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Eva Hartmann

Eva Hartmann

University Associate Professor

Qualifications

  • PhD (Dr. rer. pol), Political Science/International Studies, University of Kassel, Germany, 2006
  • MPhil in Sociology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt/M., Germany, 1996
  • Bachelor in Sociology, University of Zurich, Institute of Sociology, 1992

Career History

  • Assistant professor, Department of Business and Politics, & Management, Politics & Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, 2014-2017
  • Junior lecturer (Première assistante), Institute of Political and International Studies, University of Lausanne, 2006 – 2013
  • International Labour Office (ILO), project development and gender mainstreaming, Geneva 1999-2000
  • German Corporation for International Cooperation, project assistance, gender mainstreaming 1998-1999

Recent visiting scholarship

  • International Relations and Political Science Department of the Geneva Graduate Institute in autumn 2023, Geneva, Switzerland
  • SciencesPo, Centre for the Sociology of Organisations, Paris, France in May 2024

Memberships/Professional Bodies

  • Member of the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers (CHER)
  • Member of the Comparative & International Education Society
  • European Consortium for Political Research

Personal profile

My empirical research focuses on the internationalisation of higher education, while also engaging with questions of vocational and further education, particularly in the UK and across Europe. I lead the Cambridge Critical Higher Education Research (CCHER) group. https://chergcambridge.wixsite.com/website

My research brings together educational studies, sociology, and international studies, informed by my own interdisciplinary academic trajectory. I graduated in Sociology in Frankfurt/Germany, and hold a doctorate in Political Science/International Relations. My sociological approach to education challenges the tendency in political science to treat education as just one policy field among many and highlights its key role in constituting society's social bonds. Along these lines, my research also moves beyond a narrowly educationalist perspective that can overlook the broader social and political contexts in which education is embedded. My approach to the sociology of education draws on critical state theory, political and economic sociology, the sociology of professions and knowledge, and decolonial studies. These perspectives allow me to examine the dialectical relationships between power, society, education, and the transnational. The Frankfurt School has been particularly formative for my work, alongside the influence of my teachers, including Bob Jessop, Judith Butler, Gayatri Spivak, Nancy Fraser, Iris Marion Young, and Jürgen Habermas.

Undergraduate

  • Coordinator of the paper Modernity, Education and Globalisation

Postgraduate

  • Teaching and supervision in MPhil Knowledge, Power and Politics in Education

PhD Students

  • I currently supervise six PhD students who have all joined the Cambridge Critical Higher Education Research group. For doctoral applicants, I will accept students for 2027. Please note that I do not review applications prior to submission. I will only consider PhD and Visiting Researcher applications that demonstrate substantive engagement with my work and clearly explain why my research expertise outlined above would be a good fit for the proposed project. I look forward to reviewing your application if it meets these criteria.

Key Areas of Expertise

International Organisations and Transnational Governance

I have studied extensively how international organisations establish educational standards that facilitate the cross-border mobility of students and highly qualified workers. A particular focus of this work has been UNESCO and its regional conventions on the recognition of higher education qualifications. My research examines how qualifications recognition regimes interact with the standards and practices of organisations such as the European Union, the World Trade Organisation, and other free trade agreements (mode four), contributing to the emergence of transnational spaces of higher education and research and the internationalisation of skilled labour markets. Drawing on sociology, I use recognition regimes as a lens through which to analyse the transnationalisation of societies and their “imagined communities”. My studies highlight a complex interplay between supranational, international, and transnational forms of governance. Bringing together political sociology, sociology of knowledge, and a decolonial lens, my work also explores the implications of these transformations for the production, curation, and dissemination of academic knowledge.

Private Authority and International Education Standards

A further strand of my research examines the role of private actors, such as quality assurance agencies, professional associations, and multinational corporations in the production and diffusion of international education and professional standards. This work explores the emergence of transnational forms of private authority and the changing relationship between geopolitics and geoeconomics in the governance of education and qualifications.

Geopolitics of Higher Education and Research

My current research returns more explicitly to International Relations, engaging critically with emerging scholarship on educational and science diplomacy. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci and Nicos Poulantzas, I seek to develop an international sociology of higher education that moves beyond methodological nationalism and methodological globalism to examine the complex relations between geopolitical power and academic institutions. At the centre of this work is the question of how the international activities of universities and the academic profession are being reshaped by an increasingly polarised geopolitical environment. This also includes examining how universities, academics, and students mediate and potentially transform these tensions. My studies examine these dynamics through, among other things, changes in academic publishing policies and the growing incorporation of universities into national security frameworks. The most recent publication draws on the sociology of professions to explore the ethical project of the academic profession. It focuses on the challenges German universities currently face in upholding their commitment to conducting research exclusively for civilian purposes through the civil clauses enshrined in their constitutions. This raises broader questions about the future of academia’s cosmopolitan orientation and whether geopolitical tensions are constraining, transforming, or redefining the international character of higher education and research.

  • Current research project

  • Geopolitics and educational diplomacy in turbulent times (edip) (2023-25)

  • Past research projects

  • 2006-2010: Standards and International Relations: Devolution of Power in the Global Political Economy, University of Lausanne/Switzerland (PI Professor Jean-Christophe Graz, funded by Swiss National Science Foundation)
    • Role: Co-coordinator and leader of sub-project on international educational standards
  • 2014-2017: Institutional Transformation in European Political Economy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark (PI Professor Poul F. Kjær, funded by European Research Council)
    • Role: Co-coordinator and leader of sub-project on multinational corporations and global skill development. The case of pharmaceutical companies

Articles

Published

  • Hartmann, E., & Lee, S. (2026). Exporting status differences? The stratification of British transnational higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1–14. (co-authored with Sangwoo Lee).
  • The shadow sovereigns of global education policy: A critique of the World Society approach. Journal of Education Policy, 36(3) 2021, 367-392. 
  • The employability dispositif, or the re-articulation of the relationship between universities and their environment, Journal of Education Policy, 2021 36:5, 708-733 (co-authored with Janja Komljenovic). 
  • The future of universities in a global risk society. Globalization, 16(5) 2019, pp. 717-736 
  • Transnational private authority in the sphere of education, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 20 (1) 2018, pp. 217-232.
  • The Status of Authority in the Globalizing Economy: Beyond the Public/Private Distinction. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 20 (1), 2018 pp. 3-11 (co-author Poul F. Kjaer).
  • Quality assurance and the shift towards private governance in higher education: Europeanisation through the back door?  Globalisation, Societies and Education, 16(4) 2017, pp 309-324.
  • The educational dimension of global hegemony, Millennium, 44(1) 2015a, pp 89-108.
  • The Europeanisation of the professional complex. Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 2015b, Vol. 16, No. 2, 245–262.
  • Europäische Hochschulen mit globaler Verantwortung? (European higher education institutions with global responsibility?), in Forum Wissenschaft 31(1) 2014, pp. 22-27.
  • The fetish of global competition, Capital & Class. Special issue on comparative studies of capitalism, 38 (1), 2014, pp. 184-196.
  • Neo-pluralist political science, economic sociology and the conceptual foundations of the comparative capitalisms literatures, co-authored with Ian Bruff, Capital & Class. Special issue of Competition and Change on comparative studies of capitalism, 38 (1) 2014, pp.73-85.
  • International authority in the knowledge-based economy: The rise of standards in educational services (co-author Jean-Christophe Graz) the Journal International Political Sociology No 3, Vol 6, 2012.
  • International law and politics: a difficult relation. The legal turn from a critical IPE perspective. New Political Economy, 16(5) 2011b, pp. 561-584.
  • Editorial: The new research agenda in critical higher education studies, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 8(2) 2010: 169–173.
  • The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation: Pawn or Global Player?, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 8(2) 2010: 307-318.
  • Bologna goes global: A new imperialism in the making?, in Globalisation, Societies and Education, vol. 6, no. 3, 2008, pp. 205-218.
  • The Bologna-Process and its effectiveness in the light of the interaction between legitimation, legitimacy and legality, (German Title: Der Bologna-Prozess und dessen Durchsetzungskraft- im Spannungsverhältnis Legitimation, Legitimität und Legalität) in juridikum zeitschrift für kritik | recht | gesellschaft, 2/2008a, Schwerpunkt Universitätspolitiken, pp.85-90.
  • Europa als neue Imperialmacht oder im Schatten der USA?, in Forum Wissenschaft 2/2008, Schwerpunkt:Mythos 'Wissensgesellschaft', pp. 16-19.
  • Soziale Arbeit unter postfordistischen Vorzeichen – Ein Beitrag zur Professionalisierungsdebatte, in Widersprüche Heft 105, September 2007,85-102.
  • The global market in education: global struggles for hegemony on quality standards and recognition of degrees (German title: Der globale Bildungsmarkt. Hegemoniekämpfe um Qualitätsstandards und Anerkennung von Abschlüssen.), in Prokla, Jhg. 34 2003 Nr.4, pp. 565- 585.

 

Book sections

  • Public diplomacy and international higher education, In: Rizvi, Fazal; Beech, Jason (2023) (ed). Globalization and Shifting Geopolitics of Education, International Encyclopedia of Education 4th Edition, Elsevier, pp. 640-647.
  • The internationalisation of further education: between geoeconomics and geopolitics. In: M. Parreira do Amaral and C. Thompson (2021). Geopolitical Transformations in Higher Education, Imagining Fabrication and Contesting Innovation. Cham, Springer. pp. 179-198.
  • Overburdening higher education? The Europeanisation of the professional complex, in: Cristina Sin, Orlanda Tavares, Sonia Cardoso and Maria João Rosa (eds.)(2018),  The Internal Market in Higher Education: Tensions between European Policy and National Sovereignty, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmilan, pp. 287-308.
  • Education outside the public limelight: The ‘parallel universe’ of ICT certifiers, in: Antoni Verger, Christopher Lubienski, Gita Steiner-Khamsi (eds.) World Yearbook of Education 2016, The Global Education Industry. London: Routledge, pp. 228-247.
  • European Social Policy: Social Cohesion through Competition? in: Eva Hartmann, Poul F. Kjaer (ed), The Evolution of Intermediary Institutions in Europe, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015b, pp. 121-137.
  • Neopluralistische Politikwissenschaft, Wirtschaftssoziologie und die konzeptuellen Grundlagen der Vergleichenden Kapitalismusforschung, co-authored with Ian Bruff, in Ian Bruff, Matthias Ebenau, Andreas Nölke (eds)(2013), Vergleichende Kapitalismusforschung: Stand, Perspektiven, Kritik, Münster: Westphälisches Dampfboot, pp. 37-50.
  • Tous pareils, tous différents ? Les chaînes d’équivalence dans l’internationalisation des services professionnels, in Jean-Christophe Graz et Nafi Niang (2013). Des Services sans frontière. Internationalisation et régulation de l’économie des services, Paris: Sciences-Po.
  • Konturen und Kontroversen kritischer Internationaler Politischer Ökonomie. Zur Einleitung, (co-authors Caren Kunze, Ulrich Brand, in Eva Hartmann, Ulrich Brand and Caren Kunze (2009). Konturen kritischer Internationaler Politischer Ökonomie, Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, pp.7-16.
  • Alles was Recht ist – Recht in der internationalen politischen Ökonomie, in Eva Hartmann, Ulrich Brand and Caren Kunze (2009). Konturen kritischer Internationaler Politischer Ökonomie, Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, pp.242-268.
  • L’Union Européenne et le principe de la subsidiarité dans le domaine de l'éducation, dans Ph. Laredo, J.-Ph. Leresche et K. Weber (Eds.) 2009 , L'internationalisation des systèmes de recherche en action. Les cas français et suisse, Lausanne : PPUR.pp.51-64.
  • The EU as an emerging normative power in the global knowledge-based economy? Insights from the field of recognition of higher education qualifications, in Norman Fairclough, Bob Jessop and Ruth Wodak (eds)(2008b) 'Education and the knowledge-based economy in Europe', Amsterdam: Sense Publications, pp. 63-86.
  • Does the WTO empower UNESCO? An emerging form of global governance in the global knowledge-based economy, in Kerstin Martens, Alessandra Rusconi, Kathrin Leuze (2007): New Arenas of Educational Governance, Hampshire, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 55-119.
  • Liberalization of higher education and training: Implications for workers’ security (co-author Christoph Scherrer), in Ellen Rosskam (ed)(2006), Winners or losers: liberalizing public services, (Geneva: International Labour Organization), pp. 55-119.
  • The role of transnational knowledge networks in international developmental policy (German title: Die Rolle von transnationalen Wissensnetzwerken in der internationalen Entwicklungspolitik), in Olaf Gerlach, Stefan Kalmring, Daniel Kumitz, Andreas Nowak (eds) (2004), Peripherie und globalisierter Kapitalismus. Frankfurt/M.: Brandes & Apsel, pp. 263-294.
  • Antiglobalisation networks between system stabilisation and counterhegemony (German title: Globalisierungskritische Netzwerke zwischen Systemstabilisierung und Gegenhegemonie), in Norbert Fröhler, Stefanie Hürtgen, Christiane Schlüter, Mike Thiedke (eds) (2004), ”Wir können auch anders.“ Perspektiven von Demokratie und Partizipation, Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, pp. 97-109.
  • The transnationalization of tertiary education in a global civil society, in Gabriele Kreutzner, Heidi Schelhowe (eds) (2003), Agents of Change: Virtuality, Gender , and the Challenge to the Traditional University, Opladen, pp. 25-42

 

Books/special issues

  • The Status of Authority in the Globalising Economy, Beyond the Public/Private Distinction (working title), co-edited with Poul F. Kjaer, special issue Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 20 (1) 2018.
  • Special Issue: A sociology of competition, Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 16(2) 2015 (co-edited with Poul F. Kjaer).
  • The Evolution of Intermediary Institutions in Europe. From Corporatism to Governance, co-editor with Poul F. Kjaer, Hampshire, New York: Palgrave (2015).
  • Towards a new Research Agenda in Critical Higher Education Studies, London: Routledge (2011)(editor).
  • Auf dem Weg zu einem globalen Hochschulraum. Konsequenzen für die Konstitutionalisierung internationaler Politik (towards a global Higher Education Area. Consequences for the constitutionlisation of international politics), Baden-Baden:Nomos (2011).
  • Critical Higher Education Studies, editor of a special issue of Globalisation, Societies and Education 8(2) (2010).
  • Outline of a critical international political economy (German titelKonturen kritischer Internationaler Politischer Ökonomie ) , co-editor (with Ulrich Brand and Caren Kunze), Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot (2009).
  •  Regime interaction : the role of GATS and the UNESCO in establishing a global labour market regime (German title: Regime-Interaktionen - Die Rolle des GATS und der UNESCO beim Aubau eines globalen Arbeitsmarktregimes), Kassel: Kobra (2009).

 

Reports/ Working papers (consultancy)

  • Enhancing intra-regional portability of skills and labour qualifications in UNU-CRIS (Hg.)(2008) 'Deepening the social dimensions of regional Integration: An overview of recent trends and future challenges in light of the recommendations of the report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization', ILO Discussion Paper 188.
  • The role of qualifications in the global migration regime, GARNET Working paper No. 38, 2008.
  • Information Technology Vendor Certification Systems, qualifications, 2007, background paper, International Labour Office, Geneva: International Labour Office.
  • Enhancing international portability of skills and qualifications, 2006, background paper, International Labour Office, Geneva: International Labour Organization.
  • Negotiations on trade in services - The trade unions’ position on GATS. Dialogue on Globalization, Occasional Papers No. 6 (May) 3003, Geneva : Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (co-author Christoph Scherrer).
  • Liberalization of Higher Education and Training: Implications for Workers’ Security 2003, Geneva: International Labour Office (co-author Sebastian Haslinger, and Christoph Scherrer).