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Neoliberal Policy Network Governance and Counter-Networks of Resistance: Actions and Reactions From Across Policy Arenas

This 2017 Politics of Education Yearbook focuses on the power of policymaking networks to set agendas and shape education policy. As the yearbook title suggests, we present a series of case studies that illustrate the complexity of modern policy arenas and highlight the existence of competing networks with different visions for public education goals and governance. Neoliberal policy networks create hybrid public–private governance structures based on collaborative ties between policymakers, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, and philanthropies in order to promote market-based solutions and enterprise models. As described by Anderson and Donchik (2014), such networks also represent a “strategic alliance that draws from proponents of neoclassical economics, social conservatives, libertarians, and liberals” (p. 3). The power and influence of neoliberal networks over public policy has greatly expanded in recent decades (Blyth, 2002; Harvey, 2007), causing concern among some observers that the “public” in public education is under attack (Bourdieu, 2003; Giroux & Giroux, 2006). This yearbook draws attention to the emergence of counter-networks of resistance. Such networks oppose neoliberal models of education reform and advocate for state agencies to play more of an activist role in protecting society’s most vulnerable. At the heart of the interaction between neoliberal policy networks and counter-networks are disputes regarding the very structure and function of government (Bourdieu, 2003; Lakoff, 2008). The yearbook has been organized in three main sections, each of which contains the work of established and emerging scholars in politics of education. In Section I: Networks at Work— Shifting Policy Toward Market-Based Philosophies describes the overarching layout of the neoliberal policy networks on a national and global scale. Next, Section II: How Power Is Negotiated in State Policy Arenas surveys the power of “edupreneurs” to influence education