Locatelli, R. (2019) Reframing Education as a Public and Common Good: Enhancing Democratic Governance. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan (original) (raw)
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In this article we argue that a refined understanding of 'public' and 'public engagement' can help researchers who produce critical research make better decisions towards achieving policy influence. We acknowledge the challenges critical researchers face in putting their research to work within the public domain. Critical research struggles to gain influence in bounded public spheres where research is valued as a consumable commodity rather than for its integrity or capacity for informing change. A starting point for developing a method of engagement is to understand better 'publics' and the different ways they may be conceptualised. We use Mahony and Stephansen's (2017) framework of three conceptualisations of the public in public engagement: bounded, normative and emergent. We use this framework to analyse our own experience of public engagement and attempts at policy influence in the Respecting Children and Young People Project. Through this analysis we recognise alternative ways to conceive of publics that may direct us away from some courses of action, and open new possibilities for public engagement with critical research.
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This paper discusses the various ways privatisation processes affect Irish education. Due to the long history of considerable church involvement, the notable absence of middle tiers of governance, and more recently, the embrace of neoliberal principles, in large part due to and for economic reasons, the Irish education system represents a fascinating example of a complex interplay between the public and private sectors. The conceptual and analytical tools provided by Cultural Political Economy are used in this paper to highlight why and how privatisation has unfolded and might yet unravel further in Irish education. These tools offer a useful lens through which to examine country-specific developments, whilst locating them in the global picture. Utilising the conceptualisations offered by Cultural Political Economy, this paper demonstrates how different forms of privatisation in Ireland have contributed to what can be described as a complex system of governance with strong private involvement.
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In recent years, higher education institutions have been encouraged to engage more strongly with their local communities, and address their historically weak links with their surrounding populations. In the latter part of the 20th century a number of community universities were established in the South of Brazil, characterised by democratic local community involvement, expansion of access in non-metropolitan regions, and close ties with local industry. This article analyses these innovative institutions in relation to the complex demands of the so-called knowledge economy and multifaceted relationships between public and private, exploring the ways in which the public good role of universities manifests itself in relation to the local. Given their hybrid nature – independent from the state but with a public good mission – these institutions can be seen to represent a new model of non-state public higher education. Implications are drawn out for the potential role of these institutions in the current policy context of Brazil, and internationally, in light of their context-specificity and the significant challenges from the highly commercialised for-profit sector.
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