The shadow sovereigns of global education policy: a critique of the world society approach

Abstract

This contribution explores how multinational companies (MNCs) have managed to establish a develop their own policy sphere that sets its own international standards for education, in particular in the sphere of corporate education. It criticises education policy studies for leaving the study of corporate education mainly to management and human resource studies. As a consequence, education researchers tend to ignore an important policy area that has emerged out of the public limelight. This contribution is informed by a retroductive methodology and explores the ‘extrastatecraft’ of companies by combining empirical research with a theoretical discussion of transnational private authority. Any speculation about the return of the nation state that does not account for the privatisation of policy making and the influence of multinational companies as the new global shadow sovereigns risks failing to see that the nation state as we know it no longer exists.