Rescaling the State: The Politics of Educational Decentralization in Catalonia

This dissertation examines the processes surrounding educational policy production through an exploration of the shifting policies of educational decentralization in Catalonia, Spain. It provides an account of the ways in which these policies are articulated and rearticulated through Catalonia's engagement with national, supranational, and global pressures. It is based on fieldwork conducted across three settings: Barcelona, Madrid, and Brussels, where major policy makers and administrators were interviewed and where key policy documents were analyzed. This case study sought to illuminate how in the era of globalization, policy is produced through multiscalar processes involving a range of intersecting factors. Moving beyond state-centrism, this dissertation illustrates that policy is no longer produced in a self-contained and hermetically sealed space, national or local, but is influenced by inputs arising from a range of different sources; and that endogenous and exogenous processes intersect in a number of complicated ways. It shows that policy makers in Catalonia have to take into account and negotiate not only local traditions and issues but also policy ideas emanating from the national government in Madrid, the developing European agenda, and notions circulating within the global space. In this way, the policy concepts surrounding educational decentralization are not only formed in relation to national-local dynamics but are influenced more broadly by a more complex set of supranational and global considerations. The dissertation thus shows how decentralization policies in Catalonia are in a constant state of flux, rearticulated through contrasting pressures on state arrangements and educational governance structures.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Engel, Laura

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rizvi, Fazal

• Education, Administration

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3290228

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/79996