IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-01915-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Neoliberal reform discourse in Egyptian higher education

Author

Listed:
  • Israa Medhat Esmat

    (Cairo University
    Phillips-Universität Marburg)

Abstract

The global neoliberal discourse on Higher Education (HE) reform has become dominant in both the developed and developing worlds. The paper tackles the Egyptian HE reforms that have been produced in line with the global neoliberal discourse through the World Bank’s (WB) funded reform projects. Through Foucauldian discourse and genealogical analysis, the study questioned, troubled, and de-naturalized the inevitability and persistence of the neoliberal discourse in Egyptian HE. Far from being deterministic and rational, the process of transfer of the global neoliberal discourse to Egyptian HE was embedded in the interaction of a number of discursive and structural selectivities as captured by the Strategic Relational Approach. On one hand, privatization, cost-sharing strategies, and quality assurance systems constituted the major policy reforms produced by the neoliberal discourse. On the other hand academic freedoms, university autonomy, and equitable access to HE have been discursively disallowed, de-problematized and excluded. The 25th of January revolution represented a discontinuity that threatened the collapse of the neoliberal discourse while the crushing of the revolution perpetuated and reinforced the neoliberal discourse reflecting a mutual relationship between neoliberal and authoritarian discourses and governmentalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Israa Medhat Esmat, 2023. "Neoliberal reform discourse in Egyptian higher education," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01915-4
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-01915-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-01915-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-01915-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bob Jessop, 2001. "Institutional Re(turns) and the Strategic – Relational Approach," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(7), pages 1213-1235, July.
    2. Natalia Forrat, 2016. "The political economy of Russian higher education: why does Putin support research universities?," Post-Soviet Affairs, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 299-337, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anna Herzog, 2022. "Imaginaries, directionalities, agency and new path creation [Imaginaries, directionalities, Akteurshandeln und Pfadkreation]," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 42(3), pages 279-307, December.
    2. Andrew M. Wood, 2004. "Domesticating Urban Theory? US Concepts, British Cities and the Limits of Cross-national Applications," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(11), pages 2103-2118, October.
    3. Carlo Salone, 2013. "Defining the urban economic and administrative spaces," Chapters, in: Peter Karl Kresl & Jaime Sobrino (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Urban Economies, chapter 9, pages 205-234, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Will Rossiter & David J Smith, 2017. "Institutions, place leadership and public entrepreneurship: Reinterpreting the economic development of Nottingham," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 32(4), pages 374-392, June.
    5. Mikhail Gershman & Galina Kitova, 2017. "Assessing Government Support for Research and Innovation in Russian Universities," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(3), pages 1067-1084, September.
    6. Daniel You-Ren Yang & Hung-Kai Wang, 2008. "Dilemmas of Local Governance under the Development Zone Fever in China: A Case Study of the Suzhou Region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(5-6), pages 1037-1054, May.
    7. Su-Ann Mae Phillips & Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2003. "A Place for R&D? The Singapore Science Park," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(4), pages 707-732, April.
    8. Manganelli, Alessandra & Moulaert, Frank, 2019. "Scaling out access to land for urban agriculture. Governance hybridities in the Brussels-Capital Region," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 391-400.
    9. Rye, Tom & Hrelja, Robert & Monios, Jason & McTigue, Clare, 2021. "Partnership or franchising to improve bus services in two major English urban regions? An institutional analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 59-67.
    10. Shchepetylnykova, Liz & Oleksiyenko, Anatoly V., 2024. "What comes after post-Soviet? Towards a new concept of de-Sovietization in higher education and research," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    11. Markku Sotarauta, 2017. "An actor-centric bottom-up view of institutions: Combinatorial knowledge dynamics through the eyes of institutional entrepreneurs and institutional navigators," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(4), pages 584-599, June.
    12. Jason Monios, 2017. "Policy transfer or policy churn? Institutional isomorphism and neoliberal convergence in the transport sector," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(2), pages 351-371, February.
    13. Tara van Dijk, 2011. "Livelihoods, capitals and livelihood trajectories," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 11(2), pages 101-117, April.
    14. Phil Jones & James Evans, 2006. "Urban Regeneration, Governance and the State: Exploring Notions of Distance and Proximity," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(9), pages 1491-1509, August.
    15. Wilfred Dolfsma, 2013. "Government Failure," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15372.
    16. Simon Pemberton & Janice Morphet, 2014. "The Rescaling of Economic Governance: Insights into the Transitional Territories of England," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(11), pages 2354-2370, August.
    17. Ilaria Delponte, 2021. "Institutional and Non-Institutional Governance Initiatives in Urban Transport Planning: The Paradigmatic Case of the Post-Collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.
    18. Monios, Jason & Ng, Adolf K.Y., 2021. "Competing institutional logics and institutional erosion in environmental governance of maritime transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    19. Bin Li & Chaoqun Liu, 2018. "Emerging selective regimes in a fragmented authoritarian environment: The ‘three old redevelopment’ policy in Guangzhou, China from 2009 to 2014," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1400-1419, May.
    20. Peter Fairbrother, 2015. "Rethinking trade unionism: Union renewal as transition," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(4), pages 561-576, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01915-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.