THE (RE)PRODUCTION OF MERITOCRACY: CHALLENGES FROM THE ROMANIAN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM UNDER NEOLIBERALISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2478/subbs-2020-0003Keywords:
meritocracy, higher education policy, Romania, neoliberalism.Abstract
The paper follows the institutionalization of meritocracy in the Romanian higher education. Using the Romanian experience, the study explores the setting of meritocracy, highlights the revised institutional genesis that led to the adoption of a so-called post-traditional approach, and it reviews the deployment of practices that steered higher education in Romania. In support to these, a reflective stance is employed alongside secondary sources to scrutinize the techniques of control and practices which inform institutional evolution. The research attempts to shed light on the increase of doctrinal entrenchment through which meritocracy justifies academic stratification in a pauper system aspiring to world-class recognition.References
Allen, Ansgar (2011). Michael Young’s the Rise of the Meritocracy: A Philosophical Critique. British Journal of Educational Studies 59(4): 367–382.
Allen, Ansgar (2014). Benign Violence: Education in and Beyond the Age of Reason. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Ban, Cornel (2016). Ruling Ideas: How Global Neoliberalism Goes Local. New York: Oxford University Press.
Berg, Lawrence D, Huijbens, Edward H and Larsen, Henrik Gutzon (2016). Producing Anxiety in the Neoliberal University. The Canadian Geographer/le Géographe Canadien 60(2): 168–180.
Bîrzea, Cesar and Fartușnic, Ciprian (2003). Reforming the Romanian System of Education: The Agenda Ahead. In: Anchan, John P., Fullan, Michael, and Polyzoi, Eleoussa (eds.) Change Forces in Post-Communist Eastern Europe. Education in Transition. London: Routledge, pp. 74–93. DOI: 10.4324/9780203426500-12.
Centeno, Miguel A. and Cohen, Joseph N. (2012) The Arc of Neoliberalism. Annual Review of Sociology 38(1): 317–340. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-soc-081309-150235.
Charron, Nicholas; Dahlström, Carl; Fazekas, Mihaly, et al. (2017). Careers, Connections, and Corruption Risks: Investigating the Impact of Bureaucratic Meritocracy on Public Procurement Processes. The Journal of Politics 79(1): 89–104. DOI: 10.1086/687209.
Dakowska, Dorota and Harmsen, Robert (2015). Laboratories of reform? The Europeanization and internationalization of higher education in Central and Eastern Europe. European Journal of Higher Education 5(1): 4–17. DOI: 10.1080/21568235.2014.977318.
Deca, Ligia (2015). International Norms in the Reform of Romanian Higher Education: A Discursive Analysis. European Journal of Higher Education 5(1): 34–48. DOI: 10.1080/21568235.2014.971040.
Djuric, Dragan (2015). Penetrating the Omerta of Predatory Publishing: The Romanian Connection. Science and Engineering Ethics 21(1): 183–202. DOI: 10.1007/ s11948-014-9521-4.
Dobbins, Michael (2011). Explaining Different Pathways in Higher Education Policy in Romania and the Czech Republic. Comparative Education 47(2): 223–245. DOI: 10.1080/03050068.2011.555116.
Dobbins, Michael (2017). Exploring Higher Education Governance in Poland and Romania: Re-Convergence after Divergence? European Educational Research Journal 16(5): 684–704. DOI: 10.1177/1474904116684138.
Dobbins, Michael and Knill, Christoph (2009). Higher Education Policies in Central and Eastern Europe: Convergence Toward a Common Model? Governance 22(3): 397– 430. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01445.x.
Doherty, Catherine (2015). Tracking the Neoliberal Juggernaut: A Virtual Edition. Critical Studies in Education 56(3): 395–401. DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2015.1066819.
Donovan, Claire (2006). The Chequered Career of a Cryptic Concept. The Political Quarterly 77: 61–72.
Feldman, Zeena and Sandoval, Marisol (2018). Metric Power and the Academic Self: Neoliberalism, Knowledge and Resistance in the British University. Triple C: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society 16(1): 214–233.
Floud, Jean (1956). Sociology and Education. The Sociological Review 4(S1): 57–67. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.1956.tb03372.x.
Foucault, Michel (2007). Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-78. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Foucault, Michel (2008). The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978– 1979. Senellart, Michel; Ewald, François, and Fontana, Alessandro (eds). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Foucault, Michel (2012). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage.
Fox, Alan (1956). Class and Equality. Socialist Commentary: 11–13.
Fraser, Heather and Taylor, Nik (eds.) (2016). Neoliberalization, Universities and the Public Intellectual: Species, Gender and Class and the Production of Knowledge. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fumasoli, Tatiana and Stensaker, Bjørn (2013). Organizational Studies in Higher Education: A reflection on Historical Themes and Prospective Trends. Higher Education Policy 26(4): 479–496.
Gerring, John (2007). Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Geven, Koen and Maricuț, Adina (2015). Forms in Search of Substance: Quality and Evaluation in Romanian Universities. European Educational Research Journal 14(1): 113–125. DOI: 10.1177/1474904114565151.
Geven, Koen; Sârbu, Oana; Santa, Robert, et al. (2015). Why do Romanian Universities Fail to Internalize Quality Assurance? In: Curaj, Adrian; Deca, Ligia; Egron-Polak, Eva, et al. (eds.) Higher Education Reforms in Romania: Between the Bologna Process and National Challenges. Cham: Springer, pp. 43–61. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319- 08054-3_3.
Gill, Rosalind (2016). Breaking the Silence: The Hidden Injuries of Neo-Liberal Academia. Feministische Studien 34(1): 39–55. DOI: 10.1515/fs-2016-0105.
Giroux, Henry A (2014). Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books.
Gog, Sorin (2015). Competitiveness and Research-Oriented Teaching in Romanian Universities: The Neo-Liberal Transformation of the Higher Education System. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Sociologia 6(1): 23–62.
Hasselbladh, Hans and Kallinikos, Jannis (2000). The Project of Rationalization: A Critique and Reappraisal of Neo-Institutionalism in Organization Studies. Organization Studies 21(4): 697–720. DOI: 10.1177/0170840600214002.
Ives, Bob and Bădescu, Gabriel (2015). Romanian Scholarly Productivity: Recent History and Recommendations. Higher Education Research & Development 34(5): 926– 941.
Králiková, Renáta (2016). Transition Legacies, Rules of Appropriateness and ‘Modernization Agenda’ Translation in Higher Education Governance in Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia. PhD thesis. Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy; International Relations; Central European University Budapest. Available at: http://www.etd.ceu.hu/2016/kralikova_renata.pdf.
Kwiek, Marek (2012). Universities and Knowledge Production in Central Europe. European Educational Research Journal 11(1): 111–126. DOI:10.2304/ eerj.2012.11.1.111.
Lefebvre, Henri (2014). Critique of Everyday Life. The One-Volume. London: Verso.
Lim, Leonel and Tan, Michael (2018). Meritocracy, Policy and Pedagogy: Culture and the Politics of Recognition and Redistribution in Singapore. Critical Studies in Education 61(3). Routledge: 1–17. DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2018.1450769.
Littler, Jo (2013). Meritocracy as Plutocracy: The Marketising of ‘Equality’ under Neoliberalism. New Formations 80(80): 52–72. DOI: 10.3898/newf.80/81.03.2013.
Littler, Jo (2018). Against Meritocracy. New York: Routledge.
Liu, Amy (2011). Unravelling the Myth of Meritocracy within the Context of US Higher Education. Higher Education 62(4): 383–397.
Maassen, Peter (2017). The University’s Governance Paradox. Higher Education Quarterly 71(3): 290–298. DOI: 10.1111/hequ.12125.
Marginson, Simon and Considine, Mark (2000). The enterprise university: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mateos-González, José Luis and Boliver, Vikki (2019). Performance-Based University Funding and the Drive Towards ‘Institutional Meritocracy’ in Italy. British Journal of Sociology of Education 40(2): 145–158. DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2018.1497947.
Meyer, John W.; Ramirez, Francisco O.; Frank, Davis J., et al. (2007). Higher Education as an Institution. In: Gumport, Patricia J. (ed.) Sociology of Higher Education: Contributions and Their Contexts. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, pp. 187–221.
Meyer, John W and Rowan, Brian (1977). Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology 83(2): 340–363.
Micu, Octavian; Miclăuș, Mihai and Ancu, Lucian (2018). Salonul de Inventică de la Geneva, ‘jde premii și țâșpe sute de medalii [International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, a Chiliad of Prizes and a Throng of Medals]. Available at: https://mic-mic-anc.ro/2018/04/18/salonul-de-inventica-de-la-geneva-jde-premii-si-taspe-sute-de-medalii/ [Accessed 18 April 2018].
Mijs, Jonathan J.B. (2016). The Unfulfillable Promise of Meritocracy: Three Lessons and their Implications for Justice in Education. Social Justice Research 29(1): 14–34. DOI: 10.1007/s11211-014-0228-0.
Mincu, Monica E. and Horga, Irina (2010). Visions of Reform in Post-Socialist Romania: Decentralization (Through Hybridization) and Teacher Autonomy. In: Silova, Iveta (ed.) Post-Socialism Is Not Dead: (Re)Reading the Global in Comparative Education. Bingley: U.K Emerald, pp. 93–123. DOI: 10.1108/S1479- 3679(2010)0000014007.
Morley, Christine; MacFarlane, Selma and Ablett, Phillip (2017). The Neoliberal Colonisation of Social Work Education: A Critical Analysis and Practices for Resistance. Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education 19(2): 25–40.
Nicolescu, Luminița (2002). Reforming Higher Education in Romania. European Journal of Education 37(1): 91–100.
Offe, Claus (1996). Designing Institutions in East European Transitions. In: Goodin, Robert E. (ed.) The Theory of Institutional Design. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 199–226.
Olssen, Mark and Peters, Michael A. (2005). Neoliberalism, Higher Education and the Knowledge Economy: from the Free Market to Knowledge Capitalism. Journal of Education Policy 20(3): 313–345. DOI: 10.1080/02680930500108718.
O’Sullivan, Michael (2016). Academic Barbarism, Universities and Inequality. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Povinelli, Elizabeth (2011). Economies of Abandonment. Social Belonging and Endurance in Late Liberalism. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Purcell, Mark (2007). ‘Skilled, Cheap, and Desperate’: Non-Tenure-Track Faculty and the Delusion of Meritocracy. Antipode 39(1): 121–143. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2007.00509.x.
Redacția (2014). Posdru, suflete moarte [Posdru, Dead Souls]. Available at: http://www.criticatac.ro/posdru-suflete-moarte/ [Accessed 29 January 2019].
Robertson, Susan L. (2012). Researching Global Education Policy: Angles in/on/out... In: Verger, Antoni; Altinyelken, Hülya K., and Novelli, Mario (eds.) Global Education Policy and International Development: New Agendas, Issues and Policies. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 33–52.
Roggero, Gigi (2011). The Production of Living Knowledge: The Crisis of the University and the Transformation of Labor in Europe and North America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Sabic, Norbert (2016). Diversification of Higher Education in Europe. A Policy Narrative that Legitimizes Resource Concentration. PhD thesis. Central European University. Available at: https://pds.ceu.edu/sites/pds.ceu.hu/files/attachment/basicpage/478/sabicnorbertpp-dissertation2016.pdf.
Smith, Michael L. and Matějů, Petr (2012). Two Decades of Value Change: The Crystallization of Meritocratic and Egalitarian Beliefs in the Czech Republic. Social Justice Research 25(4). DOI: 10.1007/s11211-012-0164-9.
Son Hing, Leanne S.; Bobocel, D. Ramona; Zanna, Mark P., et al. (2011). The Merit of Meritocracy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101(3): 433–450. DOI: 10.1037/a0024618.
Souto-Otero, Manuel (2010). Education, Meritocracy and Redistribution. Journal of Education Policy 25(3): 397–413. DOI: 10.1080/02680930903576396.
Szakács, Simona (2018). Europe in the Classroom. World Culture and Nation-Building in Post-Socialist Romania. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319- 60258- 5.
UBB (2018). Scrisoare Deschisă adresată Guvernului României. Universitățile Reprezentative ale României sub Asediu! [Open Letter to the Romanian Government. Exponent Romanian Universities under Assault!]. Available at: www.ase.ro/2013_files/media/Avizier_2018/Newsletter_Universitaria_aprilie_2018.pdf [Accessed 3 February 2019].
Vlăsceanu, Lazăr and Hâncean, Marian-Gabriel (2015). Policy Incentives and Research Productivity in the Romanian Higher Education. An Institutional Approach. In: Curaj, Adrian; Matei, Liviu; Pricopie, Remus, et al. (eds.) The European Higher Education Area: Between Critical Reflections and Future Policies. Cham: Springer, pp. 185–203. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-20877-0_13.
Young, Michael (1958). The Rise of the Meritocracy, 1870-2033: An Essay on Education and Quality. London: Thames; Hudson.
Young, Michael (2001). Down with meritocracy. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/29/comment [Accessed 9 September 2018].
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Sociologia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
