CRISIS

 

CRISIS

I have an article, Crisis, forthcoming in the following book:

Glenn

London, 17^th November 2020

 

Critical Reflections on the Language of Neoliberalism in Education
Dangerous Words and Discourses of Possibility

 

Edited By 

Spyros Themelis

 

ISBN 9780367629564

December 29, 2020 Forthcoming by Routledge

252 Pages

 

Book Description

Recognizing the dominance of neoliberal forces in education, this volume offers a range of critical essays which analyze the language used to underpin these dynamics.

Combining essays from over 20 internationally renowned contributors, this text offers a critical examination of key terms which have become increasingly central to educational discourse. Each essay considers the etymological foundation of each term, the context in which they have evolved, and likewise their changed meaning. In doing so, these essays illustrate the transformative potential of language to express or challenge political, social, and economic ideologies. The text’s musings on the language of education and its implications for the current and future role of education in society make clear its relevance to today’s cultural and political landscape.

This exploratory monograph will be of interest to doctoral students, researchers, and scholars with an interest in the philosophy of education, educational policy and politics, as well as the sociology of education and the impacts of neoliberalism.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Part I. Endangering words

[1]. Crisis

Glenn Rikowski

 

[2]. Neoliberal globalization

Spyros Themelis

 

[3]. Social value

Ewen Speed

 

[4]. Alienation

Inny Accioly

 

[5]. Hegemony

Alpesh Maisuria

 

[6]. Immiseration

Richard Hall

 

[7] Commodity

Joss Winn

 

[8]. Social mobility

Spyros Themelis

 

[9].Social Inclusion

Angela Cator

 

[10]. Markets

Dionysios Gouvias

 

[11].League tables and Targets

Patrick Yarker

 

[12]. Managerialism

Richard Hall

 

[13]. Employability

Tom G. Griffiths and Bill Robertson

 

[14] Ability

Patrick Yarker

 

 

Part II. Words of possibility

 

[15]. Essence

Grant Banfield

 

[16]. Reflexivity

Elisabeth Simburger

 

[17]. Utopia

Tom G. Griffiths and Jo Williams

 

[18]. Hope

Hasan Hüseyin Aksoy

 

[19]. Social movements

Laurence Cox

 

[20]. Revolutionary Pedagogy

Peter McLaren

 

[21]. Alternative education

Richard Hall

 

[22]. Youth

Sandra Gadelha and Claudiana Alencar

 

[23]. Educators

Maria Chalari and Eleftheria Atta

 

[24]. School

José Ernandi Mendes

 

[25]. Post-Critical Education

Juan Ramón Rodríguez Fernández

 

[26]. Educational Commons

Yannis Pechtelidis

 

[27]. Socialism

Dave Hill

　

Conclusion: Stammering

Mike Neary

 

Spyros Themelis is Associate Professor in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia (UEA), UK.

See details at Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Reflections-on-the-Language-of-Neoliberalism-in-Education-Dangerous/Themelis/p/book/9780367629564

Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Critical-Reflections-Language-Neoliberalism-Education/dp/0367629569

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski:

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

 

Notes on Commodity Forms and the Business Takeover of Schools

Glenn Rikowski

NOTES ON COMMODITY FORMS AND THE BUSINESS TAKEOVER OF SCHOOLS

These notes are for a seminar with second year Education Studies students at the University of East London, Stratford Campus, on 20^th November 2019.

Introduction

Commodification, marketisation, monetisation (the increasing scourge of money), and competition, commercialisation (advertising and selling-centred image manipulation) in education: how do we challenge and terminate these developments, if we wish to? Do we rely on the state to protect us from these insurgencies by capitalist interests and motivations in contemporary education? Will pressure from below, from us, urge the state to curb and end the role of business in education? Do we hope for a victory of Corbyn’s Labour Party in the forthcoming General Election to end the business takeover of education?

These notes indicate a way forward regarding posting answers to these questions. It is argued that we need to attack the business takeover of education at the micro level: at the level of the commodity, first and foremost.

The first Part of these notes focuses on this micro-level: commodity forms, the basic, elemental phenomena of capitalist society. Part Two explores one of these commodity forms, the general class of commodities, in terms of its development in contemporary schools. The focus is on how the general class of commodities, through the business takeover of schools, grows and spreads. The examples explored in Part Two come from schools in England, though, as Verger, Fontdevilla and Zancajo (2016) demonstrate, what they call the ‘global education industry’ (which is roughly equivalent to what I take as the business takeover of education) is a world-wide phenomenon, not confined to the UK, the US or Europe.

The perspective of these notes rests on Marxism; the ideas of Karl Marx and those who embrace his critique of capitalist society and its social scientific armoury. There are many forms of Marxism, and I stand within what has been called ‘Open Marxism’ – based on the work of people such as John Holloway and Werner Bonefeld. For 40 years, I have studied and organised around what has become known as Marxist educational theory.

The rest of these Notes can be found at Academia, in my ‘Teaching Documents’ section: https://www.academia.edu/40918435/Notes_on_Commodity_Forms_and_the_Business_Takeover_of_Schools

Glenn Rikowski

14 November 2019

More of Glenn Rikowski’s publication and papers can be found at:

Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Misrepresentations: Critical Notes on Commodities and Education

Dr. Glenn Rikowski

Misrepresentations: Critical Notes on Commodities and Education

Glenn Rikowski

Visiting Fellow, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, UK

This is a paper I wrote in response to a presentation I went to at the 2017 Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) Annual Conference at Oxford, by David Bridges.

The paper was completed on 3^rd October 2017, at is now available at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/35799008/Misrepresentations_Critical_Notes_on_Commodities_and_Education

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that attempts to understand commodification in education and educational research without recourse to the greatest thinker on commodity forms – Karl Marx – inevitably leads to confusion and misrepresentation in educational theory. This is demonstrated through a critique of a recent paper by David Bridges (2017) where he focuses on commodification in education research. By ignoring the ideas of Marx, but also contemporary Marxist theorists writing on the commodity and commodification, Bridges fails to make crucial distinctions in the analysis of commodification, and also conflates and confuses concepts and their corresponding phenomena that should be kept separate. In the event, Bridges, and other mainstream educational theorists who avoid reference to Marx and Marxist theory, end up creating a host of misrepresentations in their analyses of educational commodification. Such approaches camouflage the capitalisation of education; that is, educational institutions ‘becoming capital’, the becoming of capital. These theorisations are superficial and politically misleading.

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Education Crises As Crises for Capital

EDUCATION CRISES AS CRISES FOR CAPITAL

By Glenn Rikowski

Visiting Fellow, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, UK

This is the second of my two papers prepared for the International Seminar for Public Pedagogies on Crisis and Education at the University of East London (Stratford Campus) for 21^st February 2018.

The paper shifts the focus on education crisis from a concern with crisis in education as an attack on public, state-financed education towards education crises education as crises for capital, for capitalist development.

This paper is now available at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/35730140/Education_Crises_As_Crises_For_Capital

It is also available at ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322642418_Education_Crises_As_Crises_For_Capital

***END***

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

Privatisation in Education and Commodity Forms @ Academia and ResearchGate

Glenn Rikowski

PRIVATISATION IN EDUCATION AND COMMODITY FORMS @ ACADEMIA AND RESEARCHGATE

My article, Privatisation in Education and Commodity Forms (Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, Volume 15 Number 3, December 2017, pp.29-56) is now available at Academia and at ResearchGate.

For Academia, see: https://www.academia.edu/35540404/Privatisation_in_Education_and_Commodity_Forms

For ResearchGate, see: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322144355_Privatisation_in_Education_and_Commodity_Forms

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Privatisation in Education and Commodity Forms

Dr. Glenn Rikowski

Privatisation in Education and Commodity Forms

Glenn Rikowski

Visiting Fellow, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, UK

My article, Privatisation in Education and Commodity Forms has now been published in Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, Volume 15 Number 3, December 2017, pp.29-56.

The Abstract for the article is below.

The article can be accessed at: http://www.jceps.com/archives/3620

and http://www.jceps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/15-3-2.pdf

ABSTRACT

To date research and scholarship on privatisation in education lacks critical depth and intensity. Stock concerns occupy contributions to the field: the effects of privatisation in education on teachers’ labour, pay and conditions of service; educational expenditure; resultant problems of planning at local and national levels; corruption (systemic, and by teachers); and on the curriculum and pedagogy. Additionally, many accounts have been largely descriptive, focusing on how privatisation takes place, or on threats to privatisation, or its insertion within education systems. Many case studies have been undertaken in this light, with sectoral, country-wide and local cases. There has been less emphasis on why privatisation in education occurs. Resistance to educational privatisation has been another common theme. Finally, work on educational commodification has been substantially dissociated from studies on privatisation in education. This paper builds on this last point. Writing and research on privatisation in education has largely avoided what it represents and calls forth: the development of capital, the deeper capitalisation of education. Furthermore, discussion on educational privatisation typically ignores its implication in the social production of labour-power. Therefore, with reference to Karl Marx, this contribution drives the critique of privatisation in education forward by focusing on commodity form(s) in education and their relations to the capitalisation of educational services. Consequently, the points of resistance to privatisation in education are sharpened as anti-capitalist weapons.

The URL for the whole issue is: http://www.jceps.com/archives/3644

The journal website is: http://www.jceps.com

***END***

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

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies - Volume 15 Number 3

Dave Hill

Chief & Founding Editor

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies

Volume 15 Number 3, December 2017

This is the latest issue of Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies. It includes my article Privatisation in Education and Commodity Forms, which you can see at: http://www.jceps.com/archives/3620 

Volume 15 Number 3 – December 2017

CONTENTS:

Ravi Kumar
Consensualised Reproduction and Fascisation of Society: Critical Pedagogy in Times of Despair

Glenn Rikowski
Privatisation in Education and Commodity Forms

Mike Cole
‘A bright future’ for ‘something new and highly significant’ or a bit of a damp squib?: (neo-) Marxist reflections on recent theoretical developments in ‘BritCrit’ in the journal Race, Ethnicity and Education

Oskar Szwabowski
Paulina Wężniejewska
An (co)autoethnography story about going against the neoliberal didactic machine

Sezen Bayhan
Ayşe Caner 
Schools in the Nexus of Neoliberal Urban Transformation and Education Policy Change

Chris Holligan
Corporate Schooling and Decorative Metrics: The Iconography of Academy School Chains in England

Dhammika Jayawardena 
The “MacBurger”, Non-State Universities and the Changing Landscape of Higher Education in Sri Lanka

Steve Hanson
Language, juridical epistemologies and power in the new UK university: Can alternative providers escape?

Cecilia Rikap 
The Differentiated Market-University: is commodification equally affecting all universities?

Joseph Cunningham
Rhetorical Tension in the Bureaucratic University

Fernando Murillo
Ideology, Curriculum & The Self: The psychic rootedness of ideology and resistance in subjectivity

Carl Parsons
Kaia-Marie A. Bishop
Book Review: Mike Cole (2016)Racism: a Critical Analysis. London: Pluto Press.

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies: http://www.jceps.com

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

International Conference on Critical Education VIII

ICCE VII

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL EDUCATION VIII

University of East London, Stratford, London, England

25^th – 28^th July 2018

Critical Education and Activism Against Neoliberalism / Authoritarian Neoconservatism in Education, State and Society

The International Conference on Critical Education (ICCE), previously held in Athens (2011, 2012), Ankara (2013), Thessaloniki (2014), Wroclaw, Poland (2015), London (Middlesex University) (2016) and Athens (2017) is a forum for scholars, educators and activists committed to social and economic justice. 

The 8th ICCE: Critical Education and Activism Against Neoliberalism/ Authoritarian Neoconservatism in Education, State and Society will take place at University of London (UEL), London, 25-28 July 2018.

At a time of economic crisis, when education is under siege by neoliberal capitalism and by neo-conservatism and aggressive nationalism, when teachers and academics are being proletarianized, youth criminalized, civilised and caring societies being stripped of welfare and benefits and rights, schools and universities turned into commodities, at such a time, critical education, as a theory and as a movement, as praxis, is clearly relevant. International communities of critical educators and activists are working together, and with other movements, to build active resistance to these processes and are engaged in fostering educational and social change leading to a more just, equal and fair society.

The current economic, social, and political crisis, that has been ongoing for 30 years, is manifesting more deeply in education on a global scale. The crisis- part of, and resulting from, dominant neoliberal and neoconservative politics that are implemented and promoted internationally as ‘the only solution’, under the slogan ‘there is no alternative’ (TINA), have substantially redefined the sociopolitical and ideological roles of education. Public education is shrinking. It loses its status as a social right. It is projected as a mere commodity for sale while it becomes less democratic, de-theorised, de-critiqued.

Understanding the causes of the crisis, the particular forms it takes in different countries and the multiple ways in which it influences education, constitute important questions for all those who do not limit their perspectives to the horizon of neoconservative, neoliberal and technocratic dogmas. Moreover, the critical education movement has the responsibility to rethink its views and practices in light of the crisis, and in the light of social, political and educational resistance in different countries - and the paths that this crisis opens for challenging and overthrowing capitalist domination worldwide.

The International Conference on Critical Education (ICCE) – regularly attended by between 300 and 400 participants, provides a vibrant and egalitarian, non-elitist, platform for scholars, educators, activists, students and others interested in critical education and in contesting the current neo-liberal/ neo-conservative/ nationalist hegemony, to come together and engage in a free, democratic and productive dialogue. At this time of crisis when public education is under siege by neoliberalism, neo-conservatism and nationalism, we invite you to submit a proposal and to attend the Conference. We especially welcome new and emerging scholars / scholar-activists.

Speakers invited include:

Grant Banfield (Australia)

Dennis Beach (Sweden)

Sara Carpenter (Canada)

Hana Cervinlova (Poland)

Polina Chrysochou (Greece /UK)

Christian Chun (USA)

Alessio d’Angelo (UK)

Sandra Delgado (Canada/ Colombia)

Mustafa Durmus (Turkey)

Agnieszka Dzieminowicz-Bak (Poland)

Gail Edwards (UK)

Ramin Farahmandpur (USA)

Derek Ford (USA)

Nathan Fretwell (UK)

Panayota Gounari (USA)

George Grollios (Greece)

Carly Guest (UK)

Julia Hall (USA)

Dave Hill (UK)

Lee Jerome (UK)

Wei Jin (Peoples Republic of China)

Gianna Katsiampoura (Greece) 

Nurcan Korkmaz (Turkey)

Ravi Kumar (India)

Alpesh Mairsuira (UK)

Tristan McCowan (UK)

Gyuri Meszaros (Hungary)

Louise Prendergast (UK)

Lotar Rasinski (Poland)

John Rice (Australia)

Glenn Rikowski (UK)

Leena Robertson (UK)

Juan R. Rodriguez (Spain)

Wayne Ross (Canada)

Rachel Seoighe (UK)

Kostas Skordoulis (Greece)

Spyros Themelis (UK)

Tamas Toth (Hungary/Poland)

Paolo Vittoria (Italy)

Josefine Wagner (Poland)

Terry Wrigley (UK)

Ahmet Yidiz (Turkey)

Conference Organisers: Dave Hill (Institute for Education Policy Studies) and Alpesh Maisuria (University of East London)

Contact: dave.hill@ieps.org.uk

See the website: http://www.icce2018.wordpress.com/

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Critique of the Classical Theory of Education Crisis

Glenn Rikowski

CRITIQUE OF THE CLASSICAL THEORY OF EDUCATION CRISIS

Glenn Rikowski

Visiting Fellow, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, UK

This is a paper prepared for the International Centre for Public Pedagogies (ICPuP), International Seminar for Public Pedagogies at the University of East London for 21^st February 2018. See the post below for details.

The paper is now available on Academia, see: https://www.academia.edu/35164258/Critique_of_the_Classical_Theory_of_Education_Crisis

ABSTRACT

The Classical Theory of Education Crisis is the default theory utilised by educational theorists for understanding the constitution and explanation of education crises in contemporary society. Following a brief outline of the concept of crisis, and the histiography of the notion of education crisis from the Second World War to the neoliberal recession of 1980-82, there is a an outline of The Classical Theory of Education Crisis as most fully expressed in Madan Sarup's classic Education, State and Crisis: A Marxist Perspective (1982). The key aspect of the Classical Theory is that education crises are derivative of economic crises. This is followed by the main event: critique of the Classical Theory. Its reliance on structuralist thought (with associated determinism, functionalism and reductionism) and the inflow of economics imperialism are some of its key deficiencies. The Conclusion outlines ground still to be covered and the need to move beyond the Classical Theory of Education Crisis.

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

CRISIS AND EDUCATION

Glenn Rikowski

CRISIS AND EDUCATION

Glenn Rikowski

Visiting Fellow, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, UK

International Centre for Public Pedagogies (ICPuP)

International Seminar for Public Pedagogies

A Presentation on 'Crisis and Education'

By Dr. Glenn Rikowski (University of Lincoln)

UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON

Stratford Campus

Water Lane

London

E15 4LZ

21^st February 2018

5.00 – 6.00pm

Room: TBA

ABSTRACT

There are two parts to the presentation. Following a brief examination of the concept of ‘crisis’ the first part provides a critique of the Classical Theory of education crisis. This is the default theory of education crisis utilised by the majority of educational theorists and education activists today. Its starting point is that education crises are basically derivative of economic crises. The works of Marxists Brian Simon and Madan Sarup are important in fixing and consolidating the Classical Theory of education crisis. These will be explored in some depth.

The second part of the paper is more speculative. It seeks to pinpoint education crises as crises for capital. Thus, it is concerned with working on the weaknesses in the rule of capital (in education and in terms of its development) rather than focusing on how crises originating in the economy have deleterious effects for state-financed, public education. Two forms of education crises for capital are located, based on the mode of existence of commodity forms in educational institutions: crises of labour-power production; and crises in the ‘general class’ of commodities in educational settings. The implications for an anti-capitalist, anti-affirmationist politics of education based on this analysis are provided in conclusion.

Note: Two papers will be produced for this seminar: Critique of the Classical Theory of Education Crisis, and Education Crises As Crises for Capital. In the meantime, the following paper is useful: Crises, Commodities and Education: Disruptions, Eruptions, Interruptions and Ruptions, which is available at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/18511424/Crises_Commodities_and_Education_Disruptions_Eruptions_Interruptions_and_Ruptions

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski