Universities, the risk industry and capitalism

Robertson, Susan L.; Muellerleile, Chris

doi:10.4324/9781315618326-8

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…The political nature of these numbers and the fact that they are sometimes contested means that ranking agencies, universities and publishing houses have all had to enhance their calculative capacity (Muellerleile 2017;Robertson and Muellerleile 2017). In the case of THE, its team of data analysts has grown considerably as it has grappled with the challenge to draw conclusions and make recommendations from its calculations (Lim 2017(Lim , 2021.…”

Section: Calculating Quality: Qualificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Market making and the (re)production of knowledge in public universities

Lewis¹,

Robertson²,

Lim³

et al. 2022

Learning and Teaching

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This collection of short essays presents and examines six vignettes of organisational change in British, New Zealand and European universities. Drawing on the social studies of economisation literature, formal research projects and auto-ethnographic insights, the authors detail profound changes in how knowledge is produced in universities. They examine policy documents, calculative techniques and management practices to illustrate how proliferating market rationalities, technologies and relations are reimagining university missions, reframing their practices and refashioning their subjects. Their vignettes demonstrate that market-making pressures are emerging from micro-scale socio-technical arrangements as well as altered funding models and external policy imperatives. They reveal the extent and detail of market-making pressures on academic practice in research and teaching. Finding ways to contest these pressures is imperative.

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Section: Calculating Quality: Qualificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Market making and the (re)production of knowledge in public universities

Lewis¹,

Robertson²,

Lim³

et al. 2022

Learning and Teaching

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show abstract

“…This paper is informed by the latter perspective. We follow the analysis of the notion of the 'risk university' (Robertson, Muellerleile 2016), recognizing the basic contradiction of the risk society, namely the modernization processes adding to the complexity of the globalized and interconnected society. This produces or induces the risks that the modern societies in turn strive to reduce and counteract.…”

Section: Lagging Reflexivity Of the Risk Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk University: Uncertainty of the Late Modernity Coming Too Early

Deutschmann

Wanke

2020

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The study examines how a regional university, having recently overseen a dramatic internationalization, deals with the consequences of COVID-19, and how the students - many of whom are international and coming from the global peripheries - experience the pandemic. The study is informed by the critical theory of late modernity and capitalism - especially the theory of uncertainty and risk (Beck, 1992; Beck, Giddens, & Lash 1994). It explores the power relations of the communicative dynamic between the administrators managing the crisis and the students perceiving and living it. It is an early-stage research report, published days after a pilot study was run. A survey among international students (including local, tuition-fee paying, and exchange students) was distributed to obtain initial responses. The analysis is complemented by insights based on close observation of the unfolding situation and analysis of the documents issued by the university. The findings explain the uncertainty experienced by international students, characteristic of many CE universities. The study covers the topics of attitudes towards epidemics, information imbalance, perception of security, and evaluation of the responses. The paper concludes with an urgent call to recently internationalized universities for a recognition of the complexity of students’ fears.

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“…There has recently been an explosion of education and futures work by governments and international organisations, including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), aimed at challenging and changing the ways in which teaching and learning in higher education is organised and delivered (see OECD, 2000;Vincent-Lancrin, 2004). Such 'futuring' activities include the development of scenarios about current and future states of education, the promotion of foresight and horizon scanning activities aimed at managing both the risks that might impede the realisation of future states (Robertson and Muellerleile, 2016) and the risks of ignoring radical changes already taking place in the higher sector that could lead to catastrophic outcomes (Barber et al, 2014).…”

Section: Higher Education For a Globalising Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonising the future: Mega-trade deals, education services and global higher education markets

Robertson

2017

Futures

Self Cite

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This paper explores a less well-examined aspect of time in relation to higher education and the academy; that of 'time-future'. The paper takes the case of education trade strategies being pursued by governments and allied agencies, and explores the multiple ways in which time-future is mobilised. Drawing on trade documents, government statistics, and related reports, the paper points to two time-future dynamics at work. The first dynamic focuses on the ways in which the future is imagined by strategic actors, and legitimating through creating equivalences between education trade, economic growth and prosperity. The second dynamic explores the ways in which the current round of global and regional trade negotiations colonise the future as a political resource. I reflect on how time-future is a key resource and modality of power to be claimed and cognitively shaped so as to reorient actor's expectations towards the rhythms and demands of capitalism, and away from the temporal orders of the academy. However, efforts to commodify higher education, on the one hand, and colonise higher education futures exclusively to serve the interests of economic investors, on the other, continue to be contested. As a result, a new temporal order is yet to become common-sense, and an existing order is yet to die.

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Universities, the risk industry and capitalism

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

Market making and the (re)production of knowledge in public universities

Market making and the (re)production of knowledge in public universities

Risk University: Uncertainty of the Late Modernity Coming Too Early

Colonising the future: Mega-trade deals, education services and global higher education markets

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