Neo-statism and Comparative Research in Higher Education: Experience from Hong Kong

• Published in: Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2022 Vol. 46A; pp. 215 - 234
• Main Authors: Pan, Suyan, Lo, Joe Tin-yau
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing Limited 14.12.2023
• Subjects: Education; Education & society; Global & comparative education; comparative higher education; geopolitical relations; neo-liberalism; power; Hong Kong; Neo-statism
• DOI: 10.1108/S1479-36792023000046A015
• ISBN: 9781837537396; 1837537399
• ISSN: 1479-3679

Abstract This chapter aims to explore the novelty and utility of political economy discourse, termed “neo-statism,” as an analytical lens for comparative research in higher education. Analysis is framed within the context of Hong Kong’s transition from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region under China’s sovereignty, and its shifting academic paradigms from a more or less spontaneous philosophy rooted in liberal capitalist economy to embracing neo-statism, which involves market-conforming and state-sponsored approaches to economic and social restructuring whereby the state regulates higher education in support of national integration and global power projection. The statist regulation depends heavily on its deployment of discursive legitimacy, strategic distribution of resources, organizational synergy, and elite cohesion articulated through higher education policy, research projects, and cross-border academic exchange and cooperation. The Hong Kong case suggests that comparative research in higher education should advance from the methodological aspects of the comparative approach to exploring wider theoretical spectrum, for understanding emerging politico-economic factors shaping academic paradigm in comparative contexts. Moreover, scholars who engage in the trendy internationalization in higher education should move beyond the logics of neo-liberalism, and pay closer attention to the new geopolitical realities that are changing the normative and interactive dimensions of international higher education at large.