Amidst the latest European heatwave that also hit Brandenburg, we welcomed Marvin Erfurth on 27 June 2019, whom we had invited over from the city of Münster for our 4th Erkner Encounter.
Marvin is a Research Associate at the Institute of Education of the University of Münster (WWU Münster) in Germany where he is about to complete his dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Parreira do Amaral, who chairs the institute’s Working Group on International and Comparative Education (ICE).
After introducing him to our individual projects (and while cooling down with some ice cream and strawberries), Marvin shared some insights from his field research in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. His dissertation project, located in the research field of Global Education Policy (GEP), tackles new forms and patterns of international education policy and governance with regards to the development of so-called “education hubs”. Much like our project, Marvin is interested in the material and discursive production of those transnational spaces of higher education that he yet analyses from an educational policy perspective, and not a geographical one: while we analyse the (social) spatiality and the material infrastructure of “education hubs”, Marvin looks at the educational policies driving their development and at how those redefine the field of international education.
During the discussion, we were able to identify some common denominators but also found some inspiring differences related to our different academic fields. The debate opened up some interesting opportunities for further common inquiries, such as theoretical reflections on the changing role of the state for globalising higher education or the matter of spatialized governmental regulatory practices and frameworks in regard to setting-up transnational urban education zones (TUEZ).
For further reading, these are two of Marvin’s most recent publications:
- Erfurth Marvin. (2019). International Education Hubs as Competitive Advantage. Investigating the Role of the State as Power Connector in the Global Education Industry. In Parreira do Amaral Marcelo, Thompson Christiane, Steiner-Khamsi Gita (Eds.), Researching the Global Education Industry – Commodification, the Market and Business Involvement (p. -). London: Palgrave.
- Erfurth Marvin. (2018). Education Hubs in the GCC Region. Exploring Interplays of Local Visions and Global Influences for Higher Education Policy. In Eighth Biannual Gulf Comparative Education Society Symposium, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates , p. 43-51.