Problems in comparative higher education: Political economy, political sociology and postmodernism

This article explores the ways we might use modern and post modern theory t o examine problems in comparative higher education. The problems or objects of study on which comparative higher education currently focuses are probl ematized and interrogated. The implications of several versions of globaliz ation theory for comparative higher education are explored as are the vario us post-alities, Mann's political sociology of social power, Foucauldian th eory of knowledge/power regimes, and feminist theory. Finally, the article looks at methods that might be used when drawing on these theories to study comparative higher education.