The Alienated Academic: The Struggle for Autonomy Inside the University (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9783030068288)

Higher education is increasingly unable to engage usefully with global emergencies, as its functions are repurposed for value. Discourses of entrepreneurship, impact and excellence, realised through competition and the market, mean that academics and students are increasingly alienated from themselves and their work. This book applies Marx's concept of alienation to the realities of academic life in the Global North, in order to explore how the idea of public education is subsumed under the law of value. In a landscape of increased commodification of higher education, the book explores the relationship between alienation and crisis, before analysing how academic knowledge, work, identity and life are themselves alienated. Finally, it argues that through indignant struggle, another world is possible, grounded in alternative forms of organising life and producing socially-useful knowledge, ultimately requiring the abolition of academic labour. This pioneering work will be of interest andvalue to all those working in the higher education sector, as well as those concerned with the rise of neoliberalism and marketization within universities.

Author: Richard Hall
ISBN-10: 3030068285
ISBN-13: 9783030068288
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Language: English
Published: 01/31/2019
Pages: 273
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.27h x 5.83w x 0.64d