Abstract
The idea of the scholar as academic heretic and their place in education serves as a useful frame to analyse the challenges facing academia in recent decades. Beginning with the European tradition of scholarly criticism from its early institutional forms, a tradition that endured for many centuries, this chapter argues that recent changes to education wrought by global market economics are remarkable for their breadth and depth in a comparatively short space of time. Reflecting on a dominant narrative of neoliberalism within social scientific critique and within numerous chapters in this volume, examples are drawn together of neoliberal market ideology impacting education and learning. The analysis concludes that a philosophy for and of education has been eroded by neoliberal economics and might be rediscovered through a deeper critique of market-based practices of accumulation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
We emphasise a distinction here as accumulation and not only distribution of wealth created demands scrutiny. We return to this at the end of the chapter in relation to education.
References
ACTU. (2012). Lives on hold: Unlocking the potential of Australia’s workforce. Independent inquiry into insecure work. Canberra: ACTU. B. Howe [Chair].
Au-Yeung, W., Kouparitsas, M., Luu, N., & Sharma, D. (2013, October 18). Long-term international GDP projections. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Bartlett, R. (1993). The making of Europe: Conquest, colonization and cultural change, 950–1350. London: Allen Lane.
Bauman, Z. (1997). Postmodernity and its discontents. Cambridge: Polity Press, Cambridge in association with Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
Belloc, H. (1938). The great heresies. Charlotte: TAN Books. Digital edition 2011, Seattle: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1993). The revenge of homo economicus: Contested exchange and the revival of political economy. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7(1), 83–102.
Brown, W. (2011, Summer). Neoliberalized knowledge. History of the Present, 1(1), 113–129.
Colebatch, T. (2013, October 10). Country’s rich have lion’s share of income growth. Sydney Morning Herald, p. 5.
Commonwealth of Australia. (2012). Skills for all Australians, national reforms to skill more Australians and achieve a more competitive, dynamic economy. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Commonwealth of Australia. (2013). Strategic review of health and medical research in Australia – Better health through research. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Cutler, T. (2008). Venturous Australia: Building strength in innovation. Melbourne: Cutler and Co.
de Ridder-Symoens, H. (Ed.). (1991). A history of the university in Europe: Volume 1, Universities in the middle ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
de Ridder-Symoens, H. (Ed.). (1996). A history of the university in Europe: Volume 2, Universities in early modern Europe (1500 1800). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Denman, B. (2005). What is a university in the 21st century? Higher Education Management and Policy, 17(2), 9–28.
Derrida, J. (1982). Writing and difference (A. Bass, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dunn, B. (2012). The strange death of neoliberalism: The case of the missing corpse. In D. Cahill, L. Edwards, & F. Stilwell (Eds.), Neoliberalism: Beyond the free market. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Elliot, J., & Harkins, G. (2013, Summer). Introduction: Genres of neoliberalism. Social Text, 31(2/115), 1–17.
Feneley, R. (2013, November 30). Stolen boys to tell their stories of life in hell. The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 7.
Hall, P., & Soskice, D. (Eds.). (2001). Varieties of capitalism: The institutional foundations of comparative advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Huntington, S. P. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Kallenberg, A. L. (2009, February). Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition. American Sociological Review, 74, 1–22.
Konings, M. (2012). Neoliberalism and the state. In D. Cahill, L. Edwards, & F. Stilwell (Eds.), Neoliberalism: Beyond the free market. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Macalintal, A. (2013, August 12). Keep up with technology – Or perish. Campus Review. Accessed online at: http://www.campusreview.com.au/blog/2013/08/keep-up-with-technology-or-perish/
Marginson, S. (2010, March). The limits of market reform in higher education. Higher Education Forum, 7, 1–19. Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University. Accessed online: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/people/marginson_docs/RIHE_HigherEducationForum_Marginson_0909.pdf
Marin, E. (2012). Precarious work: An international problem. International Journal of Labour Research, 5(1), 153–168.
Martin, R. (2004, Summer). Turning pro: Professional qualifications and the global university. Social Text, 22(2/79), 1–11.
Mazzarol, T. (2012, August 28). Smart nation: Building the national innovation system. The Conversation. Accessed November 2013 online: https://theconversation.com/smart-nation-building-the-national-innovation-system-9148
Newman, F., Couturier, L., & Scurry, J. (2004). The future of higher education: Rhetoric, reality, and the risks of the market. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Paton, J. (2012). Neoliberalism through the lens of embeddedness. In D. Cahill, L. Edwards, & F. Stilwell (Eds.), Neoliberalism: Beyond the free market. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Polyani, K. (2001) [1944]. The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Boston: Beacon Press.
Rea, J. (2013, July 1). MOOCs, money and casual staff. Campus Review. Accessed July 2013 on line at: http://www.campusreview.com.au/blog/2013/07/moocs-money-and-casual-staff/
Ruggie, J. G. (1982, Spring). International regimes, transactions, and change: Embedded liberalism in the postwar economic order. International Organisations, 36(2).
Samir, K. C, Barakat, B., Goujon, A., Skirbekk, V., Sanderson, W., & Lutz, W. (2010, March 16). Projection of populations by level of educational attainment, age, and sex for 120 countries for 2005–2050. Demographic Research, 22(Article 15), 383–472. doi: 10.4054/DemRes.2010.22.15
Smith, A. (1976) [1776]. An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Southern, R. W. (1961). The making of the middle ages. Yale: Yale University Press.
Southern, R. W. (1997). Scholastic humanism and the unification of Europe: Foundations. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Thomas, J. (2012, November 12). Online lectures now streaming. Campus Review. Accessed November 2013 online at: http://www.campusreview.com.au/blog/2012/11/online-lectures-now-streaming-247/
Wacquant, L. (2009). Punishing the poor: The neoliberal government of social insecurity. Durham: Duke University.
Wacquant, L. (2012, November 26). Desperately seeking neoliberalism: A sociological catch. Plenary address to The Australian Sociological Association annual conference, University of Queensland, Brisbane.
Welch, A. R. (1988). Aboriginal education as internal colonialism: The schooling of an indigenous minority in Australia. Comparative Education, 24(2), 203–215.
Wilson, T. (2012). Review of business-university collaboration (The Wilson Review). London: n.p. (Government of the United Kingdom).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brownlee, P., Freebody, P. (2015). Who Are the Heretics?. In: Proctor, H., Brownlee, P., Freebody, P. (eds) Controversies in Education. Policy Implications of Research in Education, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08759-7_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08759-7_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08758-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08759-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)