract out for at least two major support services; (3) Districts contracted out 85 total services; and (4) 11 districts brought a service back in-house. Appended are: (1) Revisions to Previous Publications; and (2) Map of Survey Findings by School District. (Contains 9 graphs.) [For the 2011 edition of this report, see ED541514.] Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Apprenticeships; Foreign Countries; Privatization; Social Capital; Communities of Practice; Handicrafts; Collectivism; Peer Relationship; Skill Development; Family Environment

Abstract:
This article discusses some of the consequences of collectivization and subsequent privatization of handicraft in China in the second half of the 20th century on ways of learning and modes of apprenticeship. It argues that, after the privatization of the ceramics workshops of Dingshu, Jiangsu province, an ethos of sharing previously introduced by collectivization continues to determine the paths of transmission of practical knowledge and facilitates exclusion of access to knowledge from community outsiders. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Privatization; Private Colleges; Educational Policy; Access to Education; Comparative Analysis; Developing Nations; Educational Development; Program Effectiveness; Policy Analysis

Abstract:
In most developing countries, as the young population increase in number and consequently, the demands for higher education rise, the governments cannot respond to all demands. Accordingly, they develop private higher education sectors as an alternative solution. In developed countries, some moving factors are influential in creation and the increase of private institutions but there are scarce evidences and comparative results about developing countries. The current comparative study seeks to investigate and analyze the main factors of privatization in higher education of three developing countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Kenya. After a short outline of theoretical foundations, this study provides more in-depth explanations of the principal and common effective factors. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Equal Education; Higher Education; Values; Asian Culture; Educational Change; Ideology; Privatization; Policy Formation; Educational Policy; Foreign Countries; Family Relationship; Confucianism; Costs; Resource Allocation; Governance; Educational Finance

Abstract:
This study extends the theoretical perspectives in policy studies on the issue of educational equality by analyzing the influence of cultural values on policies and policy processes. The present paper first teases out the key cultural values regarding education and equality, and then explores how these values shape the institution and policy making in the Chinese context. The policies of expansion, reform in governance and finance, differentiation of provision, and their consequences on equality in Chinese higher education are examined through the lens of culture. The context of close family bonds and strong commitment to education in the Chinese society has bolstered the policies of cost-sharing, privatization and concentrating resources in selected universities. Confucian bureaucracy and hierarchy shaped the strong state and top-down policy process; collectivism and elitism coupled with utilitarianism legitimized the paramount goal of development and strengthened the hierarchy of the higher education system; meritocratic tradition mediated the public demands and state's policies on provision, and buffered the debates about inequality. The idea of "minben" (people are essence of a nation) in Chinese tradition served as a counter force to balance the pursuit of development and equality. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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