The purpose of this article is to analyse competitive interdependencies or, put more simply, competition between schools and their effects. The central hypothesis is that if other modes of state or community regulation are generally at work, market regulation - or rather quasi-market regulation, as the state interferes directly or indirectly with the way it is structured - plays an important role on the sector or global strategies developed by schools. To develop this argument, we based ourselves on an European Union funded, qualitative comparative study of six local contexts in five European countries: the city of Lille and five municipalities near Paris, in France; the city and surroundings of Charleroi, in Belgium; the borough of Hackney, in London, England; the district of Kobánya, in Budapest, capital of Hungary, and the municipality of Oeiras, near Lisbon, in Portugal.
EDUCATION; SCHOOLS; SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION; EDUCATIONAL POLICIES
