Abstract
The argument of this chapter is that universities are ‘classed’ institutions in terms of who they select to attend, but there is another sense too in which the way they are structured produces a different set of class relations—ones that besmirch the notion of dignity. The performative neoliberal apparatuses of measuring, calibrating, ranking, rating, comparing, and auditing are gross forms of institutional humiliation and exclusion. What is being appropriated in the neoliberal university is the ownership of academic work by ‘others’ who lay claim to its outputs and products, who are diverting it and using it for their own perverse purposes—enhancing brand, competitive position, or hierarchical status.
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Smyth, J. (2017). The University as an Instrument of ‘Class’. In: The Toxic University. Palgrave Critical University Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54968-6_6
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