Who said it? Market incentives lower the value of college to both individuals and the public. Defunding chips away at both the public good and the private benefits to students. Faculty should unite on the concept of public good, and senior administrators should articulate it. Privatization has a price (and is not an improvement). Axé.
I had almost finished a very good post and it was lost. In it, I had talked about some pieces of LARR 40:3 (2005), a great issue of the journal but that I am going to put in the café bookshelf because not only do I have electronic access to it but also, the wonderful … More Language corruption, “public choice,” and more
I really should have spent all the time I wasted reading Marxist and other Left theory, simply for the sake of mental health — although it would have been good intellectual exercise as well, and a good political education. Here’s an article on Kropotkin, mutual aid and anarchism that is worth reading. Here is a … More Kropotkin and more.
On the commercialization of higher education. Kezar says the three books she reviews offer oversimplified solutions to the commercialization problem. She says commercialization must be studied from a systems and cultural perspective. 1. What is the public good, and how is commercialization threatening it? None of the authors say a great deal about the notion … More Adrianna Kezar
It is in August, then, that I will create the reserve list for that class and construct Moodle sites for all my classes. In July I will still read for them. Today I was supposed to start writing — write for an hour, not read — that article. There are all these tantalizing ways to … More August 3-11
I would buy this book if it were less expensive, and if it were in a library I would check it out. Countering recent arguments that we should “unbundle” or “disrupt” higher education, Jason Owen-Smith argues that research universities are valuable gems that deserve support. While they are complex and costly, their enduring value is … More Research universities and the public good
I learned about this book from Clarissa’s blog and am now reading it as well. This post is an aide-mémoire, not a full discussion. a. The exploitation of freedom. “Freedom will prove to have been merely an interlude.” It is felt when passing from one way of living to another, until this too turns out … More Psychopolitics 1: the crisis of freedom
My other friend(s) said this and I have to make the point explicit in my talk: “It’s important to recall why higher ed is important in the first place, imho. Namely: as a site to cultivate and protect and project critical thinking about the burning issues in our world.” ETA: My other friend said: “[S]omething … More The critical university
I’d like to read this McGuigan book, but I do not want to buy it, and we do not have it, and the next university only has it in e-format, and only for its own faculty and students, so the following university is the place. Note that that university is also the richest. Don’t let … More Neoliberal culture
Clarissa is posting on Wendy Brown who, as we know, is a major critic of the privatization of the University of California as well as one who shows what neoliberal values have done to everything. Newfield, and my colleagues, want to reclaim the idea of the public good, and the public for that matter, and … More After neoliberalism?
coldhearted scientist وداد 