Mark Olssen

Born and educated in Dunedin, New Zealand, Olssen completed a PhD at the University of Otago in 1983, with a thesis on New Zealand trade unions.

[1] Olssen moved to England in 2001, and has researched and taught at the University of Surrey since that date.

He researches include works on Foucault, education policy, social and political theory and quantum and post-quantum complexity approaches in the social sciences and he relates theoretical issues to contemporary matters of social and political concern, including neoliberalism, social theory, ethics, and higher education policy.

Utilising a critical and constructivist approach across his individual books and articles, a nagging long-term interest is to develop a new non-foundationalist normative political ethics, inspired by Foucault and others, which can orientate politics, education and ethics in a global age.

Notable doctoral students of Olssen's include Judith Duncan, professor of early childhood education at the University of Canterbury.