A Marxist Critique of the Ruined University

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-981-965118-4
Verlag: Springer Nature Singapore

Buch, Englisch, 179 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 463 g

Reihe: Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives

This book revitalizes the Marxian concept of critique for research into the transformation of universities. It consists of a set of comprehensive and interconnected theoretical tools, starting from the reflection on the political ontology of higher education, through the critique of political economy of the sector to the analysis of activist struggles within the universities, and back to the ontological concept of the common – a foundation for the university alternative design. The tools offered and discussed in context throughout the book allow for a productive use in overcoming the current crisis of the university, as well as to avoid the pitfalls present in contemporary debates around it. Unlike the dominant discussions on the university in crisis, the authors argue that to grasp its nature, one has to reach more profound than the level of appearances such as marketization and commodification.

Richard Hall, Professor of Education and Technology, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

Simon Marginson, Professor of Higher Education at the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, UK,

Honorary Professor at Tsinghua University in China, and Joint Editor in Chief of the journal'Higher Education'

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Krzeski, Jakub

Szadkowski, Krystian

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Schulen, Schulleitung Universitäten, Hochschulen
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Philosophie der Erziehung, Bildungstheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements.- Dedication.- Chapter 1. The Totality of Capital in Higher Education and the Integrity of Critique.- Chapter 2. Decrepitude of the Critique: Renewing or Casting Critique aside?.- Chapter 3. The Real Movement that Abolishes the Present State of Things. Marx (and Engels) on Critique.- Chapter 4. Ontological Foundations of Critique.- Chapter 5. Interlude 1: On Academic Robinson and his Preachers.- Chapter 6. ‘In’: Critique of the Political Economy of Higher Education.- Chapter 7. Interlude 2: Where to Hit?.- Chapter 8. ‘Against’: Workers’ Inquiry and Co-research.- Chapter 9. Interlude 3: Embedding Counter-Subjectivity within Militant University.- Chapter 10. ‘Beyond’: Higher Education and Practices of the Common.- Chapter 11. Coda: Critique as Commoning.- Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Krystian Szadkowski, is a senior researcher at Faculty of Philosophy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. He works at Scholarly Communication Research Group. Recently he published Capital in Higher Education. A Critique of the Political Economy of the Sector (Palgrave 2023) and together with Richard Hall and Inny Accioly, The Palgrave International Handbook of Marxism and Education (Palgrave 2023). He leads a multi-year research project on Origins and development of peripheral academic capitalism in Poland (1990-2021) funded by National Science Centre (Poland).
Jakub Krzeski is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences at Nicolaus Copernicus University and a researcher with the Scholarly Communication Research Group. His work explores the social theory of quantification, critical theory, and political ontology, with a focus on how capitalism structures science and higher education. He is currently studying the historical emergence of the evaluative state in Poland and the impact of research evaluation systems on predatory publishing. His research has been published in Historical Materialism, Social Epistemology, and Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education, among others.