Article 2020

The commercial school heterarchy

EE
Enright, Eimear
 HA
Hogan, Anna
 RT
Rossi, Tony
Discourse
Journal · Vol. 41 · Issue 2 · pp. 187-205
Abstract

This paper explores the rise of philanthropy and the influence corporate partnerships have on the practice of public schooling. We do this by focusing on one public school in Australia and its partnership with one global commercial actor. The paper proceeds by outlining new philanthropy in public schooling and in particular, how commercial organisations are now sponsoring or making donations to local public schools as part of their focus on Corporate Social Responsibility. We then analyse the participation of one commercial actor–McDonald’s–in what we are conceptually referring to as the commercial school heterarchy. Our data demonstrates how McDonald’s used different kinds of power to market its brand, gain entry into the school and diversify its field of influence from that of ‘sponsor’ of a sports team to that of a ‘business partner’. In our discussion we consider the implications of this partnership for principled positions in public schooling. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Networks Commercialisation philanthropy principled positions public schooling

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
Funding & Acknowledgements
Australian Research Council, ARC
Grant: DP130101376
This work was supported by Australian Research Council [grant number DP130101376].
Australian Research Council, ARC
This work was supported by Australian Research Council [grant number DP130101376].
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