ABSTRACT
Through an interplay of political, cultural and economic processes, the United States and Western economies have exported the philosophy of neoliberalism around the globe. This has fused many countries into an interlocking body of social and economic relations (Harvey 2005; Wallerstein 2004). This export process has transformed local value systems and has established a single value system as a new world order. The OECD has further created and disseminated a discourse that has established a set of linear and mutually reinforcing relationships within the framework of globalization, international competitiveness, human capital and higher education (Stromquist 2002). As argued by Foucault (1990, 2003), such a discourse can transform social actors into docile and productive bodies, who willingly subject themselves to the commands of the dominant group. People’s souls are successfully being remoulded (Popkewitz 2000) via this new form of governing technology (Ball 2006). Consequently, many countries have redefined their political rationalities and are abandoning the goal of achieving social justice in order to adopt international competitiveness as their new mission. This is evident, for example, in the almost universal commitment of nation states to making the expansion of higher education a top priority in their political agendas (Chiang 2011, 2013).
