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Capital in Higher Education

Part of the book series: Marxism and Education ((MAED))

Abstract

Utilising the proposed Marxian framework for a critique of the political economy, this chapter confronts the limitations of mainstream approaches in analysing economic relations in higher education. It begins by discussing how the progressive marketisation processes in higher education have coincided with the expansion of neoclassical economics as the dominant framework within higher education research. The chapter then explores three distinct approaches: neoclassical economics of higher education, the theory of academic capitalism, and exceptionalism, all aimed at understanding economic relations in higher education. The objective is to unveil the political ineffectiveness of marketisation critique and highlight the market perspective’s shortcomings in explaining capitalist processes that subordinate academic labour to capital. The chapter argues that academic capitalism theory and exceptionalism inadvertently reinforce neoclassical viewpoints on higher education, focusing on exchange relations and the market rather than the production relations entangling academic labour and capital. Despite the authors’ intentions, these approaches fail to provide a solid foundation for a genuine critique of capitalist transformations within higher education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

    Krystian Szadkowski

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  1. Krystian Szadkowski
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Szadkowski, K. (2023). Markets. In: Capital in Higher Education. Marxism and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38441-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38441-7_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-38440-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-38441-7

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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