After globalization: The return of politics to higher education policy in Singapore and Hong Kong

This paper critically reviews the thesis of managing globalization, which demonstrates how East Asian states have successfully selectively blended elements of transnational academic capitalism with their pre-existing models of political economy, thereby effectively responding to neoliberal globalization. This paper argues that the thesis overlooks the significance of local politics in understanding the global–local dynamics in higher education policy, thus insufficiently acknowledging the indeterminacy that arises in the transformation of the state. To address this argument, this paper examines the transnational higher education development in Singapore and Hong Kong and explains how political resistance and corresponding policy changes that emerged in these two societies help understand a zerosum opposition between global and local perspectives. This zero-summism shows that the conceptual contestation over globalization versus anti-globalization remains relevant.