Unresolved Issues in Globalisation, Decentralisation and Privatisation

Abstract

If the link between individuals and the group(s) that they belong to is problematic, or “the central sociological problem,” then we need to examine exactly how the actions of individuals can “add up” to group actions, and conversely, how group culture and disposition can influence individual attitudes and dispositions. This is not simply a sociological problem, but is the central problem of comparative study – how can national or regional culture enter into our analysis. Globalisation, decentralisation and privatisation are not one answer, but three contradictory answers; education nationally develops in lines with irresistible global trends (globalisation), education is driven by the independent decisions of decisive agents or investors (privatisation), or collective action can be aggregated at some intermediate level that is neither global nor individual (decentralisation). This article argues that these difficulties can only be overcome by introducing a theory of learning into our examination of educational policy.