The EU, ‘regulatory state regionalism’ and new modes of higher education governance

Abstract

Jayasuriya's conceptualisation of ‘regulatory regionalism’ is particularly useful for examining the presence, significance and effect of new higher education governance mechanisms in constituting Europe as a competitive region and knowledge‐based economy. In particular he argues that we need to take sufficient account of the role of domestic political economies in constituting regions, on the one hand, and the role of governance mechanisms, on the other, and the constitutive role of these processes in region‐building. Focusing on the current moment of this regionalising and globalising project in Europe, I argue that ‘regulatory regionalism’ can be further nuanced if it takes into account ‘extra‐regional’ dynamics that have effects on region‐building through the way they thicken and embed new structures, processes and social relations within and beyond the region. I conclude by arguing that in the case of Europe, this current moment of regulatory regionalism through higher education might also be conceived of as part of a wider project around statehood called ‘regulatory state regionalism’.

Keywords:

• Europe
• higher education
• governance
• globalisation
• regionalisation
• knowledge economy