Community Colleges and the Politics of Sociospatial Scale

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
David F. Ayers, Assistant Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: In an analysis of 421 community college mission statements, I demonstrate how community colleges recontextualize a dominant discourse in which economic activity at the global scale transcends regulation, the nation-state lacks the moral authority to influence markets, and local communities have no choice but to adapt. Findings suggest that the community college has appropriated economic development as a mission priority and tacitly accommodated scalar relations typical of post-Fordism. On the other hand, a rival hypothesis suggests a competing trend in which colleges prepare and empower students to engage in sociopolitical processes at a global scale.

Additional Information

Publication
Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research, 62
Language: English
Date: 2011
Keywords
community college, sociospatial scale, discourse analysis, economic development

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