YES, TAX THE
BILLIONAIRES!
My book review of ‘We Need to Tax Billionaires! by
Gabriel Zucman is now available at ResearchGate. It was published in ‘Post-16
Educator’, No.124 (July – September), 2026, pp.22-23. You can see it at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/410602470_Yes_tax_the_billionaires
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
YES, TAX THE
BILLIONAIRES!
My book review of ‘We Need to Tax Billionaires! by
Gabriel Zucman is now available on Academia. It was published in ‘Post-16
Educator’, No.124 (July – September), 2026, pp.22-23. You can see it at: https://www.academia.edu/170487441/Yes_tax_the_billionaires_
Glenn Rikowski
This is a
new article by Ruth Rikowski that has been published in ‘Post-16 Educator’
No.123, and is now available at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/169932344/Artificial_Intelligence_AI_and_Libraries_in_Higher_Education
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
This
is a paper I have prepared for the London Historical Materialism 22nd
Annual Conference, SOAS, 6–9 November 2025.
You can now view this paper at Academia:
Abstract
This
paper complements the presentation I gave at HM London Conference 2024 where
the focus was on labour-power and its social re/production. Labour-power is the
unique commodity, the ‘class of one’; the only commodity that has the capacity
to generate more value – surplus-value – than what it takes to reproduce itself
when it is transformed into labour in capitalist labour processes. For this
2025 presentation, the focus is on the general class of commodities; that is,
all commodities excluding labour-power. In particular, educational
commodification and value production in educational institutions are explored.
Can education be a commodity? Is education productive of value? If education is
a commodity why does it matter? These perennial questions regarding educational
commodification, questions that bedevil mainstream sociology and liberal
thought as much as Marxist educational theory, are at the centre of this
presentation. The first section of the paper lays the ground by drawing from
Marx’s ideas on the commodity and value production. It also presents some of
the hand-wringing statements and nebulous arguments regarding whether education
can be a commodity, or not. Section two visits Marx’s metaphor of education as
a ‘sausage factory’ in Capital. It
indicates how, under certain conditions, what goes on in educational
institutions results in commodity and value-production. The third section
focuses on ‘Marx’s road’; his discussion on the roles of State, Money and
‘capital as capital’ in the production of value in Notebook V from the Grundrisse. The conclusions from this section are then
dragged back to the ‘sausage factory’ to give a fuller account of educational
commodification and value production. The Conclusion revisits questions of
whether education is, or can be, a commodity, if it produces value, and why
such questions are important. This last point draws on the work of Mike
Neary.
Glenn Rikowski, Forest Gate, London, 27th October 2025
Academia:
http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski
This
is a paper I have prepared for the London Historical Materialism 22nd
Annual Conference, SOAS, 6–9 November 2025.
You
can now view this paper at ResearchGate, at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/396921162_Marx's_Sausage_Factory_and_Marx's_Road_Education_and_the_General_Class_of_Commodities
Abstract
This
paper complements the presentation I gave at HM London Conference 2024 where
the focus was on labour-power and its social re/production. Labour-power is the
unique commodity, the ‘class of one’; the only commodity that has the capacity
to generate more value – surplus-value – than what it takes to reproduce itself
when it is transformed into labour in capitalist labour processes. For this
2025 presentation, the focus is on the general class of commodities; that is,
all commodities excluding labour-power. In particular, educational
commodification and value production in educational institutions are explored.
Can education be a commodity? Is education productive of value? If education is
a commodity why does it matter? These perennial questions regarding educational
commodification, questions that bedevil mainstream sociology and liberal
thought as much as Marxist educational theory, are at the centre of this
presentation. The first section of the paper lays the ground by drawing from
Marx’s ideas on the commodity and value production. It also presents some of
the hand-wringing statements and nebulous arguments regarding whether education
can be a commodity, or not. Section two visits Marx’s metaphor of education as
a ‘sausage factory’ in Capital. It
indicates how, under certain conditions, what goes on in educational
institutions results in commodity and value-production. The third section
focuses on ‘Marx’s road’; his discussion on the roles of State, Money and
‘capital as capital’ in the production of value in Notebook V from the Grundrisse. The conclusions from this section are then
dragged back to the ‘sausage factory’ to give a fuller account of educational
commodification and value production. The Conclusion revisits questions of
whether education is, or can be, a commodity, if it produces value, and why
such questions are important. This last point draws on the work of Mike
Neary.
Glenn Rikowski, Forest Gate, London, 27th October 2025
Academia:
http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski
ResearchGate:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Libraries
A talk by Ruth Rikowski at CILIP-in-London
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professional (CILIP)
Wednesday 11th September 2024
This presentation critically explores consequences of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for libraries, library organisation and library staff development and employment
Ruth's talk is now on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OleU9tvuPoc
For more on Ruth's work, see: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Libraries
A Presentation at CILIP-in-London
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)
By Ruth Rikowski
Wednesday, 11th September 2024
The full PowerPoint for Ruth's presentation is now available at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/127417862/Artificial_Intelligence_AI_and_Libraries_for_CILIP_in_London
For more on Ruth's work, see: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski
This is my chapter in Stammering as Dada: Mike Neary and Critical Education, edited by Stephen Cowden, Gary Saunders and Joss Winn (2025, Peter Lang):
Rikowski,
G. (2025) Value Vortex Weavings: Karl Marx’s Social Time, Labour-Power and
Education, in: S. Cowden, G. Saunders and J. Winn (eds.) Stammering
as Dada: Mike Neary and Critical Education, pp.263-282. Oxford:
Peter Lang.
Abstract (for this chapter):
In 1993, Time, Labor and Social Domination: A reinterpretation of Marx’s critical theory, by Moishe Postone was published. In 1996, I purchased a paperback version. After alerting Mike Neary to Postone’s book, for the next eight years, at particular moments, Mike and I discussed salient issues within it: e.g. value, labour, abstract labour, and Postone’s critique of traditional Marxism – but most of all, we discussed Postone’s views on time. The autobiographical Introduction provides the context for the focus on Marx’s socially necessary labour-time. Part 1 explores Mike’s conception of the Value Vortex, referred to in Neary (2020a). Part 2 examines the notion of weaving and its relation to the Value Vortex and social form. This brings into play Mike’s appreciation of the works of Lucretius and Thomas Nail in the last five years of his life. Part 3 reveals Karl Marx’s social time; what appears as capital’s time based on Marx’s concept of socially necessary labour-time (SNLT). Part 4 examines some implications of labour-power production in education as a machine for speeding up social time. The Conclusion draws ideas from the previous sections together and invokes Mike’s commitment to unravelling value and capital’s social time through critique and practice.
Summary of the book (from the publishers):
Mike
Neary was a renowned critical educator, Professor of Sociology at the
University of Lincoln, and a founding member of the Social Science Centre,
Lincoln. He died in January 2023, and in the months prior to his death, the
editors of this book met with Mike and, with his guidance, worked with him on a
collection of his writings. Mike was once asked why he wrote and he responded,
“I write for the future” This book gathers some of his key writings to keep
alive the critical legacy which Mike’s life and work embodied. It contains a
body of work written by Mike on his own, with his close collaborators, as well
as contributions written about him. The work gathered here in this book attests
to Mike’s lifelong critical engagement with the work of Karl Marx, and as his
work shows, this is an engagement on terms which are uniquely his own,
reflecting Mike’s unique vision, his deep egalitarianism, his personal warmth,
and his critical intellect.
Contents
Series Editors’ Preface – Stammering as Dada: Mike Neary and Critical Education
Jones
Erwin and Stephen Cowden
Mike Neary interviewed by Stephen Cowden: The Thinginess of Things
Mike
Neary and Stephen Cowden
An Introduction to the Work of Karl Marx: Science of Revolution and
Revolutionary Science
Mike
Neary
Critical Theory as the Critique of Labour
Mike
Neary
Pedagogy in Paradise: Higher Learning and the Metamorphosis of a
Derelict City – a Rhythmanalysis
Mike
Neary
Student as Producer and the Politics of Abolition: Making a New Form of
Dissident Institution?
Mike
Neary and Gary Saunders
Pedagogy of Hate
Mike
Neary
The Social Science Centre, Lincoln: The Theory and Practice of a Radical
Idea
Mike
Neary and Joss Winn
Beyond Public and Private: A Framework for Co- operative Higher
Education
Mike
Neary and Joss Winn
Civic University or University of the Earth? A Call for Intellectual
Insurgency
Mike
Neary
We Stammer (To Be Read Aloud)
Mike
Neary
‘Student as Producer’: A Disruptive Theory for Our Times
Cath
Lambert
Value Vortex Weavings: Karl Marx’s Social Time, Labour-Power and
Education
Glenn
Rikowski
Afterword: Mike Neary and the Power of Revolutionary Optimism
Antonia
Darder and Gordon Asher
Details
Stammering as Dada: Mike Neary and Critical Education
Edited
by Stephen Cowden, Joss Winn and Gary Saunders
Peter
Lang (publishers): https://www.peterlang.com/document/1493241
Series: New Disciplinary Perspectives on Education, Volume 9
Pages XII, 302
Publication
Year 2025
ISBN
(PDF) 9781803741161
ISBN
(ePUB) 9781803741178
ISBN
(Softcover) 9781803741154
DOI 10.3726/b20611
Language English
Keywords Critical Pedagogy, Marxism, Education
STAMMERING AS DADA
MIKE NEARY AND CRITICAL EDUCATION
STAMMERING AS DADA: MIKE NEARY AND CRITICAL EDUCATION.
Edited
by Stephen Cowden, Joss Winn, and Gary Saunders.
Published
by Peter Lang, in the 'New Disciplinary Perspectives on Education' Series,
Volume 9.
This
book will be available from 11 December 2024.
From
the Peter Lang (publishers): https://www.peterlang.com/document/1493241
Available
also from Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and !ndigo.
Publisher's
Summary:
Mike
Neary was a renowned critical educator, Professor of Sociology at the University
of Lincoln, and a founding member of the Social Science Centre, Lincoln. He
died in January 2023, and in the months prior to his death, the editors of this
book met with Mike and, with his guidance, worked with him on a collection of
his writings. Mike was once asked why he wrote and he responded, “I write for
the future” This book gathers some of his key writings to keep alive the
critical legacy which Mike’s life and work embodied. It contains a body of work
written by Mike on his own, with his close collaborators, as well as
contributions written about him. The work gathered here in this book attests to
Mike’s lifelong critical engagement with the work of Karl Marx, and as his work
shows, this is an engagement on terms which are uniquely his own, reflecting
Mike’s unique vision, his deep egalitarianism, his personal warmth, and his
critical intellect.
My
chapter is: "Value Vortex Weavings: Karl Marx's Social Time, Labour-Power
and Education".
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Academia:
https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski
APHORISMS ON THE CRITIQUE OF PEDAGOGY
Preface
(i). What is presented in this paper is not a
critique of critical pedagogy, but a critique of pedagogy
itself.
(ii). Yet this critique is not an idealist,
transhistorical, instrumental or analytical philosophical concoction.
(iii). Rather, it is a critique of pedagogy in its
historically capitalist form; or, critique
of the specifically capitalist form of
pedagogy.
(iv). All this is undertaken through Marxist
science.
Academia: https://www.academia.edu/125194423/Aphorisms_on_the_Critique_of_Pedagogy
ResearchGate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385417744_Aphorisms_on_the_Critique_of_Pedagogy
Glenn Rikowski
This is a paper I presented at the recent Historical Materialism London Conference, SOAS, 2024.
Abstract:
Following a brief outline of labour-power through Marx, Ciccarelli (2021) and my own work, it is argued that the fragmentation of Marxist work on labour-power undermines what is critical for its understanding in contemporary society: the notion that labour-power is a ‘unity of the diverse’ (Marx). In Marxist theory and empirical work today, labour-power as ‘unity’, as a unified social force within humans, is sacrificed to its ‘diversity’. The result is theorisations and empirical research that split the study of labour-power into seemingly competing projects; either as arguments regarding whether the key focus should be on the social production of labour-power through education and training, or the social reproduction of labour-power through the family and domestic labour. This paper argues that labour–power is better viewed through its various diversities that constitute its unity. Each of these diversities is a spectral (but real) point in analysis of labour-power, but its unity blends the pinpointing analysis of its diversities. These labour-power diversities are social forms of its social re/production that are manifested in and through various institutions in capitalist society. In this light, the following diversities of labour-power and their institutional forms can be viewed directly through the work of Marx: the social production of labour-power (e.g. in education and training); its social reproduction 1 (e.g. through the family and domestic labour); social reproduction 2 (e.g. through state pensions, unemployment benefits); maintenance of labourers 1 (e.g. through consumption, food); maintenance of labourers 2 (e.g. through health, and mental health services). These labour-power diversities constitute a web of social forms shaping labour-power in contemporary capitalism. The paper ends by exploring some recent empirical examples illustrating how moving between the spectral points of labour–power and its diversities solidifies their unity in analysis.
The paper is now available at:
Academia: https://www.academia.edu/124791066/Labour_Power_Points
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384971765_LABOUR-POWER-POINTS
Glenn Rikowski
This is a critique of Luis Arboledas-Lérida's article, The Gap Between Science and Society and the Intrinsically Capitalistic Character of Science Communication—https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2022.2111670—for the Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective.
It is now online at:
Arboledas-Lérida's article was published in 'Social Epistemology' online on 21 September. This critical review was published in Social Epistemology Review & Reply Collective on 11 January 2023.
See: https://wp.me/p1Bfg0-7uV Cite as: Rikowski, Glenn. 2023. Some Thoughts on Science, Dialectics and Capital—After Luis Arboledas-Lérida. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 12 (1): 13-21. https://wp.me/p1Bfg0-7uV.
Posted
here by Glenn Rikowski:
@
Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski
@
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski
Interview with
Glenn Rikowski – Marxism & Sciences
This
interview is now available at:
ResearchGate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368654826_Interview_with_Glenn_Rikowski_-_Marxism_Sciences
Academia:
https://www.academia.edu/97210925/Interview_with_Glenn_Rikowski_Marxism_and_Sciences
Glenn
Rikowski is interviewed by Siyaveş Azeri and Ali C. Gedik
Marxism &
Sciences: A Journal of Nature, Culture, Human and Society, Volume 2 Issue 1
(2023), pp.178-184.
For
a PDF of all of the interviews, see: https://marxismandsciences.org/interviews-rethinking-the-foundations-of-marxism-and-ilyenkovian-contributions/
and https://marxismandsciences.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/interviews_ms_230102107.pdf
Volume
2 Issue 1 (2023), The Foundations of Marxism II: Ilyenkovian Contributions –
see: https://marxismandsciences.org/volume-2-issue-1/
Marxism
& Sciences: A Journal of Nature, Culture, Human and Society – see: https://marxismandsciences.org/
Posted
here by Glenn Rikowski
@
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski
@
Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski
(Ruth Rikowski sings with the London Phoenix Choir)
BRANDENBURG CHOIR FESTIVAL OF LONDON
St. Stephen’s Church
Gloucester
Road
London
SW7
4RL
Saturday, March 18th 2023, 18.00 – 20.00
For
more details and to book tickets, see:
https://www.brandenburg.org.uk/bcf-concerts/2023/1/27/brandenburg-presents-the-rodolfus-choir-m8yz2-bck6y
Celebration of
Opera
Programme:
Conductor:
Jeremy Haneman
Soprano:
Anita Wilson
Tenor:
Luis Gomes
Repetiteurs:
Ashley Beauchamp and Will Gardner
Thames Opera
Company
Ballad
of Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd) –
Sondheim
Salve
Regina (Mefistofele) – Boito
Anvil
Chorus (Il Travtore) – Verdi
London Phoenix
Choir
Brightly
Dawns Our Wedding Day (The Mikado) –
Sullivan
Sailor’s
Chorus (Dido and Aeneas) – Purcell
Not
While I’m Around (Sweeney Todd) –
Sondheim
(Interval)
Thames Opera
Company
Sunday
(Sunday in the Park with George) –
Sondheim
Gli
arredi festivi (Nabucco) – Verdi
Solos
Questa
o quella (Rigoletto) – Verdi
The
trees on the Mountains (Susannah) –
Floyd
Thames Opera
Company, London Phoenix Choir and Soloists
Chorus
of the Wedding Guests (Lucia di
Lammermoor) – Donizetti
Placido
è il mar (Idomeneo) – Mozart
Brindisi (La traviata) – Verdi
Posted
here by Glenn Rikowski
@
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski
@
Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski
Mass Intellectuality of the Neoliberal State: Mass Higher education,
Public Professionalism, and State Effects in Chile
A new book by Nicolas Fleet
Palgrave
Macmillan, 2021
Palgrave
Studies on Global Policy and Critical Futures in Education
ISBN
978-3-030-77192-8
ISBN
978-3-030-77193-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77193-5
From the Publisher:
This book engages
with post-Marxist views on the productive and social transformations of
post-industrial societies into cognitive capitalism. It provides extensive
original analysis on the political roles that intellectual labour assumes in
the post-bureaucratic organisation of the neoliberal state. It invigorates
debates on state theory, cognitive capitalism, and student movements in Chile
and Latin America.
In his book, Nicolas
Fleet addresses the political effects of the massification of higher education
and intellectual labor in the neoliberal state. Using the case of Chile, the
author argues that public professionalism emerges in the mass university
system, producing excesses of knowledge which infuse the state with
political purpose at many levels. The emergence of the student movement in
2011, then the major social mobilization against the neoliberal state since the
restoration of democracy in 1990, provided a clear manifestation of the
politicization and ideological divisions of the mass university system. In
conditions of mass intellectuality, public professionals mobilize their
political affinities and links with society, eventually affecting the direction
of state power, even against neoliberal policy. Through several interviews with
academics, public professionals, and other documentary and statistical
analyses, the book illustrates the different sites of political socialization
and the ideological effectiveness of the emergent mass intellectuality of the
neoliberal state.
Reviews:
“Fleet’s main contribution is to identify the key role played by a totally unexpected actor: a large mass of highly educated public servants, who are the product of the explosive expansion of education and for decades have also contested the neoliberal state from within.”
—Patricio Silva,
Professor of Modern Latin American History, Leiden University, The Netherlands
“This highly original and readable study is going to re-invigorate debates on state theory and enliven current discourses on cognitive capitalism and the knowledge economy. The author's insightful investigation of the Chilean university student and secondary school student movements is eye-opening and vitally relevant to the current struggles in Chile and all of Latin America today.”
—Stefano Harney,
Honorary Professor, Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice,
University of British Columbia, Canada
“Nicolas Fleet shows how a mass intelligentsia grew out of a segregated education system in the world’s only truly neoliberal state. His masterly account of the bureaucracy, of education and of the clientelistic party system, offers a highly original explanation of the explosions of youth protest that opened the way to an unprecedented national consensus for the refoundation of the state in a Constitutional Assembly."
—David
Lehmann, Emeritus Reader in Social Science and former Director of
the Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
The Author:
Nicolas Fleet is Dean of Social,
Legal and Economic Sciences at the Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez, Chile.
He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, UK. His
research focuses on political sociology and higher education.
For more information and Table of Contents, see: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-77193-5
Posted
here by Glenn Rikowski
@
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski
@
Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski
Edited by Alpesh Maisuria
Published by Brill: Leiden
ISBN: 978-90-04-50560-5
Published: 6 January 2022
For those concerned with exploring education through Marx and Marxism this is an important book. Alpesh Maisuria has assembled a tremendous international array of authors to address the significance of Marx and Marxism for education today.
Introduction by the Publisher:
This encyclopaedia showcases the explanatory power
of Marxist educational theory and practice. The entries have been written by 51
leading authors from across the globe. The 39 entries cover an impressive range
of contemporary issues and historical problematics. The editor has designed the
book to appeal to readers within the Marxism and education intellectual
tradition, and also those who are curious newcomers, as well as critics of
Marxism.
The Encyclopaedia of Marxism and
Education is the first of its kind. It is a landmark text with
relevance for years to come for the productive dialogue between Marxism and
education for transformational thinking and practice.
For Table of Contents, see: https://brill.com/view/title/61529?language=en
My chapter in the book is: Marxism and Education: [Closed] and …Open… pp.421-438.
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn
Rikowski at ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski
Glenn
Rikowski at Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski
