Towards perpetual neoliberalism in education: The Slovak path to postcommunist transformation

• Authors: Ondrej Kaščák , Branislav Pupala
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Slovak education policy is an example of the kind of transformations occurring in the education spheres of postcommunist countries. While at the end of the 1990s, it seemed that education policy was still attempting to ensure that Slovakia caught up with education levels in western countries, the period that followed brought with it a shift towards neoliberalization of the education sector and towards the economization of education. Slovakia’s entry into the EU was accompanied by the total assimilation of the neoliberal agenda within education and since then it can be said that Slovak education policy has followed a path towards so-called perpetual neoliberalism. The aim of this article is to show how education policy has developed within Slovak politics, in terms of how it is gradually adapting to neoliberal ideas. The article analyzes government documents from 1998 onwards, particularly Slovak government programs, which document the process of neoliberalization in education.

Keywords

EN

perpetual neoliberalism; education policy; the Slovak Republic; government programs of governments of the Slovak Republic

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 545-563

Dates

published

2014-10-01

online

2014-10-02

Contributors

author

Ondrej Kaščák

• Slovak Academy of Sciences

author

Branislav Pupala

• Slovak Academy of Sciences

References

• [1] Bourdieu, P. (1996). Wie Maos rotes Tuch. Der Spiegel, 50, 172–179.
• [2] Bourdieu, P. (1998). Gegenfeuer. Wortmeldungen im Dienste des Widerstands gegen die neoliberale Invasion. Konstanz: UVK.
• [3] Brenner, N., Peck, J., & Theodore, N. (2010). Variegated neoliberalization: Geographies, modalities, pathways. Global Networks, 10, 182–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2009.00277.x[WoS][Crossref]
• [4] Bröckling, U., Krasmann, S., & Lemke, T. (Eds.). (2000). Gouvernementalität der Gegenwart. Studien zur Ökonomisierung des Sozialen. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
• [5] Dahlstedt, M., & Hertzberg, F. (2012). Schooling entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurship, governmentality and education policy in Sweden at the turn of the millennium. Journal of Pedagogy / Pedagogický časopis, 3, 242–262.
• [6] Davies, B., Gottsche, M., & Bansel, P. (2006). The rise and fall of the neoliberal university. European Journal of Education, 41, 305–319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-3435.2006.00261.x[Crossref]
• [7] Fisher, S., Gould, J. A., & Haughton, T. J. (2007). Slovakia’s neoliberal turn. Europe-Asia Studies, 59, 977–998. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09668130701489170[Crossref]
• [8] Giddens, A. (1997). Jenseits von Links und Rechts: Die Zukunft radikaler Demokratie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
• [9] Giroux, H. (2005). The terror of neoliberalism: Rethinking the significance of cultural politics. College Literature, 32, 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lit.2005.0006[Crossref]
• [10] Golubović, N., & Golubović, S. (2012). ‘Embedded’ neoliberalism. FACTA UNIVERSITATIS, Series Economics and Organisation, 9, 1–13.
• [11] Gounari, P., & Grollios, G. (2012). Educational reform in Greece: Central concepts and a critique. Journal of Pedagogy / Pedagogický časopis, 3, 303–318.
• [12] Hall, S. (2012). The neoliberal revolution. Thatcher, Blair, Cameron - the long march of neoliberalism continues. In J. Rutheford & S. Davison (Eds.), The Neoliberal Crisis. London: LW.
• [13] Hilgers, M. (2012). The historicity of the neoliberal state. Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 20, 80–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2011.00192.x[Crossref]
• [14] Hirsch, J. (1998). Tote leben manchmal länger. Auf dem Weg zu einem nachhaltigen Neoliberalismus. In J. Bischoff, F. Deppe, & K. P. Kisker (Eds.), Das Ende des Neoliberalismus? Hamburg: VSA.
• [15] Hyun-Chin, L., & Jin-Ho, J. (2006). Between neoliberalism and democracy: The transformation of the developmental state in South Korea. Development and Society, 35, 1–28.
• [16] Kaščák, O., & Pupala, B. (2010). Neoliberálna guvernmentalita v sociálnom projektovaní vzdelávania. Sociologický časopis/Czech Sociological Review, 46, 771–799.
• [17] Kaščák, O., & Pupala, B. (2012). Škola zlatých golierov: vzdelávanie v ére neoliberalizmu. Prague: Slon.
• [18] Kubal, M. R., & Kerlin, J.A. (2002). A neoliberal agenda for decentralization in transitioning countries? A comparative study of Chile and Poland. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of Georgia Political Science Association, Savannah, Georgia, January 31–February 2, 2002.
• [19] Lemke, T. (2001). Governance, Gouvernementalität und die Dezentrierung der Ökonomie. IWKMitteilungen 2-3, 25–29.
• [20] Mathison, S., & Ross, E. W. (2004). The hegemony of accountability: The corporate-political alliance for control of schools. In D. A. Gabbard, & E. W. Ross (Eds.). Education under the security state: Defining public schools. New York: Teachers College Press.
• [21] Minerva 2.0. Slovensko do prvej ligy [Minerva 2.0. Slovakia for the 1st league] (2011). Accessed December 17, 2013. http://www.rokovania.sk/Rokovanie.aspx/BodRokovaniaDetail?idMaterial=20088
• [22] Modernizačný program Slovensko 2 [A Modernization Program for Slovakia 21] (2008). Accessed December 17, 2013. http://old.minedu.sk/data/USERDATA/EUZAL/LSaNPR/MPS21.pdf
• [23] Peters, M. (2001). Education, enterprise culture and the entrepreneurial self: A Foucauldian prspective. Journal of Educational Inquiry, 2, 58–71.
• [24] Programové vyhlásenie vlády Slovenskej republiky [Manifesto of the Government of the Slovak Republic] (1998). Accessed December 17, 2013. http://www.vlada.gov.sk/data/files/981_programove-vyhlasenievlady-slovenskej-republiky-od-30-10-1998-do-15-10-2002.pdf
• [25] Programové vyhlásenie vlády Slovenskej republiky [Manifesto of the Government of the Slovak Republic] (2002). Accessed December 17, 2013. http://www.vlada.gov.sk/data/files/980_programove-vyhlasenie-vlady-slovenskej-republiky-od-16-10-2002-do-04-07-2006-.pdf
• [26] Programové vyhlásenie vlády Slovenskej republiky [Manifesto of the Government of the Slovak Republic] (2006). Accessed December 17, 2013. http://www.zbierka.sk/mediagallery/zbierka_document/file/example/file/2.pdf
• [27] Programové vyhlásenie vlády Slovenskej republiky [Manifesto of the Government of the Slovak Republic] (2010). Accessed December 17, 2013. http://www.vlada.gov.sk/data/files/18_programovevyhlasenie-2010.pdf
• [28] Programové vyhlásenie vlády Slovenskej republiky [Manifesto of the Government of the Slovak Republic] (2012). Accessed December 17, 2013. http://www.vlada.gov.sk/data/files/2008_programove-vyhlasenie-vlady.pdf
• [29] Silova, I., & Eklof, B. (2013). Education in Eastern and Central Europe: Re-thinking post-socialism in the context of globalization. In R. F. Arnove & C. A. Torres (Eds.). Comparative education: The dialectic between the global and the local. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
• [30] Smith, A., & Rochovská, A. (2006). Neo-liberalism and post-socialist urban transformations: Poverty, inequality and the city. Acta Geographica Universitatis Comenianae, 48, 43–54.
• [31] Springer, S. (2010). Neoliberalism and geography: Expansions, variegations, formations. Geography Compass, 4, 1025–1038. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2010.00358.x[Crossref]
• [32] Stratégia rozvoja konkurencieschopnosti Slovenska do roku 2010: Lisabonská stratégia pre Slovensko [Strategy of development of Slovakia competitiveness till 2010: Lisbon strategy for Slovakia] (2005). Accessed December 17, 2013. www.iminerva.sk/dokumenty/StrategiaKonkurencieschopnostiSR.doc
• [33] Van Apeldoorn, B. (2008). The contradictions of ‘embedded neoliberalism’ and Europe’s multi-level legitimacy crisis: The European project and its limits. In B. Van Apeldoorn, J. Drahokoupil, & L. Horn (Eds.), Contradictions and limits of neoliberal European governance - From Lisbon to Lisbon. Hountmills: Palgrave/MacMillan. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230228757[Crossref]
• [34] Weyland, K. (2004). Neoliberalism and democracy in Latin America: A mixed record. Latin American Politics and Society, 46, 135–157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lap.2004.0012[Crossref][WoS]
• [35] Zimenová, Z. (2013). Antiliberálna evanjelizácia nevedomého davu? (review essay). Konzervatívne listy, 3, 3.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s13374-014-0248-3