GATS and the education service industry: The politics of scale and global reterritorialization

• Published in: Comparative education review 2002-11, Vol.46 (4), p.472-496
• Main Authors: Robertson, Susan L, Bonal, Xavier, Dale, Roger
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bildung; Capitalism; Comparative Education; Countries; Dienstleistung; Economic Change; Economics; Economics of Education; Education; Educational Change; Educational Policy; Educational sciences; Educational services; Educational Trends; GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services); General Agreement on Trade in Services; Global Economy; Global education; Globalisierung; Globalization; Governance; Handel; Higher education; International agreements; International aspects; International cooperation. International organizations; International education; International Trade; Internationale Organisation; Kontrolle; Logical Thinking; Marktwirtschaft; Nationalism; Privatization; Role of Education; Steuerung; Territories; Welt; Wirtschaft; World Trade Organization
• ISSN: 0010-4086; 1545-701X
• DOI: 10.1086/343122

In the conclusion of the article, the authors write: "In this analysis, ... first, we sought to move the analysis of globalization and education forward by introducing a series of concepts - fixity and motion of capital, space, scale, and territorialization - that we believe give greater purchase on this complex process of change in the governance of education through the WTO-GATS process. Further, we argued that identifying key political and economic actors like the WTO as subjects of globalization and examining the mechanisms through which they both exert power and respond to pressures moves us away from the ideological appropriations of globalization. ... Examining the politics of rescaling and the emergence of the WTO as a global actor (and the mechanisms like GATS through which rescaling works on national territories and education systems) enables us to see how education systems are both offered as a new service to trade in the global economy and pressured into responding to the logic of free trade globally. We are also able to see processes of territorialization at work, particularly through the way in which particular countries have been very powerful in promoting liberalization in ways that suit their own interests. We have argued that the WTO becomes a site where powerful countries are able to dominate and shape the rules of the game, and in a global economy some countries increasingly view opening up their education systems to the global marketplace as a means of attrracting foreign investment. ..." (DIPF/ Orig.)