Three Moments of Critique: Marxist Method in Higher Education

Presentation at the CHER Conference Kassel 2019, Theories and Methods in Higher Education.

Transcript

1. Three Moments of Critique: Marxist Method in Higher Education
2. Do we need Marx in HER? Indeed, we do! We are here to introduce you to his method of critique. We find it useful. Maybe you will find it helpful as well… 2
3. Crisis and Critique The genealogy of Marxian critique for higher education research 1.
4. What are the sources of crisis of the university? ▪ Commodification, marketisation, neoliberalisation ▪ Competition, acceleration, metricisation ▪ Privatisation, precarisation, managerialisation Are they the core of the problem or just surface phenomenon? 4
5. Where is capital in higher education? ▪ It takes an external position to the sector itself (financial or commercial form). ▪ Capital penetrates all higher education systems and transforms the way in which they function. ▪ The narratives on the capitalist crisis of the university, that ignore how capital operates within HE, are not only analytically inadequate, but also politically ineffective. 5
6. Marxian understanding of critique ▪ The purpose of Marx's intervention is not to preserve the status quo, but to reinvigorate the conflict so it can break the framework in which it was contained. ▪ It transforms our understanding of crisis, which must be seen in relational terms - the crisis of the capitalist relation itself. 6
7. „The real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence” The German Ideology 7
8. Marx and the three momets of critique ▪ “the present state of things”, the movement is located within it, so it assumes the necessity of inquiring about it and understanding it on its own terms ▪ The main task of the critique is to “abolish” this state of things, to acquire an antagonistic stance, to go against the status quo; ▪ “The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence” – the possibility of this movement coming into existence is already given, the very prospect of going beyond a capitalistically organized sector. 8
9. The Three Moments Explained In, Against and Beyond and the Critique of Higher Education in Crisis 2.
10. In, or the critique of political economy 10
11. The Critique of Political Economy Diagnose To diagnose the phenomenon of crisis and to indicate the mechanisms operating in the “inside” of the university. Expose To expose their base, to reveal the internal ties, to disassemble them, and to identify their source. Examine Documents, theories and discourses that structure and influence the contemporary global HE terrain and thus shape the university. 11 The three areas of inquiry: academic labour, prestige distriubtion, capital
12. Against, or following the struggles 12
13. “Self-explanation of the struggles and dreams of the epoch” Programme Shape your research program by taking into account the objectives and actions of the movements occurring within and against the capitalist university. Contradictions Use your categories and models to expose the contradictions of unseen and invisible relations of domination, hierarchy, expropriation and exploitation within the system. Unity in struggle Join the university struggles to exacerbate the contradictions uncovered in their course. 13
14. Beyond, or the higher education of the future 14
15. The Future HE is now! Positive vision A negative method is insufficient. Thus the critique must assume a positive project. The seeds of the Future Map imminent forms of social relations, that are perceptible today in their incipient appearances but that might create a basis for the HE of the future. Feasible utopia Do not draft a utopian prospect but reveals the elements of what has to come within the empty shell of the old university. 15
16. Conclusions In, Against and Beyond and the Critique of Higher Education in Crisis 3.
17. The critique integrates the three moments In Against Beyond 17
18. How does it work? In Uncovering the role that corporations such as Elsevier play in transforming the struggle for academic prestige while profiting from it. Against Tracing the contradictions around the struggle for the open access and the stance taken by capitalist publishers towards OA. Beyond Going beyond the capitalistically controlled scholarly communication calls for contesting the individualizing system of metrics. 18
19. Thanks! Any questions? Our paper is now published in „Social Epistemology”: In, Against, and Beyond: A Marxist Critique for Higher Education in Crisis ▪ We are happy to share a copy with you and get your feedback! ▪ Write to us: krysszad@amu.edu.pl or jakub.krzeski@amu.edu.pl 19