"Rationalized Myths" in European Higher Education

The Construction and Diffusion of the Bologna Model

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7770525
AutoresJürgen Schriewer (a Comparative Education Centre, Humboldt University, Berlin, autor de correspondencia)
Año2009
Volumen41
Número2
Páginas31-51
Fecha de publicación2009-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEuropean Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1056-4934 • E-ISSN: 1944-7086
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2753/eue1056-4934410202
OpenAlexW2021949195
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas8

This article is about the so-called Bologna process and the historically unprecedented diffusion of an abstract model for the restructuring and harmonization of higher education studies and degrees across Europe it has fuelled. This process is interpreted here as a particular example of much larger processes of world-level interconnection and standardization in education. The article therefore draws on insights and conceptual tools produced by certain strands of world-systems analysis. In particular, it links up with theoretical perspectives shaped by sociological neo-institutionalism, a strand of research that is rooted in both the sociology of organizations and the sociology of knowledge. More so than other research traditions, this strand has investigated and translated into elaborate models what might be called the "social construction of world culture." Using analytical concepts such as "diffusion," "imagined model," and "rationalized myth," and drawing on research findings evincing the growing importance of international organizations—governmental as much as nongovernmental—the article argues for a conceptually based explanation for the emergence and the dynamics of the Bologna process

Mythology · Political science · Sociology · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Higher Education Governance and Development · History