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This paper discusses the comparative perspective of the European Modernity towards other civilizations, and the creation of comparative studies, and, for that matter, of comparative education. The paper argues that much of the debate about Eurocentrism neglects the fact that the European tradition includes also an inextricable self-reflective dimension, which has allowed for the emergence of impartial approaches to the study of overseas societies, and has established critique as a sine qua non intellectual stance. Through illustrations from the cultural history of Europe, the paper points to a rupture in the representational and cognitive closure, that characterized medieval Europe, regarding other cultures, which led to the awareness that, while human beings share the same features societies are instituted differently. However, from the 19th century on, foreign societies were to be gauged primarily through the lenses of 'progress' and 'development', which became the main legitimating ideas of capitalist expansion. Nevertheless, as the paper concludes, self-reflectivity is embedded in the European epistemological tradition – a tradition that needs to be advanced rather than ignored.

This essay discusses the changes promoted in European universities by the 'Bologna Process' and the 'European Higher Education Area'. Through an analysis of the main policy documents and mechanisms, the paper demonstrates that the European Higher Education Area is designed to dismantle academic autonomy across the continent. Before setting out to examine this transnational policy process, the paper specifies in its first part the meaning of academic autonomy – a particular European creation, as it argues – through an overview of the historical material.

Der Verfasser legt dar, dass die europäischen Bildungssysteme heute entsprechend der Humankapitalpolitik der EU und im Einklang mit deren übergreifendem Projekt wirtschaftlicher Wettbewerbsfähigkeit organisiert werden. Dieses Projekt tritt an die Stelle politischer Deliberation über andere mögliche Zielsetzung von Bildung in Europa. Die politischen Willensbildungsprozesse in der EU bezeichnet der Verfasser als "netokratisch" - Politiker, Wissenschaftler, Statistiker, Ministerialbürokraten und Privatunternehmen produzieren gewaltige Datenmengen, die Erfolg und Misserfolg festgelegter Leistungsziele dokumentieren. Wir erleben also nicht nur einen noch nie dagewesenen Prozess der Transnationalisierung der Bildungspolitik in Europa, sondern auch die Verdrängung der Bildungspolitik auf nationalstaatlicher wie auf EU-Ebene. (ICEÜbers).