The power of ideas in shaping European education policy: winners and losers of the 'Europe of Knowledge' agenda

教育是社会政策机构之一，对个人融入社会负有最大责任。在欧洲社会高度不平等、民粹主义领导人支持率上升、激进化和极端主义的两极分化效应以及强烈反对移民的严重紧张和解体时期，教育的融合作用怎么估计都不为过。到目前为止，欧盟委员会在教育方面采用的政策议程的特点是以“知识经济”概念为基础的政策取向，这反过来又塑造了成员国在欧洲层面合作的利益（Ertl, 2006）。在这一概念化中突出的是功利主义观点，即教育是改善经济增长的工具，也是解决欧洲缺乏竞争力的办法（Garben, 2012）。在这种背景下，在当前具有挑战性的政策背景下，存在忽视其他同样合理的教育目的的风险，例如教育确保所有公民的机会平等，促进个人发展和民主价值观，并改善社会包容（Trowler, 2003）。尽管有几项研究对欧洲教育议程的经济取向和“知识经济”的赢家——致力于促进经济增长的高技能和流动劳动力——的影响提出了担忧（Verger等人，2007年；Komljenovic和Robertson， 2007年）——但对这种政策取向的政治经济原因的研究非常有限。因此，该研究项目旨在对欧洲未来至关重要的领域做出及时和紧迫的贡献。为了理解特定的教育政策取向是如何形成的，本研究构建了一个原始的三阶段分析框架，以探索围绕欧洲教育政策目标的具体理念的共识是如何形成的，并确定哪些权力和利益处于危险之中。该框架突出了具体思想产生、影响政治格局和嵌入制度的轨迹。它强调了一些因素的重要性，如个人思想领导在触发政策变化方面的作用，在政策话语中使用修辞策略，以及特定思想的多义属性——如在这种情况下的“知识经济”思想——作为“联盟磁铁”，即它们拥有多种含义的能力。每一个都能吸引特定群体的利益或理想，从而导致建立一个支持联盟（Beland and Cox, 2016）。研究结果表明，教育作为欧洲缺乏竞争力的解决方案的具体问题定义如何使欧盟委员会能够围绕“知识经济”的概念战略性地构建一个具体的教育议程，这也反映了欧盟内部强大的经济参与者的偏好，而欧洲工会和教师协会在这一政策过程中起着边缘作用。在这些发现的基础上，本研究项目为欧洲研究领域和思想文献带来了独特的贡献，因为它为问题定义可以使行为者的权力和制度发展合法化的条件提供了新的见解。同时，通过阐述思想在欧洲教育政策中的作用，本研究阐明了问题是如何构建和解构的，以及它们是如何引发具体后果和政策选择的。因此，研究结果将为欧洲政策制定者和利益相关者提供有价值的信息，以提高对教育的经济目的高于社会目的的潜在影响的认识，在欧洲项目日益增长的社会紧张局势和政治不确定性的情况下。

Education is one of the institutions of social policy most responsible for the integration of individuals into society. In a time of severe social tensions and disintegration in Europe marked by high levels of inequality, increasing support for populist leaders, the polarizing effects of radicalisation and extremism, and strong views against immigration, education's integrative role cannot be overestimated. So far, the policy agenda adopted by the European Commission in education has been characterized by a policy orientation underpinned by the concept of the 'knowledge economy' that has in turn shaped Member States' interests in cooperation at the European level (Ertl, 2006). Prominent in this conceptualization is the utilitarian view of education as a tool to improve economic growth and as a solution to Europe's lack of competitiveness (Garben, 2012). Against this background and within the current challenging policy context, there is the risk of overlooking other equally plausible purposes of education, such as education to ensure equality of opportunities to all citizens, promote personal development and democratic values, and improve social inclusion (Trowler, 2003). Although several studies have raised concerns about the implications of the economic orientation of the European education agenda and on the winners of the 'knowledge economy' - a highly skilled and mobile workforce committed to generating economic growth (Verger et al., 2107; Komljenovic and Robertson, 2107) - there has been very limited research on the political-economic causes of this policy orientation. Hence, this research project aims to make a timely and urgent contribution to a field vital for the future of Europe.In order to understand how a particular policy orientation of education emerged, this research builds an original three-stage analytical framework to explore how the consensus around specific ideas about the goals of European education policy was formed, and to identify which powers and interests were at stake. The framework highlights the trajectory through which specific ideas emerge, impact in the political landscape, and become embedded in institutions. It stresses the importance of factors such as the role of individual ideational leadership in triggering policy change, the use of the rhetorical strategies in the policy discourse, and the polysemantic attribute of specific ideas - as in this case the idea of the 'knowledge economy' - of acting as 'coalition magnet', namely their ability to possess several meanings, each of which appeals to the interests or ideals of a particular group that can result in the creation of a supporting coalition (Beland and Cox, 2016). The findings show how a specific problem definition of education as a solution of Europe's lack of competitiveness allowed the European Commission to strategically construct a specific education agenda around the notion of the 'knowledge economy' which also reflected the preferences of powerful economic actors within the European Union, with a marginal role of European trade unions and teachers' associations within this policy process. Building on these findings, this research project brings a distinctive contribution to the field of European studies and to the literature on ideas, as it offers new insights on the conditions under which a problem definition can legitimise actors' power and the development of institutions. At the same time, by addressing the role of ideas in European education policy, this study elucidates how problems are constructed and deconstructed, and how they trigger specific consequences and policy choices. Hence, the findings will provide valuable information to European policy-makers and stakeholders in raising awareness on the potential implications of the elevation of the economic purposes of education over the social ones at a time of growing social tensions and political uncertainties for the European project.