An International Examination of Urban Education: The Destructive Path of Neo-liberalism, by Bradley Porfilio and Curry Malott, is an important and provocative text, indeed; not only for its careful and eloquent theoretical and analytical examination of neo-liberalism and “globalization” in urban educational contexts—and the dystopic and globally catastrophic consequences of these instantiations of late-capitalism—but also because it is what its name implies, an international study of these phenomena (a study and critique by those most immediately and directly effected by the “manifest destiny” of capitalist imperialism). As neo-liberalism appears to be both in continued ascendancy and immanent collapse, Porfilio and Malott’s text is a must read for every serious student of education, political science and sociology.
—Marc Pruyn, New Mexico State University (co-editor, most recently, with Luis Huerta-Charles of De la Pedagogía Critica a la Pedagogía Revolucionaria: Ensayos para Comprender a Peter McLaren from Siglo XXI Press in Mexico).