Global buzz and cultural, political and economic processes at work in transformations of the higher education sector: The case of NAFSA higher education conference and expo

Komljenovic, Janja (2015) Global buzz and cultural, political and economic processes at work in transformations of the higher education sector: The case of NAFSA higher education conference and expo. In: Comparative and International Education Society – CIES, 2015, 2015-03-08 - 2015-03-13.

Abstract

This chapter will draw upon a critical cultural political economy approach to investigate the complex ways in which the higher education sector is being transformed by new governance projects, processes and practices. A sector refers to institutions and actors that are bundled together and given coherence at the level of representation and the level of practice. It has boundaries that define what is inside and outside the sector. My argument is that currently we are witnessing these boundaries being reworked resulting in the creation of a new higher education order. A key argument of the chapter is that much of the analysis of the changing governance of the sector tends to present rhetorical tropes - such as marketization, privatisation and commodification, with the effect that these function to make less visible more complex processes at work. This chapter uses the case of NAFSA higher education expo as an empirical entry point into exploring changes taking place in the sector as a result of these governance projects and processes, and as a conceptual terrain to explore that cultural, political and economic processes are at work. Culturally, NAFSA expo can be viewed as a spectacle which is positioned in capitalist orders and lived in the daily work of a new range of higher education workers and traders. Politically, NAFSA expo can be seen as an unprecedented example of representation of the variegated higher education industry and markets. Markets are not impersonal or impartial but highly political, as well as inherently unstable. They are a set of social institutions allowing particular commodities to be traded; or not. Economically, NAFSA expo is certainly offering insight into the new ways of profit making in higher education. Historical exploration will allow identifying the growth and change of such new ways at the level of scope, scale and variety.