Soft Governance and the Learning Spaces of Europe

Analysing ‘Migrant’ Membership Frames through Education Policy Discourse: An Example of Restrictive ‘Integration’ Policy within Europe

“…There is a disaggregation effect with reference to the rights regimes of the contemporary European Union (EU), in which the rights of citizens of member countries of the EU are sharply delineated from those of third-country nationals, i.e members of countries which are not within the EU and who are immigrating to EU countries, within a patchwork of local, national and supranational rights regimes . This argument can be extended to include the idea of Europe not only in the sense of the EU, but also as a transnational space of common and shared ideas (Lawn, 2006) that travel and that create interdependencies and trends of deterritorialised politics in other European countries, such as in the case of Switzerland (DuboisShaik, 2011). The unitary model, which combined continuous residency upon a given territory with a shared national identity, the enjoyment of political rights, and subjection to a common administrative jurisdiction, is coming apart Bauböck & Guiraudon, 2009).…”

“…This may be attempted through a form of 'soft' governance in education (Lawn, 2006). Here is an understanding of changing forms of governance in Europe linked to the growth of comparison and measurement through education data (Grek et al, 2009), such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).…”

“…Integration policy could be restricting the development of membership because of the way in which it is discursively operated and what kind of governance measures are adopted. The example of integration in education policy can show how discursive categories such as 'migrant background' of students are shaped and influenced by the federal integration agenda and by international standards of comparison and new 'soft' forms of governance (Lawn, 2006). This article also emphasises the struggle of Western European countries (politicians and policy makers) to reconcile stringent migration agendas with their endeavour of being part of a transnational European space.…”

Lost in Translation? A Case Study of Macao in Fabricating a European Education Space in Asia

“…The OMC is a 'soft tool', a 'soft law', a 'soft power', and a 'soft form of governance' (Lawn, 2006;Alexiadou, 2007;Rutkowski & Engel, 2010;Lawn & Grek, 2012), which creates the possibility of 'a new policy space' (Lawn & Grek, 2012), and contributes to the creation of a terrain of governance across Europe and possibly beyond. According to Dale (citied in Ozga et al, 2011, location 641), it was intended that the OMC would::…”

“…This has ranged from the concerns of developing a common cultural identity to that of a harmonisation of systems, the formation of an educational space and new spaces of governance. In effect, scholars, such as Ozga, Lawn, Grek, and Nóvoa among others, are concerned about the ways in which the emergence of 'global governmentality', such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) or the discourse of lifelong learning advocated by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has produced a 'soft governance' in which large amounts of numerical data are used to standardise the European education policy space (Lawn, 2006(Lawn, , 2011Ozga et al, 2011;Lawn & Grek, 2012). Some have challenged the view that this global development, namely the educational performance data of PISA, could serve as the 'gold standard' in producing the global 'script' for national and regional contexts (Ozga, 2012, p.166).…”