On the (re)move: exploring governmentality in post-colonial Macao’s higher education

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the governmentality in Macao’s higher education (HE) by exemplifying how neoliberalism and Chinese nationalism simultaneously inform the governmental rationalities and technologies in the city. Like many other systems, neoliberalism has substantially shaped Macao’s HE. However, owing to post-colonial identity, Chinese nationalism has become a significant driving force in the development of Macao’s HE after the handover. On the basis of governmentality and a qualitative single case approach, this paper demonstrates how the neoliberal logic and nationalist discourses frame the governmentality in post-colonial Macao’s HE. The paper further argues that the recent development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area signifies an intensification of national integration that is deliberately associated with a wave of marketisation in HE. These developments represent the economic and political imperatives of Macao’s HE policy and provide insights into Chineseness in HE within the contemporary political context.

KEYWORDS:

• Governmentality
• neoliberalism
• Chinese nationalism
• higher education
• Macao

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The GBA comprises Macao, Hong Kong and nine cities in the Guangdong Province of Southern China. The strategic plan aims to promote the integration of industries, academia and research and encourage cross-border HE and research collaboration in the area.

2 Hengqin Island is a special economic district in Guangdong adjacent to Macao. Macao has been participating in the development of the island since 2009. An in-depth co-operation zone, jointly managed by the Guangdong and MSAR governments, was established on the island in 2021.

3 The Belt and Road Initiative is a global strategy adopted by China to strengthen global connectivity by building infrastructure, promoting policy exchange, financial integration, free trade and people-to-people bonds, and establishing a network of key cities along the historical Silk Road.

4 Some authors described the Chinese form of governmentality as ‘socialist-neoliberal’ (Sigley, 2006), ‘late-socialist’ (Hoffman, 2006) and ‘neo-socialist’ (Palmer & Winiger, 2019), suggesting the combination of neoliberalism, socialism and authoritarianism. This paper uses ‘post-neoliberal’ to highlight the evolving feature of governance in Macao’s HE, instead of focusing on socialism and authoritarianism in China.

Additional information

Funding

Work on the paper was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council (Project No. 18606017) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.