From Fordism to neo‐Fordism: Industrialisation theory and distance education — a Chinese perspective

Abstract

This article provides a Chinese perspective on the recent debate concerning industrialisation theory and distance education. It is argued that China's regular higher education has a craft‐like nature and that China's Radio and TV Higher Education (RTVHE) represents one of the most industrialised forms of education in the world. It is then proposed that China's RTVHE has entered a transitional phase from Fordism to neo‐Fordism in the period since the second half of the 1980s. Some specific conditions which limit the applicability of industrialisation theory to distance education in the Chinese context are then described.