The process of reversing the neoliberal regime in market-based systems of higher education entails a discussion of its normative principles and framework. Little has been said about what decommodification would entail, or the implications of such a project for the establishment of a public regime in higher education. This article discusses two principles to address these issues in detail: institutional diversity and autonomy. In addition, the role of quality policy is examined.

This article goes on to reflect on what critical pedagogy does when assessing changes in the theoretical, empirical, and methodological contexts of education. We focus our analysis on two main considerations. First, we reflect on the politics of criticality by examining various claims and debates about what it means to do critical research and to be critical scholars of educational policy, paying particular attention to how followers of critical pedagogy position their work in relation to the power of educational initiatives. Second, guided by these foundations, we consider the tendency to investigate mobility within critical pedagogy and the intellectual well-being and resilience of educators.

The claim that contemporary research in the vein of "follow educational politics" risks orienting researchers toward problems and agendas already established by elite political actors and organizations, and at the same time concealing the not-so-mobile forces that continue to shape educational horizons, educational policies, and educational practices.