Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Libraries inHigher Education

 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) AND LIBRARIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

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

Mass Intellectuality of the Neoliberal State: Mass Higher Education, Public Professionalism, and State Effects in Chile

 

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

Artificial Intelligence in the Capitalist University

Artificial Intelligence in the Capitalist University: Academic Labour, Commodification, and Value

 

A new book by John Preston

New York: Routledge

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003081654

eBook ISBN9781003081654

 

ABSTRACT

Using Marxist critique, this book explores manifestations of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education and demonstrates how it contributes to the functioning and existence of the capitalist university.

Challenging the idea that AI is a break from previous capitalist technologies, the book offers nuanced examination of the impacts of AI on the control and regulation of academic work and labour, on digital learning and remote teaching, and on the value of learning and knowledge. Applying a Marxist perspective, Preston argues that commodity fetishism, surveillance, and increasing productivity ushered in by the growth of AI, further alienates and exploits academic labour and commodifies learning and research. The text puts forward a solid theoretical framework and methodology for thinking about AI to inform critical and revolutionary pedagogies.

Offering an impactful and timely analysis, this book provides a critical engagement and application of key Marxist concepts in the study of AI’s role in Higher Education. It will be of interest to those working or researching in Higher Education.

 

The book is free to read on Creative Commons, @ https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003081654/artificial-intelligence-capitalist-university-john-preston

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

@ Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

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

Reviewing Our History and Making Plans: The Social Science Centre - Lincoln

REVIEWING OUR HISTORY AND MAKING PLANS

THE SOCIAL SCIENCE CENTRE

LINCOLN

Saturday 27th August 2016

10.00 – 4.00

St. Swithin’s Community Centre

Croft Street

Lincoln

LN2 5AZ

Location: https://goo.gl/5Q5NNl

St. Swithin’s Community Centre: http://www.stswithinscroftstreet.org.uk/

The Social Science Centre (SSC), Lincoln is hosting an event to look back at its activities since it was founded in 2011 and to make plans for its future.

10:00–12:00: SSC on Reflection, 2011–2016 (SSC members only)

A chance for all past and present members of the Social Science Centre to reflect on their experiences in the Centre, our activities, roads we have not taken, changes we should make and hopes for the future. Highlights to be shared with others later in the day.

12:30–1:30: Lunch (Public, everyone welcome)

Please join us for lunch!

1:30–4:00: Co-operative Higher Education in Lincoln (Public, all welcome)

Ideas and making plans for the term/year. It has already been suggested we run courses on Brexit and the co-operative movement in Lincoln and the UK

What is the SSC?

The SSC  organises higher education that explores the everyday experiences of its members – who are both students and teachers – through concepts and ideas developed in the social sciences. This includes making critical sense of social problems (like ‘austerity’, racism and nationalism or the privatisation of schools) and important local and global events like ‘Brexit’, learning how they affect us and how we might have an effect on them. Our past courses – The Social Science Imagination, Co-operation and Education, and Know How: Do-It-Ourselves Higher Education – all offered different approaches to this learning.

We are a co-operative organisation that is owned and run by our members. This means that we not only have an experience of higher education, but can decide together what this education should be, how it works and why it matters. All our members can help run the Centre by taking part in democratic decision-making processes and collective ownership and responsibility. No one pays for learning or gets paid for teaching at the SSC because we do not believe knowledge should be for sale. Members with financial means make small monthly contributions to the co-operative to pay for room hire and other running costs.

For more information about the SSC, visit our website: http://socialsciencecentre.org.uk   

***END***

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Crises, Commodities and Education: Disruptions,Eruptions, Interruptions and Ruptures

Glenn Rikowski

CRISES, COMMODITIES AND EDUCATION: DISRUPTIONS, ERUPTIONS, INTERRUPTIONS AND RUPTURES

Dr. Glenn Rikowski

RESEARCH IN CRITICAL EDUCATION STUDIES (RiCES) SEMINAR

RiCES @LincsCritEd

University of Lincoln

School of Education
Brayford Pool, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK

LN6 7TS

Thursday November 19th 1.30-4.00pm in room BH1201:

Dr Glenn Rikowski, Independent Scholar

Crises, Commodities and Education: Disruptions, Eruptions, Interruptions and Ruptures

ABSTRACT

After a brief analysis of the concept of crisis (drawing on the work of Roitman, 2014) and following an outline and critique of some previous work (Rikowski, 2014) – on the Classical Theory of Education Crisis (in the light of Sarup, 1982) and philosophical perspectives on education crises – Rikowski explores the notion of crisis in relation to phenomena pertaining to the social forms of capitalist education. Starting out from Marx’s analysis of the ‘two great classes of commodities’ (following Adam Smith), Rikowski charts what ‘crisis’ might mean, and could be, in terms of the two commodity forms pertaining to educational processes in capitalist society. The final part of the paper explores actual and possible empirical manifestations of these crises of the commodity form in terms of the notions of disruption, eruption, interruption and rupture. It is argued that last two of these forms of crisis pose particular problems for the continuance and development of capitalism in general and the national capital and capitalist education in particular.

Note: A paper will be produced prior to the event and posted to Academia. Meanwhile, it would be useful for those interested in coming to the seminar, or for those reading the paper on Academia, to read in advance the following paper (which is on Academia). This is because Rikowski’s paper prepared for the RiCES Seminar builds on and goes beyond this paper:

Rikowski, G. (2014) Crises in Education, Crises of Education, A paper prepared for the Philosophy of Education Seminars at UCL Institute of Education, 2014-15 Programme, 22^nd October 2014, 20 Bedford Way, London, online at Academia: http://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education 

For further information contact Dr. Cassie Earl at: CEarl@lincoln.ac.uk

RiCES – About – People – Research: http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/education/research/researchincriticaleducationstudies/

Research in Critical Education Studies (RiCES) blog: http://criticaleducation.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/

***END***

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Discussion on the Education White Paper for England and Extensions of the Commodification Process in Libraries and Schools

Ruth Rikowski

DISCUSSION ON THE EDUCATION WHITE PAPER FOR ENGLAND AND EXTENSIONS OF THE COMMODIFICATION PROCESS IN LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS

This, rather long title, pertains to the only paper / article written by us (Ruth and Glenn Rikowski) jointly. It appeared in the winter 2005/06 edition of Information for Social Change, Issue 22. We were both mightily concerned with processes and policies relating to the commodification of public services at the time, with Ruth focusing on libraries and Glenn on schools in England.

Furthermore, at the time, both of us were interested in the international dimension to the commodification of public services. Specifically, we were concerned with the likely impact of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This joint interest brought us together in a practical political sense too, when we became members of Attac London in 2000 and along with others organised a conference on the commodification of state services.

Of course, these topics have gained renewed importance with the current development of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Maybe the halting of significant advances in the WTO’s GATS process since Seattle 1999 in some way precipitated this development.

It is a shame that we have not written more together, and this is something that we aim to rectify in the future.

Meanwhile, this ‘Discussion’ piece can now be found at Academia:

For Glenn, it is at: http://www.academia.edu/12010645/Discussion_on_the_Education_White_Paper_for_England_and_Extensions_of_the_Commodification_Process_in_Libraries_and_Schools

For Ruth, it is at:

http://www.academia.edu/12010645/Discussion_on_the_Education_White_Paper_for_England_and_Extensions_of_the_Commodification_Process_in_Libraries_and_Schools

Glenn Rikowski’s papers and articles at Academia can be viewed at: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski’s papers and articles at Academia can be viewed at: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Ruth and Glenn Rikowski

London

September 2015

Some Additions to Academia: February 2015

Glenn Rikowski

SOME ADDITIONS TO ACADEMIA: FEBRUARY 2015

Over the last months I have added quite a few items to my Academia site.

Here are the main additions that have not been included on other blogs:

PAPERS

The Confederation of British Industry and the Business Takeover of Schools (2007)

https://www.academia.edu/11138462/The_Confederation_of_British_Industry_and_the_Business_Takeover_of_Schools

Postmodernism in Educational Theory (with Peter McLaren, 2002)

https://www.academia.edu/11135246/Postmodernism_in_Educational_Theory

Prelude: Marxist Educational Theory After Postmodernism (2002)

https://www.academia.edu/11012712/Prelude_Marxist_Educational_Theory_After_Postmodernism

Time and Speed in the Social Universe of Capital (with Mike Neary, 2002)

https://www.academia.edu/10545768/Time_and_Speed_in_the_Social_Universe_of_Capital

Marxist Educational Theory Transformed (2000)

https://www.academia.edu/11086968/Marxist_Educational_Theory_Transformed

Working Schoolchildren in Britain Today (with Mike Neary, 1997)

https://www.academia.edu/11108460/Working_Schoolchildren_in_Britain_Today

VOLUMER ARTICLES

Post-Fordism and Schools in England (2008)

https://www.academia.edu/11048029/Post-Fordism_and_Schools_in_England

Forms of Capital: Critique of Bourdieu on Social Capital (2008)

https://www.academia.edu/11049106/Forms_of_Capital_Critique_of_Bourdieu_on_Social_Capital

Utopia and Education (2008)

https://www.academia.edu/11139021/Utopia_and_Education

Globalisation and Education Revisited (2008)

https://www.academia.edu/11109450/Globalisation_and_Education_Revisited

Snowballs and Risk in Schools (2008)

https://www.academia.edu/11027085/Snowballs_and_Risk_in_Schools

Nihilism and the Devaluation of Educational Values in England Today (2008)

https://www.academia.edu/11135945/Nihilism_and_the_De-valuation_of_Educational_Values_in_England_Today

Forms of Capital: Critique of Bourdieu on Cultural Capital (2008)

https://www.academia.edu/11048536/Forms_of_Capital_Critique_of_Bourdieu_on_Cultural_Capital

Playground Risks and Handcuffed Kids: We Need Safer Schools? (2007)

https://www.academia.edu/11074776/Playground_Risks_and_Handcuffed_Kids_We_Need_Safer_Schools

On Education Studies (2007)

https://www.academia.edu/11137286/On_Education_Studies

Education the HSBC Way (2007)

https://www.academia.edu/11109879/Education_the_HSBC_Way

The ‘Standards’ Language-game for Schools in England (2007)

https://www.academia.edu/11109014/The_Standards_Language-game_for_Schools_in_England_Today

Higher education and Confused Employer Syndrome (2006)

https://www.academia.edu/11075569/Higher_Education_and_Confused_Employer_Syndrome

On Tranhumanism and Education (2006)

https://www.academia.edu/11108794/On_Transhumanism_and_Education

Glenn Rikowski

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

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

All that is Solid or Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

The Academic Manifesto

THE ACADEMIC MANIFESTO: FROM AN OCCUPIED TO A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

Willem Halffman and Hans Radder

First published in Krisis: Journal of Contemporary Philosophy, 2013, Issue 3 (in Dutch)

Now available in English: translated by Jan Evertse

Willem Halffman and Hans Radder

The academic manifesto: From an occupied to a public university

1 The occupied university

The university has been occupied - not by students demanding a say (as in the 1960s), but this time by the many-headed Wolf of management.1 The Wolf has colonised academia with a mercenary army of professional administrators, armed with spreadsheets, output indicators and audit procedures, loudly accompanied by the Efficiency and Excellence March. Management has proclaimed academics the enemy within: academics have to be distrusted, tested and monitored, under the permanent threat of reorganisation, discontinuance and dismissal. The academics allow themselves to be meekly played off against one another, like frightened, obedient sheep, hoping to make it by staying just ahead of their colleagues. The Wolf uses the most absurd means to

remain in control, such as money-squandering semi- and full mergers, increasingly detailed, and thus costly, accountability systems and extremely expensive prestige projects.

This conquest seems to work and the export of knowledge from the newly conquered colony can be ever increased, but inland the troubles fester. Thus, while all the glossed-up indicators constantly point to the stars, the mood on the academic shop floor steadily drops. The Wolf pops champagne after each new score in the Shanghai Competition, while the university sheep desperately work until they drop2 and the quality of the knowledge plantations is starting to falter, as is demonstrated by a large number of comprehensive and thorough analyses.3 Meanwhile, the sheep endeavour to bring the absurd anomalies of the occupation to the Wolf’s attention by means of an endless stream of opinion articles, lamentations, pressing letters and appeals. In turn, the Wolf reduces these to mere incidents, brushes them aside as inevitable side effects of progress, or simply ignores them.

Although our description and evaluation were written from the perspective of Dutch universities, the gist of our account (and quite a few details) applies to other countries as well, especially in Europe.4 While management’s occupation may not be as advanced in the Netherlands as it is in England (Holmwood 2011), it has already established a powerful continental bridgehead (De Boer, Enders and Schimank 2007). To show how these developments are more than just incidents, we list six critical processes and their excesses below. We will then proceed to analyse causes and suggest remedies.

Notes:

This article is a slightly updated and edited translation of the Dutch original, which appeared in Krisis: Tijdschrift voor actuele filosofie 2013 (3), pp. 2-18. We are grateful for helpful commentary on that version by the Krisis editorial team, in particular René Gabriëls. We would also like to thank Ilse and Jan Evertse for translating the Dutch text into English.

2 According to accepted clinical norms, a quarter of Dutch professors of medical science (especially the younger ones) suffer from burn-out (Tijdink, Vergouwen en Smulders 2012).

3 See, e.g., Ritzer (1998); Graham (2002); Hayes and Wynyard (2002); Bok (2003); Washburn (2003); Evans (2005); Shimank (2005); Boomkens (2008); Gill (2009); Tuchman (2009); Radder (2010); Krijnen, Lorenz and Umlauf (2011); Collini (2012); Sanders and Van der Zweerde (2012); Dijstelbloem et al. (2013); Verbrugge and Van Baardewijk (2014).

4 See Lorenz (2006 and 2012); Krücken (2014). In line with the situation in most European

See the full article in English at: https://www.academia.edu/9923660/The_academic_manifesto_From_an_occupied_to_a_public_unversity

Krisis: Tijdschrift voor actuele filosofie: http://www.krisis.eu 

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Some Recent Additions to Academia - Glenn Rikowski

SOME RECENT ADDITIONS TO ACADEMIA – GLENN RIKOWSKI

The following papers by Glenn Rikowski were recently added to Academia:

Crises in Education, Crises of Education (2014) A paper prepared for the Philosophy of Education Seminars at the University of London Institute of Education 2014-15 Programme, 22nd October 2014, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education

Critical Mass (2006) (with Phil Badger) Information for Social Change, Issue 23, online at: http://www.academia.edu/9186407/Critical_Mass

On Education for Its Own Sake (2005) 17^th Ocober 2005, London, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9099777/On_Education_for_Its_Own_Sake

Silence on the Wolves: What is Absent in New Labour’s Five Year Strategy for Education (2005) University of Brighton, Education Research Centre, Occasional Paper, May 2005, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9150947/Silence_on_the_Wolves_What_is_Absent_in_New_Labours_Five_Year_Strategy_for_Education

Education, Capital and the Transhuman (2002) Chapter 6, in: Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory, edited by Dave Hill, Peter McLaren, Mike Cole & Glenn Rikowski, Lanham MD: Lexington Books, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9033532/Education_Capital_and_the_Transhuman

The ‘Which Blair’ Project: Giddens, the Third Way and Education (2000) Forum for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Vol.42 No.1, pp.4-7, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9169470/The_Which_Blair_Project_Giddens_the_Third_Way_and_Education

Nietzsche’s School? The Roots of Educational Postmodernism (1998) A paper prepared for the Social Justice Seminar, Semester 2, University of Birmingham, School of Education, 24th March 1998, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9099116/Nietzsches_School_The_Roots_of_Educational_Postmodernism

Between Postmodernism and Nowhere: The Predicament of the Postmodernist (1997) (with Mike Cole and Dave Hill) British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol.45 No.2, pp.187-200, online at: https://www.academia.edu/9291420/Between_Postmodernism_and_Nowhere_The_Predicament_of_the_Postmodernist

Post-Compulsory Education and Training for the 21^st Century (1995) (with Andy Green) Forum for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Vol.37 No.3, pp.68-70, online at: https://www.academia.edu/9171342/Post-Compulsory_Education_and_Training_for_the_21st_Century  

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

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

International Congress on Education for the Future: Issues and Challenges

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON EDUCATION FOR THE FUTURE: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

ICEFIC 2015

International Congress on Education for the Future: Issues and Challenges

13-15 May 2015

Ankara, Turkey

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of Ankara University Faculty of Educational Sciences at Ankara University, Turkey

Important Dates

Abstract submission: Until 31 January 2014

Notification of Results: 15-28 February 2015

Early Bird Registration: 1-31 March 2015

Late Registration: 1 April 2015

We are proud to announce that the International Congress on Education for the Future: Issues and Challenges (ICEFIC 2015) will take place on 13-15 May 2015 in Ankara to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Ankara University Faculty of Educational Sciences.

The Faculty was established to be the first faculty of educational sciences in Turkey so as to fulfill the need for experts in the field of educational sciences. Since its establishment, the Faculty having made great contributions to the field of educational sciences has brought national and international researchers together via the scientific events organized.

ICEFIC 2015 is aimed at providing academics, educators and policymakers from around the world with an international platform to present new perspectives, to discuss trends and innovations, and to share best practices with one common goal of providing better education for future generations. To this end, the congress theme “Education for the Future: Issues and Challenges” will be examined with a wide array of sub-themes on education through oral presentations, posters and workshops.

We look forward to meeting you in Ankara, the heart of the Republic of Turkey and the cradle of Anatolian civilizations, which provides an inspiration for international events with its historical and cultural richness.

Sincerely,
Ayşe Çakır İlhan, Ph.D.
Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences

Details at: http://www.icefic.com/

Contact: icefic2015@gmail.com

At Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Congress-on-Education-for-the-Future-Issues-and-Challenges/301461450062373

**END**

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Glenn Rikowski’s latest paper, Crises in Education, Crises of Education – can now be found at Academia: http://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education

Glenn Rikowski’s article, Education, Capital and the Transhuman – can also now be found at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9033532/Education_Capital_and_the_Transhuman

Recent Additions to Academia - Glenn Rikowski

RECENT ADDITIONS TO ACADEMIA – GLENN RIKOWSKI

The following papers by Glenn Rikowski were recently added to Academia:

Crises in Education, Crises of Education (2014) A paper prepared for the Philosophy of Education Seminars at the University of London Institute of Education 2014-15 Programme, 22nd October 2014, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education

On Education for Its Own Sake (2005) 17^th Ocober 2005, London, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9099777/On_Education_for_Its_Own_Sake

Education, Capital and the Transhuman (2002) Chapter 6, in: Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory, edited by Dave Hill, Peter McLaren, Mike Cole & Glenn Rikowski, Lanham MD: Lexington Books, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9033532/Education_Capital_and_the_Transhuman

Nietzsche’s School? The Roots of Educational Postmodernism (1998) A paper prepared for the Social Justice Seminar, Semester 2, University of Birmingham, School of Education, 24th March 1998, online at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9099116/Nietzsches_School_The_Roots_of_Educational_Postmodernism

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

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Crises in Education, Crises of Education

Crises in Education, Crises of Education

Glenn Rikowski, Visiting Scholar, Department of Education, Anglia Ruskin University, UK

A paper prepared for the Philosophy of Education Seminars at the University of London Institute of Education 2014-15 Programme, 22^nd October 2014.

INTRODUCTION

The capitalist crisis of 2007-09 cast a grim shadow over social existence in developed Western nations. The fallout from the banking crash of September 2008 post-Lehman cascaded over welfare, health, social services and education provision in the form of austerity measures, the drive to cut sovereign debt levels, the erosion of workers’ living standards and vicious service cuts and taxes aimed at the poor and disadvantaged (e.g. the bedroom tax in the UK).

On the back of this maelstrom, the Journal of Education Policy (JEP) celebrated its 25^th anniversary by running a special issue on ‘Education, Capitalism and the Global Crisis’ in 2010[1]. The JEP is to be congratulated on unveiling articles addressing relationships between the crisis of 2007-09 and education: it was unusual for a mainstream education journal to dedicate a whole issue to this topic. However, with the possible exception of Clarke and Newman’s (2010) contribution[2] it could be concluded that little progress has been made in understanding relations between capitalist crises and education since Madan Sarup’s classic Education, State and Crisis: A Marxist Perspective of 1982. Furthermore, there seemed to be a coy elision regarding the constitution of crisis within or of education itself. The crisis of 2007-09 was basically ‘economic’ in nature, it appears, with various spill-over effects for education: e.g. cuts in expenditure, deepening educational inequalities and rationing of access to higher education (Jones, 2010). Thus: education crisis was derivative of, and consequential upon, economic crisis. Furthermore, the economy, or the ‘economic’ system (for structuralists) is the starting point for analysis of education crisis.

        The notion that an ‘education crisis’ can only ever be derivative of a capitalist economic one begs the question as to whether all crises can only ever be basically economic in nature; only ‘economic’ crises fundamentally put either the whole capitalist economy and society at risk, or, are the foundation for crises in other parts of the social system but still basically ‘economic’ in nature; thereby generating spectres of reductionism, economic determinism and crude renditions of historical materialism. On the other hand, references to ‘crisis’ litter media reports and academic outputs in relation to all kinds of topics – and there is nearly always some kind of ‘education crisis’ foregrounded by the print media. In terms of everyday usage the concept appears to have extensive legitimacy, though Gamble notes that ‘the term crisis [is] being thrown around fairly indiscriminately in everyday discourse’ (2009, p.7).[3]    

It should be borne in mind that the concept of crisis can be traced back to the writings of Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 370 B.C.) in ancient Greece, where it was used in relation to medicine, specifically indicating the turning point in the course of a disease or medical condition. In such writings as Epidemics, Book 1, Hippocrates used the concept of crisis to denote the point (the turning point) at which a patient either began to make a recovery from illness, or the disease won out and death resulted (Hippocrates, 1983). Furthermore, reading the ground-breaking work on crisis by Janet Roitman (2011 and 2014), which built on the classic text on the topic by Reinhart Koselleck (1988), indicated that an exploration of the concept of crisis beyond the economic sphere could be a worthwhile project. Maybe there could be essentially ‘education crises’ after all, and with this in view, this paper is structured into three parts, as follows.

Part 1 begins with a rudimentary outline of the concept of crisis. Madan Sarup’s (1982) classical theory of education crisis is then explored, coupled with some evidence showing that Sarup’s approach still has relevance for today (with contemporary examples drawn from the United States, Australia and England). It is demonstrated how contemporary accounts of the 2007-09 economic crisis could supplement and deepen Sarup’s account, whilst also avoiding the issue of the possibility of definitive education crises. This is followed by a brief outline and review of some work by Vincent Carpentier (2003, 2006a-b and 2009), which, although manifesting more sophistication (and much better data) as compared with Sarup’s classic work, nevertheless falls prey to subsuming education crises under economic developments. In the same context, David Blacker’s work on The Falling Rate of Learning and the Neoliberal Endgame (2013) is examined. This is an attempt to apply Marx’s notion of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall (TRPF) (via the work of Kliman, 2012) to developments in education in the United States (primarily). Blacker stamps the TRPF on contemporary education and thereby develops an original account of education crisis. Yet nevertheless, his rendering of education crisis is still derivative of economic crisis. Blacker also fails to pin down what a falling rate of learning actually is. He prefers to focus on a fall in the mass of learning and the elimination of learning, instead. These developments rest on economic, but also environmental, crisis. This first part of the paper ends with a brief critique of Crisis Fundamentalism: the notion that real, bona fide crises can only be economic ones. This is what the concept of crisis in education is concerned with.

        Part 2 takes another tack: a different starting point, an alternative methodological approach. Rather than viewing education crises as flowing from economic ones, it explores the concept of education and what it is to be an ‘educated person’, and then seeks out possibilities for education crises within educational phenomena, institutions, processes and ethics. Such crises are crises of education, it is argued. The work of R.S. Peters (via Robin Barrow, 2011) is the focus here. There is an attempt to work through what an ‘education crisis’ might be on the basis of Barrow’s rendition of what he (Barrow) takes to be the four key components of Peters’ conception of the educated person. The discussion of some of the consequences of this approach is deepened through bringing the work of Janet Roitman (2011, 2014) to the keyboard. Rather than providing a history of the concept of crisis, as in Koselleck (1988), or providing a new (and improved) concept of crisis, Roitman shows the various ways in which the concept has been, and can be, put to work. Hence, Roitman’s approach to crisis is ‘put to work’ on R.S. Peters’ work on the educated person, pace Barrow. The last base in Part 2 examines the notion of ‘education for its own sake’ and what I call ‘island pedagogy’, flowing from the work of Furedi (2004a and 2009) and his followers. The argument here is that this approach to education crisis falls either into an ethics of blame or conjures up an education Colossus; a kind of Nietzschean figure with a monumental drive to learn and teach, unsullied by material interests and motivations. This approach is also basically idealist, transhistorical and sociologically naïve. It is also the flipside of Crisis Fundamentalism (education crises derive from economic ones – crises in education): quintessentially education crises can only arise within the educational sphere itself – leading to a kind of Educational Crisis Idealism (crises of education).

The Conclusion argues that we need to think about crisis in relation to education and economy in a new way: such crises are not essentially ‘education’ or ‘economic’ in nature. An anti- (rather than post-) structuralist perspective rooted in class struggle is advanced as a way forward, and neither Crisis Fundamentalism (crises in education) nor Educational Crisis Idealism (crises of education) will do. It also discusses the question of whether, and why, exploring the issue of crisis and education is a worthwhile pursuit for critical educators and theorists and for those who wish to move beyond capitalist education and society.

The whole paper can be downloaded at Academia: http://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education

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

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[1] Journal of Education Policy, Vol.25 No.6, November, edited by Stephen Ball, Meg Maguire and Ivor Goodson. A book based on this special 25^th Anniversary was produced by the same three editors, also called Education, Capitalism and the Global Crisis, in 2012 (Ball et al, 2012) – but with some additional articles.

[2] Clarke and Newman (2010) explore the notion that crises are ‘socially constructed’ and the roles discourse and social power play in these constructions.

[3] See also: ‘Crisis is much overused in everyday discourse. 24-hour news lives by manufacturing crisis. Most of them are entirely ephemeral. Any event that is in any way out of the ordinary or where there appears to be conflict and the outcome is uncertain becomes labelled a crisis’ (Gamble, 2010, p.704).