Resisting neoliberal common sense in higher education: experiences from Latin America

Adult and community education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand 2000–2014: neoliberal influences?

“…Russia, after the fall of the Soviet Union, was the second 'testing ground' (Dahlström, 2013, p. 2); Magun (n.d.) discusses the impact of neoliberalism on higher education there. There are also analyses from Eastern European countries (Aligica & Evans, 2009) including Serbia (Baćević, 2010); from South America (Alcántara, Llomovatte, & Romão, 2013;Fischman, Ball, & Gvirtz, 2003;Grugel & Riggirozzi, 2012); Africa (Kapoor, 2011); sub-Saharan Africa (Ochwa-Echel, 2013); and Asia (Kapoor, 2011) including China (Harvey, 2005), Korea (Byun & Kim, 2011); Bangladesh (Kabir, 2011); and from many countries in Asia, South America and South Africa (King, Marginson, & Naidoo, 2011). This sample of the available literature suggests neoliberalism is dominant in education policy in many jurisdictions throughout the world.…”

The neoliberal discourse in Latin American higher education: A call for national development and tighter government control

“…Universities in countries like Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, and Nicaragua enjoy substantial unrestricted state support and autonomy while universities in countries like Colombia, Chile, and Brazil are subject to more government regulations and accountability (Montes & Mendoza, 2018;Bernasconi, 2015;Brunner, 2005). These ongoing tensions have generated strong student movements in the region advocating for the public good of higher education, notably in Chile, Colombia and Brazil, and entangled with complex political dynamics including dictatorships and Marxist guerilla wars (Alcántara et al, 2013;Ordorika & Lloyd, 2015;Pineda, 2015;Rhoades & Slaughter, 2006;Rhoads & Torres, 2006;Vega Cantor, 2015). The most dramatic case of these ongoing tensions in the last decade is Chile, a country that experienced the most dramatic pro-public good movement in the region in the 21 st century, representing a full swinging of the pendulum back from the Chicago Boys era of the 1980s (Fischman & Ott, 2018).…”

The neoliberal turn in Higher Education

“…Thus, as well as the obvious candidates from Europe, it includes many developing economies from the former Soviet bloc, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The last of these, Latin America, has been a particular focus for study (Alcántara, Llomovatte, & Romão, 2013;Torres & Schugurensky, 2002), with Chile, after the overthrow of Allende by a military junta, being seen as an early 'laboratory' for neoliberal policies. Studies of neoliberalism in Higher Education have also focused above the national level, for example in interrogating the Bologna process (Štech, 2011), and below it at institutional level (Aikens & Hargis, 2017).…”