Neoliberalism and Strategic Action Fields: The Role of the State in Georgia's Legislative Agenda for Charter Schools

• In Event: 65.080 - Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: 65.080-3 - Philanthropy and Education Case Studies: From Control to Collaboration

Abstract

The charter school legislative agenda in Georgia reflects a national trend worthy of examination as part of larger movements to privatize public schooling. This paper examines Georgia’s 2012-2014 efforts that culminated in the Charter Amendment. We build on our previous work (2014) that employed Fligstein and McAdam’s (2011) theory of Strategic Action Fields (SAF) to “bring data to bear on the [theory’s] propositions” (p. 43) to explain dynamics of change in public education. We turned to other sociological theories to build and extend Fligstein and McAdam’s theoretical work, testing SAF against neoliberal perspectives as a means to further refine and develop strategic action theory and offer a more nuanced explanation of executive, legislative, and judicial action at the state level.

Authors

• Jamie B. Lewis, Georgia Gwinnett College

• Kathleen P. deMarrais, University of Georgia

• Jarrett B. Warshaw, University of Georgia