An Inaugural Professorial Lecture Comparative education first developed in the early nineteenth century in parallel with the rise of national education, and it took the national system as its main object of enquiry. But how far is this approach valid today? Doesn't the 'decline' of the nation state make national systems obsolete? And isn't the very idea of a 'system' anachronistic in a world of market triumphalism and global disorganisation? Why should we undertake comparative analysis at all in this Global Village? These are tough questions for comparative educationalists because the concept of the national education system forms the keystone of the whole mental architecture of comparative education. This lecture explores how globalisation is changing education and what this means for comparative study. In an age of increasing social fragmentation, Andy Green argues, comparative analysis of education and society has never been more important.