For decades, the idea that more education will lead to greater individual and national prosperity has been a cornerstone of developed economies. Indeed, it is almost universally believed that college diplomas give Americans and Europeans a competitive advantage in the global knowledge wars.
Challenging this conventional wisdom, The Global Auction forces us to reconsider our deeply held and mistaken views about how the global economy really works and how to thrive in it. Drawing on cutting-edge research based on a major international study, the authors show that the competition for good, middle-class jobs is now a worldwide competition--an auction for cut-priced brainpower--fueled by an explosion of higher education across the world. They highlight a fundamental power shift in favor of corporate bosses and emerging economies such as China and India, a change that is driving the new global high-skill, low-wage workforce. Fighting for a dwindling supply of good jobs will compel the middle classes to devote more time, money, and effort to set themselves apart in a bare-knuckle competition that will leave many disappointed. The authors urge a new conversation about the kind of society we want to live in and about the kind of global economy that can benefit workers, but without condemning millions in emerging economies to a life of poverty.
The Global Auction is a radical rethinking of the ideas that stand at the heart of the American Dream. It offers a timely expose of the realities of the global struggle for middle class jobs, a competition that threatens the livelihoods of millions of American and European workers and their families."

Human capital theory, or the notion that there is a direct relationship between educational investment and individual and national prosperity, has dominated public policy on education and labor for the past fifty years. In The Death of Human Capital?, Phillip Brown, Hugh Lauder, and Sin Yi Cheung argue that the human capital story is one of false promise: investing in learning isn't the road to higher earnings and national prosperity. Rather than abandoning human capital theory, however, the authors redefine human capital in an age of smart machines. They present a new human capital theory that rejects the view that automation and AI will result in the end of waged work, but see the fundamental problem as a lack of quality jobs offering interesting, worthwhile, and rewarding opportunities. A controversial challenge to the reigning ideology, The Death of Human Capital? connects with a growing sense that capitalism is in crisis, felt by students and the wider workforce, shows what's at stake in the new human capital while offering hope for the future.

Inequalities in educational opportunity have been a persistent feature of all school systems for generations, with conventional explanations of differences in educational attainment tending to be reduced to either quantitative or non-quantitative 'list' theories. In this groundbreaking book, Roy Nash argues that a realist framework for the sociological explanation of educational group differences can, and must be, constructed. A move to such an explanatory framework will allow us to take into account the social influences of early childhood development, the later emergence of social identities, and the nature of the social class impact of educational and career decision-making. By building on the critical analyses of the theories of Bourdieu, Boudon and Bernstein, this book makes a vital contribution to the current policy and theoretical debate about the causes of educational inequality.

The editors have compiled this critical and comparative study of changes which took place in the New Zealand education system in the second half of the twentieth century. For other Western societies who have felt the impact of New Right policies the New Zealand case is interesting because it provides some indication of how policies of decentralization in education might be used to develop egalitarian and democratic educational policies.

In recent years there have been major changes to educational systems in the Western world. Often these changes have been justified by reference to successful educational practices in other countries. However, it is not always possible simply to abstract educational practices from one context and apply them in another successfully. Moreover claims that policies in one country are more successful than those in another have to be treated cautiously: there are always problems in making valid comparisons between the educational performances of different countries. It is important, therefore, that critical and comparative studies are made of educational systems which take full account of the contexts in which they are embedded.

This book raises critical questions about the explanatory framework guiding sports coaching research and presents a new conceptualization for research in the field. Through mapping and contextualizing sports coaching research within a corporatized higher education, the dominant or legitimate forms of sports coaching knowledge are problematized and a new vision of the field, which is socially and culturally responsive, communitarian and justice-oriented emerges.

Inequalities in educational opportunity have been a persistent feature of all school systems for generations, with conventional explanations of differences in educational attainment tending to be reduced to either quantitative or non-quantitative 'list' theories. In this groundbreaking book, Roy Nash argues that a realist framework for the sociological explanation of educational group differences can, and must be, constructed. A move to such an explanatory framework will allow us to take into account the social influences of early childhood development, the later emergence of social identities, and the nature of the social class impact of educational and career decision-making. By building on the critical analyses of the theories of Bourdieu, Boudon and Bernstein, this book makes a vital contribution to the current policy and theoretical debate about the causes of educational inequality.

What unites the contributors to this book is an opposition to Thatcherite policies on education and an agreement upon the need for the development of democracy in education. This volume highlights the importance of an area of neglected theoretical and practical concern: the development of a critique of the philosophy and policies of the new Right, and of credible alternative policies.

The promise, embraced by governments around the world, is that the knowledge economy will provide knowledge workers with a degree of autonomy and permission to think which enables them to be creative and to attract high incomes. What credence should we give to this promise?

The current economic crisis is provoking a reappraisal of both economic and educational policy. Policy makers and educationists across the world see education as central to economic competitiveness. However, this book asks fundamental questions about the relationship between the economy and education since, in contrast to policy makers rhetoric, the relationship between the two sectors is not straightforward. An unorthodox account of the knowledge economy and economic globalisation suggests that autonomy in the workplace and permission to think will be only given to the elite. In this view many aspirant well-educated middle-class young workers are doomed to disappointment.

In this book, leading scholars from the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand discuss these issues and interrogate the assumptions and links between the different elements of education and how they might relate to the economy. Even if we assume that the official view of the knowledge economy is correct, are we educating young people to be autonomous, creative thinkers? Are current policies relating to knowledge, learning and assessment consistent with the kinds of workers and skills required for the knowledge economy?

Educating for the Knowledge Economy? will appeal to academics, policy makers, teachers and students interested in the central role of education in the knowledge economy.

This book raises critical questions about the explanatory framework guiding sports coaching research and presents a new conceptualization for research in the field. Through mapping and contextualizing sports coaching research within a corporatized higher education, the dominant or legitimate forms of sports coaching knowledge are problematized and a new vision of the field, which is socially and culturally responsive, communitarian and justice-oriented emerges.

Educational Theories, Cultures and Learning focuses on how education is understood in different cultures, the theories and related assumptions we make about learners and students and how we think about them, and how we can understand the principle actors in education - learners and teachers.

Within this volume, internationally renowned contributors address a number of fundamental questions designed to take the reader to the heart of current debates around pedagogy, globalisation, and learning and teaching, such as:

• What role does culture play in our understanding of pedagogy?
• What role do global influences, especially economic, cultural and social, have in shaping our understanding of education?
• How does language influence our thinking about education?
• What implications does our view of childhood have for education?
• How do learners negotiate the transition between the different phases of education?
• How best can children learn the 'school knowledge'?
• What is a teacher? And how do teachers learn?
• How do we understand learners, their minds, identity and development?

To encourage reflection, many of the chapters also include questions for debate and a guide to further reading.

Read alongside its companion volume, Knowledge, Values and Educational Policy, readers will be encouraged to consider and think about some of the key issues facing education and educationists today.

A major contribution to current debates about the future of skill formation in a context of economic globalization, rapid technological innovation, and change within education, training, and the labour market. It represents a major theoretical advance in its holistic approach to the political economy of high skills, and has implications that stand at the core of firm strategies and government policy in Europe, North America, and Asia.

For decades, the idea that more education will lead to greater individual and national prosperity has been a cornerstone of developed economies. Indeed, it is almost universally believed that college diplomas give Americans and Europeans a competitive advantage in the global knowledge wars. Challenging this conventional wisdom, The Global Auction forces us to reconsider our deeply held and mistaken views about how the global economy really works and how to thrive in it. Drawing on cutting-edge research based on a major international study, the authors show that the competition for good, middle-class jobs is now a worldwide competition-an auction for cut-priced brainpower-fueled by an explosion of higher education across the world. They highlight a fundamental power shift in favor of corporate bosses and emerging economies such as China and India, a change that is driving the new global high-skill, low-wage workforce. Fighting for a dwindling supply of good jobs will compel the middle classes to devote more time, money, and effort to set themselves apart in a bare-knuckle competition that will leave many disappointed. The authors urge a new conversation about the kind of society we want to live in and about the kind of global economy that can benefit workers, but without condemning millions in emerging economies to a life of poverty. The Global Auction is a radical rethinking of the ideas that stand at the heart of the American Dream. It offers a timely expose of the realities of the global struggle for middle class jobs, a competition that threatens the livelihoods of millions of American and European workers and their families. "A brilliant new book." - Andrew Reinbach, The Huffington Post "This is a very important book. Their critique of the present state of global capitalism is both timely and convincing." - Roger Brown, Times Higher Education "[A]truly outstanding volume."-Lois Weis, University of Buffalo, British Journal of Sociology of Education. "The Global Auction is a must-read for parents, college students, and policymakers. We press the message to our children: 'Study. Get degrees. Get a good job. And you will live the good life.' But such claims are strikingly at odds with the realities of income stagnation and poor job prospects. The authors explain how this dramatic breakdown between rhetoric and reality happened and how we might reconstruct an alternative future in which education becomes meaningful and fulfilling in its own right." -Henry M. Levin, Columbia University "This is a challenging and very timely book. The gauntlet is thrown down to economists wedded to human capital theory and to sociologists who see education as the great engine of social mobility." -John Goldthorpe, University of Oxford "The Global Auction deals with one of the most pressing issues of our times: how the significant expansion in the labor supply available to multinational corporations is leading to dramatic shifts in the location of employment around the world. It draws on years of in-depth research, offering valuable insights for both academics and business leaders."-David Finegold, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey "Brown, Lauder, and Ashton's book is brilliantly argued and provides a wakeup call to global citizens everywhere. There is no substitute for the regulation of global capitalism in the interests of the many rather than the few, and this book slams the door on the last set of excuses for maintaining the current system-that somehow the educated will escape the race to the bottom."-Kevin Leicht, University of Iowa

A major contribution to current debates about the future of skill formation in a context of economic globalization, rapid technological innovation, and change within education, training, and the labour market. It represents a major theoretical advance in its holistic approach to the political economy of high skills, and has implications that stand at the core of firm strategies and government policy in Europe, North America, and Asia.

Education: Culture, Economy, and Society is a book for everyone concerned with the social study of education: students studying the sociology of education, foundations of education, educational policy, and other related courses. It aims to establish the social study of education at the centre stage of political and sociological debate about post-industrial societies. In examining major changes which have taken place in the late twentieth century, it gives students a comprehensive introduction to both the nature of these changes and to their interpretation in relation to long-standing debates within education, sociology, and cultural studies.

The extensive editorial introduction outlines the major theoretical approaches within the sociology of education, assesses their contribution to an adequate understanding of the changing educational context, and sets out the key issues and areas for future research. The 52 papers in this wide-ranging thematic reader bring together the most powerful work in education into an international dialogue which is sure to become a classic text.

Contributors: Professor Michael W. Apple, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA Madeleine Arnot, Cambridge University Professor Stanley Aronowitz, Graduate Centre, City University of New York Professor David Ashton, University of Leicester, UK Professor Stephen J. Ball, King's College, University of London Professor Basil Bernstein, Institute of Education, University of London Professor Jill Blackmore, Deakin University, Australia Professor Allan Bloom, University of Chicago Professor Pierre Bourdieu, College de France, Paris Dr Richard Bowe, King's College, University of London Dr Phillip Brown, Reader in Sociology, University of Kent, UK John E. Chubb, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution, Washington Professor John Codd, Massey University, NZ Professor James Coleman, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago Professor R.W. Connell, University of California, Santa Cruz Professor Roger Dale, University of Auckland, NZ Linda Darling-Hammond, William F. Russell Professor, Foundation of Education, Columbia University Professor Miriam David, South Bank University Professor William De Fazio, St John's University, New York Lisa D. Delpit, Baltimore City Schools Professor Michelle Fine, Graduate Centre, City University of New York Professor Stephen Fraser, Vice-President and Executive Editor, Basic Books Dr Sharon Gewirtz, King's College, University of London Professor Henry Giroux, Pennsylvania State University Professor John Goldthorpe, Nuffield College, Oxford Dr Liz Gordon, Senior Lecturer, University of Canterbury, NZ Professor Gerald Grace, University of Durham, UK Dr Andy Green, Reader in Education, Institute of Education, University of London, UK Professor A.H. Halsey, Nuffield College, Oxford Professor Andy Hargreaves, The Ontario Institute for Student Education, Toronto,Canada Professor Richard Harker, Massey University, NZ Professor Anthony Heath, Nuffield College, Oxford Professor Carolyn Kelly, Stanford University, California Professor Jane Kenway, Deakin University, Australia Professor Krishan Kumar, University of Kent, UK Professor Annette Lareau, Southern Illinois University Professor Hugh Lauder, University of Bath, UK Professor Henry M. Levin, Stanford University, California Dr Darren McMahon, University College, Dublin Professor Andrew McPherson, Edinburgh University Terry M. Moe, Associate Professor of Political Science, Stanford University, California Professor Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Hamilton College, USA Professor Peter Mortimore, Director, Institute of Education, University of London, UK Professor John U. Ogbu, University of California, Berkeley Professor Robert B. Reich, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Professor I. Serna, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA Professor Johnny Sung, University of Leicester, UK Martin Thrupp, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ Dr Harry Torrance, University of Sussex, UK Sietske Waslander, University of Groningen, Netherlands Professor Amy Stuart Wells, UCLA Professor Gaby Weiner, South Bank University, UK Professor Cornel West, Harvard University Professor Geoffrey Whitty, Institute of Education, University of London Professor J. Douglas Willms, University of British Columbia, Canada Professor William Julius Wilson, The University of Chicago Dr Maureen Woodhall, Institute of Education, University of London, UK Michael Young, Institute of Community Studies, London, UK

Education is seen as central to economic competitiveness, the reduction of poverty and inequality, and environmental sustainability. The editors have selected key writings that examine the social and economic limits- and possibilities of-education in addressing these fundamental problems. This new reader establishes the field of sociology of education with a particular focus on papers that analyse the nature and extent of globalization in education. A general introduction presents the key concepts in the sociology of education, and outlines the major theories and debates, especially in relation to globalization. Each section is accompanied by a part opener explaining and contextualizing the readings within a larger educational and sociological context.

Human capital theory, or the notion that there is a direct relationship between educational investment and individual and national prosperity, has dominated public policy on education and labor for the past fifty years. In The Death of Human Capital?, Phillip Brown, Hugh Lauder, and Sin Yi Cheung argue that the human capital story is one of false promise: investing in learning isn't the road to higher earnings and national prosperity. Rather than abandoning human capital theory, however, the authors redefine human capital in an age of smart machines. They present a new human capital theory that rejects the view that automation and AI will result in the end of waged work, but see the fundamental problem as a lack of quality jobs offering interesting, worthwhile, and rewarding opportunities. A controversial challenge to the reigning ideology, The Death of Human Capital? connects with a growing sense that capitalism is in crisis, felt by students and the wider workforce, shows what's at stake in the new human capital while offering hope for the future.

Educational Theories, Cultures and Learning focuses on how education is understood in different cultures, the theories and related assumptions we make about learners and students and how we think about them, and how we can understand the principle actors in education - learners and teachers.

Within this volume, internationally renowned contributors address a number of fundamental questions designed to take the reader to the heart of current debates around pedagogy, globalisation, and learning and teaching, such as:

• What role does culture play in our understanding of pedagogy?
• What role do global influences, especially economic, cultural and social, have in shaping our understanding of education?
• How does language influence our thinking about education?
• What implications does our view of childhood have for education?
• How do learners negotiate the transition between the different phases of education?
• How best can children learn the 'school knowledge'?
• What is a teacher? And how do teachers learn?
• How do we understand learners, their minds, identity and development?

To encourage reflection, many of the chapters also include questions for debate and a guide to further reading.

Read alongside its companion volume, Knowledge, Values and Educational Policy, readers will be encouraged to consider and think about some of the key issues facing education and educationists today.