Enlightenment, Creativity and Education: polities, politics, performances presents some outcomes of the 24th Conference of the Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE), held in Uppsala, in summer 2010. Bringing together studies related to knowledge and educational policies, the volume deals with the role of knowledge, globalisation and new trends what have an effect of identities and policies. Changes in societies have changed the rhetoric concerning the position and function of education. What – in comparative perspective – are the historical forces and sociological and economic structures which are infl uencing our ideas and assumptions about identity and wisdom and the future of polities and economies? So the conference asked: what are the contemporary and emergent nature of polities, and the politics of the future – and who says so? This publication is structured along three themes for the purpose of giving illustrations to some of the questions asked. The themes are I. Comparative Education – The role of Knowledge and Educational Research, II. Globalisation and New Trends, III. New Knowledge – Identities – Policies. Lennart Wikander is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education at Uppsala University. His fi eld is Higher Education including its relations to the labour market. Educational policies in a comparative perspective have also been a major part of his lecturing and research. He is President of NOCIES (Nordic Comparative and International Education Society). He is also member of the CESE Executive Committee. Christina Gustafsson is Professor of Education at Uppsala University and Director of Research in Educational Science at the University of Gävle. She started as a classroom researcher, and spent some years working on evaluation as a research practice. For the past fi fteen years, she has been oriented towards higher education research, especially research related to teacher training and newly qualifi ed teachers. Ulla Riis is Professor of Education at Uppsala University and Director of the programme Studies in Higher Education (SHE) at the Department of Education. She also has publications in Science Education and Computer Education in school as curriculum issues. Her latest report deals with the outcomes of a reform of the promotion system for Swedish university professors.