This collection focuses on the economic and social contexts for education both in the UK and internationally, with particular emphasis on the European Union, and the effects of a single market economy on education in these countries.

It is not only the UK education system which has recently undergone a process of change, although it has certainly been one of the most dramatically affected. Free market conceptions have played their part in these changes, particularly throughout the European Union. This collection therefore focuses on the economic and social contexts for education both in the UK and internationally, and how these have had an impact on the education systems of different countries.
The authors write from a wide range of standpoints, some supportive and some critical of the new paradigms, but all focus on the traditions which have been subjected to ideological attacks, and in the processes and outcomes of those attacks.