Transnational corporations in education: filling the governance gap through new social norms and market multilateralism?

This paper explores the rising presence of transnational corporations (TNCs) in education and their mobilisation of global corporate social discourses to legitimise their private authority in education. The rising presence of TNCs is explored in the paper in two parts. First, through a taxonomy of global corporate social engagement (GCSE) activities and second, through a case study of the World Economic Forum’s corporate citizenship initiatives as a new form of ‘market’ multilateralism in education. Lastly, I critique the GCSE efforts of TNCs working in education and discuss the implications of their seemingly ‘to do good’ activities.