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International organisations' (IOs) legitimacy in global educational governance is commonly seen as a function of their regulative or normative power. By contrast, this paper stresses the increasing importance of scientific research and policy-relevant knowledge and its strategic production, dissemination and transfer by IOs. The article examines knowledge work at OECD, UNESCO and World Bank based on novel data from publication analyses, archival work and a number of interviews. Drawing on sociological institutionalism and constructivist international relations scholarship, this study is interested in the rationales, resources and capacities for knowledge production, the strategies of dissemination and transfer as well as the implications of science production for IOs' position and relevance in global governance. Findings emphasise the authority of science as the primary source of legitimacy – and even survival – in an increasingly crowded and competitive field of global education governance.

Tandis qu'au cours des années 1970 les concepts d'"éducation permanente" (Conseil de l'Europe), d'"éducation tout au long de la vie" (UNESCO) et d'"éducation recurrente" (OECD) étaient considérés en vue de la mise en oeuvre d'une nouvelle politique d'éducation, aujourd'hui, l'"apprentissage tout au long de la vie" a remplacé ces derniers et est devenu un terme emblématique proposé par une multitude d'acteurs politiques et éducatifs dans le monde entier. Malgré cette unanimité sur le mot choisi, les définitions, les interprétations et les politiques associées à ce concept diffèrent considérablement d'un acteur à l'autre. Parmi ces acteurs, les organisations internationales jouent un rôle de plus en plus important. En analysant quantitativement et qualitativement plus d'une centaine de documents et projets de 55 organisations actives dans la diffusion de "l'apprentissage tout au long de la vie", cette étude a pour objectif d'identifier les différentes positions, qui sont parfois très conflictuelles. En nous basant sur des prémisses du néoinstitutionalisme sociologique, nous montrerons que certaines de ces organisations – notamment la Banque Mondiale, l'UNESCO, l'OECD et l'Union Européenne – se font concurrence et aspirent à remplir la fonction de théoricien principal en dominant le discours mondial et l'agenda politique

While the 1970s still knew 'permanent education' (Council of Europe), 'recurrent education' (OECD) and 'lifelong education' (UNESCO), over the past 20 years, 'lifelong learning (LLL)' has become the single buzz word and catch-all term for reform in above all (pre-) primary, higher and adult education in both national and international education policy making. Both highly industrialized and less industrialized countries embrace the term, in many cases motivated by international and supranational organizations. Yet, literature and empirical investigation on the content of their LLL concepts and their diffusion mechanisms remain, at best, scant. Based on the premises of world polity theory, the paper first wants to demonstrate the worldwide diffusion of concepts of lifelong learning as found in national education reports and international organizations' statements. It then sheds light on the particular lifelong learning positions in the concepts of the European Union, the World Bank and UNESCO. Particular attention will be given to international organizations as 'theorists' or 'norm catalysts' in applying cognitive and normative diffusion mechanisms.

While the 1970s still knew 'permanent education' (Council of Europe), 'recurrent education' (OECD) and 'lifelong education' (UNESCO), over the past 20 years, 'lifelong learning' has become the single buzz word and catch-all term for reform in above all (pre-) primary, higher and adult education in both national and international education policy making. Both highly industrialized and less industrialized countries embrace the term, in many cases motivated by international and supranational organizations. Yet, literature and empirical investigation on the concepts, models and strategies those organizations promulgate and pursue remains, at best, scant. The paper first wants to demonstrate the worldwide diffusion of concepts of lifelong learning as found in national education reports and international organizations' statements. It then sheds light on the particular lifelong learning positions in the concepts of the European Union, the World Bank and UNESCO. Additionally, national development agencies' position towards lifelong learning will be assessed since it constitutes one specific type of international policy making. Particular attention will be given to trends of convergence and divergence in international organizations' concepts and implementation strategies of lifelong learning, especially in light of highly different socioeconomic and sociocultural conditions of industrialized and less industrialized countries.

Cross-national analyses of university curricula are rare, particularly with a focus on internationalization, commonly studied as impacting higher education through the mobility of people, programs, and campuses. By contrast, we argue that university knowledge shapes globalization by producing various sociopolitical conceptions beyond the nation-state. We examine variants of such a globalized society in 442,283 study programs from 17,129 universities in 183 countries. Three variants stand out, which vary across disciplines: an interstate model (prevalent in business and political science), a regional model (in political science and law), and a global model (in development studies and natural sciences). Regression models carried out on a subset of these data indicate that internationalized curricula are more likely in business schools, in universities with international offices, in those with a large number of social science offerings, and in those with membership in international university associations. We discuss these findings and their links to changes in universities' environment, stressing the recursive relationship between globalization and higher education.

Over the past two decades, educational research in Germany has undergone unprecedented changes. Following large-scale assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and a political interest in evidence-based policy-making, quality assessment and internationalization, direct involvement of national decision-makers has led to the establishment of new organizations, programs, funding structures, professorships, and training programs. Thus, a markedly different educational research field has emerged in contrast to the traditional philosophy-rooted, hermeneutics-trained and humanities-based German pedagogy or education science. Instead, the new paradigm refers to itself as "empirical educational research" (EER). Thus, we trace institutionalization processes of EER from early 1995 through the foundation of the Empirical Educational Research Association (GEBF), which rivals the long-standing German Educational Research Association (DGfE). Official documents shed light on policymakers' and funding agencies' motivations and rationales as they successfully engage in building new research infrastructure. Expert interviews conducted with (inter)national representatives illuminate perceptions of crucial actors involved in field institutionalization. What are the causes and consequences of the emergent educational research in Germany? Extending the neo-institutionalist organizational field literature, particularly about incipient stages of such fields, we show that a new division of labor transcends national and international as well as governmental and non-governmental borders.

The Europeanization of higher education has gained considerable scope and momentum over the past quarter century. Whereas the coordinative Bologna process, with soft governance mechanisms, have facilitated standardization across countries, European Commission funding programs targeted universities more directly. The Erasmus Mundus Joint Degree Programme, as an incentive-based program, epitomizes the dynamics of such European funding management. Notably, it has established expanding university networks across Europe and unique new tertiary degrees that facilitate student mobility. Applying social network analysis to 561 participating universities through several program cycles, we longitudinally examine three key patterns in the program's development: the expansion of the programme, the consolidation of networks, and the participation of and coordination by central universities in these processes. Program participation increased considerably across cycles, even as established networks were consolidated, largely through re- accreditation of established programs. Moreover, we identify those universities that assume a central position in the inter-organizational structure of this international program. These universities actively facilitate the evolving Europeanization of higher education by strengthening inter-university networks via a signature EU program.

This book examines contemporary educational research and its governance, addressing key questions via a multidisciplinary theoretical framework of comparative institutional analysis with original data and applying multiple methods. The authors explore and explain important changes in the governance of educational research and the contents of scholarship in education and related disciplines across Europe since the 1990s. This volume synthesizes findings from a multi-year comparative research project, including in-depth empirical case studies of three distinct educational research cultures evolving in Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom. The authors reconstruct and compare changing conceptualizations of educational research, embedded in increasingly internationalized contexts of research, and examine shifts in its governance, including patterns of funding, publication, and evaluation. They examine the producers of European educational research and the distinct role of the European Union in constructing a European Educational Research Area, in establishing cross-border networks, and in (re)shaping educational research agendas. Through innovative empirical analysis of programs of research on various levels and education researchers' collaborations in scientific networks, they provide insights into (supra)national dynamics in education-related scholarship. Theory-guided content analysis of research projects funded by leading national funding agencies and by the most highly developed supranational research funding instrument – the EU Framework Programme – enables the authors to embed findings on Germany, the United Kingdom, and Norway in a broader European perspective. ; First Edition

Educational research in Norway has experienced unprecedented structural expansion as well as cognitive shifts over the past two decades, especially due to increased state investments and the strategic use of extensive and multi-year thematic programs to fund research projects. Applying a neo-institutionalist framework, we examine institutionalization dynamics in cultural-cognitive, normative, and regulative dimensions over the past two decades using interviews, research program calls, policy documents, and funding data. In the cultural-cognitive dimension, we find references to the knowledge society, the importance of evidence in policy-making, and ideas of quality, excellence, and relevance. In the normative dimension, we find the introduction of new professional and methodological standards, reflecting broader global patterns of academic and epistemic drift. In the regulative dimension, the strengthened role of both government and the Research Council of Norway is manifest in substantial growth in both funding and large-scale, long-term planning, including thematic choices—evidence of 'programification'. The importance of external models has grown in an era of internationalization, yet translation occurs at every level of governance of educational research. This results in a specific Norwegian research model, guided by a mode of governance of programs, that maintains social values traditionally strong in Nordic societies.