Cultural political economy and the international governance of education

This chapter presents and discusses the value of Cultural Political Economy (CPE) as a theoretical framework for analysis of the international governance of education. In the first section here, CPE is situated historically as a contemporary example of attempts within the Marxist tradition to explore the relations between the cultural (the world of discourse and practice), the political (actors and institutions) and the economic. Its core ontological position, that complex social processes consist of dialectically internally related moments, is then mapped onto a set of definitions and concepts which help to specify the distinct but not discrete properties of the cultural, the political and the economic. In the second section of this chapter, the challenges presented by the European Union (EU) as an example of international governance are addressed through the theoretical framework established by CPE. Then, established accounts of the development of an EU role in the governance of education since the launch of the Lisbon Strategy in March 2000 are examined so as to establish what a CPE approach can offer to attempts to complement and transcend them. In developing a conclusion, the chapter sets out a series of principles which can serve as the basis for analysis of the international governance of education beyond the specific case of the EU. In conclusion, the chapter acknowledges the aspects of CPE which remain undeveloped and problematic as well as underlining the terms upon which the CPE as presented here might need to engage with other theoretical approaches