The chapters in this collection explore why particular national higher education systems operate as they do and the effects these systems have on one another, on national and global development, and on the production of knowledge. The works included in this reader address the assessment of inputs and outputs of institutions and the meaning these inputs and outputs have in relation to the larger cultural context that defines a nation's location in international knowledge networks. The chapters are: (1) "Patterns in Higher Education Development: Towards the Year 2000" (Philip G. Altbach); (2) "The Political Economy of Education" (Martin Carnoy); (3) "The Problematic Meaning of 'Comparison' in Comparative Education" (Erwin H. Epstein); (4) "Comparing Higher Education Systems" (Maurice Kogan); (5) "The Use and Abuse of Comparative Education" (Harold J. Noah); (6) "Higher Education in Developing Countries: The Scenario of the Future" (George Psacharopoulos); (7) "New Perspectives on an Old Problem: The Position of Women Academics in British Higher Education" (Sandra Acker); (8) "The Academic Profession in International Perspective" (Philip G. Altbach and Lionel S. Lewis); (9) "The Market Oriented University and the Changing Role of Knowledge" (Howard Buchbinder); (10) "Work" (Burton R. Clark); (11) "Places of Inquiry" (Burton R. Clark); (12) "The University in a Democracy--Democratization of the University" (Jurgen Habermas); (13) "Producing Knowledge in Africa Today: The Second Bashorum, M.K.O. Abiola Distinguished Lecture" (Paulin J. Hountondji); (14)"Cultural Influences on the Construction of Knowledge in Japanese Higher Education" (Ken Kempner and Misao Makino); (15) "Culture and the Role of Women in a Latin American University" (Susan B. Twombly); (16) "Universities and Academic Systems in Modern Societies" (Joseph Ben-David and Awraham Zloczower); (17) "Public and Private Sectors in Higher Education: A Comparison of International Patterns" (Robert L. Geiger); (18) "The Decline of Latin American Student Activism" (Daniel C. Levy); (20) "The Paradox of the Autonomy of Argentine Universities: From Liberalism to Regulation" (Marcela Mollis); (21) "Latin America: Higher Education in a Lost Decade" (Simon Schwartzman); (22) "Cultural Politics in a Latin American University: A Case Study of the University of Panama" (William G. Tierney); (23) "Higher Education in Advanced Developing Countries" (Philip G. Altbach); (24) "The Policy Perspective" (Ladislav Cerych); (25) "What Is Changing in Mexican Public Universities in the Face of Recent Policy Initiatives for Higher Education?" (Rollin Kent); (26) "Conceptualizing the Role of Education in the Economy" (Peter Easton and Steven Klees); (27) "Universities and National Development: Issues and Problems in Developing Countries" (Lawrence J. Saha); (28) "The Capitalist State and Public Policy Formation: Framework for a Political Sociology of Educational Policy Making" (Carlos Alberto Torres); (29) "Equality of Higher Education in Post-Communist Hungary and Poland: Challenges and Prospects" (Kassie Freeman); (30) "A Subnational Perspective for Comparative Research: Education and Development in Northeast Brazil and Northeast Thailand" (Gerald Fry and Ken Kempner); (31) "Latin America's Private Universities: How Successful Are They?" (Daniel C. Levy); (32) "Independence and Choice: Western Impacts on Japanese Higher Education" (Shigeru Nakayama); (33) "The Academic Estate in Western Europe" (Guy Neave and Gary Rhoades); (34) "The Crisis in Higher Education in Africa" (Samuel O. Atteh); (35) "Reform at Mexico's National Autonomous University: Hegemony or Bureaucracy" (Imanol Ordorika); (36) "Policies for Higher Education in Latin America: The Context" (Simon Schwartzman); (37) "Higher Education and Development: The Experience of Four Newly Industrializing Countries in Asia" (Jasbir Sarjit Singh); (38) "The Development of Higher Education in Taiwan" (Wen-Hsing Wu, Shun-Fen Chen, and Chen-Tsou Wu); and (39) "The Privatization of Higher Education (Jandhyala B.G. Tilak). Most chapters contain references. (SLD)