The Infrastructure of the Bologna Process: Standards as Technology

Abstract

Since 1999 the Bologna Process has moved from a declaration of intent to an extensive mobilization of 48 countries. But how come that the process gained this kind of momentum; how is it that those 48 countries were mobilized without passing any laws? This chapter aims to explore the mechanisms and instruments that generated the speed of expansion and swift transformation of higher education architectures that now seems to characterize the Bologna Process. I call the quality and constitution of these mechanisms the material-affective infrastructure of the Bologna Process. For governance to work it needs an infrastructure. For standards to travel they need roads to travel on. The infrastructure of the Bologna Process consists of powerful follow-up mechanisms. The new education standards, such as the output-driven curriculum and modularization, do not travel because they are powerful rather they become powerful as they travel; as they are being circulated through the infrastructure. The infrastructure consists of stocktaking reports, templates and models. The chapter will explore the agency of these technologies and how these technologies provide particular standards with a hegemonic status making them appear as ‘international’ standards. The chapter also investigates how this materiality of the infrastructure is affectively wired through naming-shaming-and faming mechanisms. In particular, the chapter displays how the color coding of the scorecards works as an alert system and naming exercise that incentivize the participating countries to strive for fame.