Dr Antonio (Ono) Olmedo

About me:

My academic work has always been directly connected with the area Education Policy Sociology and Social Theory.

My research agenda has been shaped by the works of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, and in a more direct and personal manner by the contributions and company of Prof. Stephen Ball. More specifically, it focusses on the analysis of neoliberal policy networks, the role of new policy actors, and the enactment of new solutions for social problems, with an emphasis on emerging patterns of privatisation, opportunity and inequalities in education policy. Over the past fifteen years, I have led and participated in several national and international research projects.

I am a 'critical friend' of Education International (global union federation of teachers and other education employees) and school governor at a local primary school. This is a central part of my intellectual and social activity as I strongly believe that academic work should provide tools to understand and facilitate the construction of responses to the challenges posed by social change and social inequalities.

My main research interests fall within the areas of:

• Education policy and social justice: social inequalities and segregation.

• Neoliberal policies and the creation of quasi-markets in education: privatisation, competition and school choice

• The (re)creation of neoliberal subjectivities in education.

• Global policy networks: heterarchies, policy advocacy, philanthropy, and ‘edu-businesses’.