Seeing like a … (capitalist, state - PowerPoint Presentation

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Seeing like a … (capitalist, state,…..sociologist): fixing futures in global education trade rules

Susan L. Robertson

Centre for Globalisation, education and social futures, University of Bristol, UK

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st

International conference on anticipation, Trento, 5-7

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Nov, 2015

OutlineStudies of making (global) education markets theoretically/sociologically under-developed‘Imagining’ and ‘fixing’ the future fundamental to making capitalist marketsTrade negotiations/rules on education services and market making - a unique window to explore

their ‘temporal’ dynamics

Case: current trade negotiations and agreements TTIP, TISA, TPP – from mental representations to the creation of social

devices and structurally inscribed strategies

Conceptual grammar and final reflections

….

Market-making and the futureSeeing like a capitalist…“…for capitalism to function today, tomorrow must be capitalist. The future is the premise of the present” (Mann, 2008: 4)

Market-making and the futureSeeing like a state…“…the legibility of a society provides the capacity for large scale social engineering, high modernist ideology provides the desire, the authoritarian state provides the determination to act on that desire and an incapacitated civil society provides the levels societal terrain on which to build” (Scott, 1998:

5

)

Market-making and the futureSeeing like a sociologist…

“We

cannot

know

the future, and therefore agents must reach decisions

when they do not know what is best to do

.

…The

task of the sociologist is thus to develop theoretical concepts and engage in empirical investigations as to how this future is made more

certain” (

Beckert

1996: 804).

‘Imagining’ a global ‘services’ sector

Bell and the rise of services economies (forecasting) – 1960s

OECD and the creation of knowledge economies (Godin, 2006)

WTO/GATS and rules for services sectors (Robertson et al., 2002)

THE CASE – TTIP AND TISA

Fixing the future through trade agreements – making new social devices/relations

creating

new institutions

such as the WTO/GATS, TISA, TTIP, TPP

Power relations

– EU Directive on Services (2006)

International Investor Agreements and

dispute mechanisms

Legitmating

devices

– impact assessments via CGE modelling outcomes

Establishing

new conventions

- future lost earnings to investors in case of a dispute -

Regulatory devices -

negative list – meaning what is exempted has to be known and listed and the rest is available for trade rules

Power blocs

...USA, Europe aiming to create China as a rule taker and not maker

Imagining education as a services sector

Micro-foundations of economic action

‘Fixing futures’ through rules on education as a tradeable service Already significant investments by some countries and firms – but future needs to be secured for investors against ‘nationalising’ states and civil societiesuneven development enables the capitalist to act strategically in relation to the future

Mobilisation of ‘social devices’ that reorient our worlds and actions

Contesting meanings – re-futuring worlds…

Alternative narratives – trojan futures

Beckert

Social

structurings

Social devices

Mental representations of future states

Final reflections – seeing like a sociologistAlready significant investments by some countries and firms – where future needs to be secured for investors against ‘nationalising’ states and civil societies (social norms/social struggles)uneven development enables the capitalist to act strategically in relation to the future (social strategies)

Mobilisation of ‘social devices’ that reorient our worlds and actions (structuring devices to secure some versions of the future over overs)

Social worlds are also sites of struggle, and education particularly so; public versus private good