Privatizing the Universities

For most of the twentieth century, privatization of state universities seemed inconceivable. By 1997 government reviews of tertiary education in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand were all exploring variations on a market-driven theme. Similar policy agendas were being promoted through international agencies like the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This article examines the convergence of tertiary education restructuring and the extent to which that reflects, and serves to embed, an ascendant neo-liberal hegemony. Taking the extreme example of New Zealand, it assesses the implications of a global competitive model of tertiary education for law schoools in the common law world.     

Approaches to Gender and the Law: Research and Applications

Three paradigms for gender research are reviewed, illustrated by examples from employment discrimination law to highlight issues in research on gender and the law. Next, an agenda for research on gender, social science, and the law is outlined, and the five articles in this special issue are reviewed in terms of that agenda. Finally, research ideas for the future and practical applications of the research presented in the five articles are considered, specifically, the use of the reasonable woman standard and expert testimony in sexual harassment cases, and the influence of sex roles and sex stereotypes in producing gender effects.     

Officialising strategies: participatory processes and gender in Thailand's water resources sector

This paper examines participatory processes in an Asian Development Bank (ADB) technical assistance package in Thailand's water resource sector. The authors analyse various levels of social interaction in the local community, in meso‐level stakeholder consultations, and in opposition to ADB's environment programmes expressed by civil society organisations. While participatory approaches are employed to promote more bottom‐up management regimes in water resources, the authors find that local power and gender differences have been overlooked. Evolving institutions of resource governance are constituted by gender, reproducing gender inequalities such as regarding water intended for agricultural use as a ‘male’ resource. Finally, it is argued that understandings and practices of participation legitimise particular agendas in a politically polarised arena.