Brands

Just a brief reflection and maybe a question today on brands.

Branding and the language of economics and the market have been rampant for some time now, so I’m not exactly up to date, but anyway, I think its worth mentioning.

I’m prompted because I was at a meeting the other day when someone referred to branding, suggesting that an educational organisation should ‘brand’ itself.

My question is really just this: should educational institutions be concerned to brand and market themselves? Of course, that isn’t a sociological question, it is a normative question. A sociological observation might point out that in reality educational institutions do brand themselves and could therefore go on to outline (or develop) the functions, purposes, unintended consequences, and so on, of that social practice.

So, whatever your own values, why not do the sociological bit and answer the question above. What does it tell us about education in contemporary society?