Sunday, March 16, 2014
Forum (Omni Shoreham)
The state-controlled education system in France has historically played a central role in the selection of its national elites. Despite its espoused values of republican universalism and meritocracy, study after study suggest that little meritocratic social mobility actually takes place. The social, economic, and cultural dynamics of the current era of neoliberal globalization, however, have brought numerous changes to nation-states and their educational systems, including diversification and internationalization strategies. Such evolutions complicate the historical links between the academy and the national elite and potentially challenge the stable structures of social reproduction in France. This paper examines the case study of the pre-eminent grandes école, l’Ecole polytechnique (l’X), one of the most prestigious institutions in France, which has historically served as a conduit to the national technical elite. Drawing from archival document analyses and interviews, it focuses on the institutional context of l’X and the strategies it has undertaken as an elite national icon in the face of the forces of globalization exerted on institutions of higher education. It analyzes the tensions and negotiations of l’X as it seeks to both preserve its national legacy and legitimacy as well as establish itself as a pre-eminent institution on the international stage, and it identifies the implications of these negotiations on who can be considered “elite” along the lines of gender, class, race/ethnicity, and national origin. This paper speaks to the broader question of the reconfiguration of the French elite in response to the forces and flows of globalization.
