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Category Archives: Philosophy of Education

Education and the Tragedy of Labour

EDUCATION

EDUCATION AND THE TRAGEDY OF LABOUR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glenn Rikowski

 

This Draft paper of mine, Education and the Tragedy of Labour – completed on 25th June 2020 – can now be found at Academia, in the ‘Drafts & Pre-prints’ section, at:

https://www.academia.edu/43678143/Education_and_the_Tragedy_of_Labour

 

Abstract:

The argument of this paper is that, insofar as education is tied to the social production of labour-power in capitalism, or is infused with the business takeover of education, then, by default, it is in a tragic condition. This argument is pursued in conjunction with an exploration of some aspects of the literature on tragedy. The tragedy of labour results from the opposition between labouring for value production and capital’s profit system, and labouring for ourselves – individually and collectively – for human desires, needs and enhancement. Radical alternatives are required for the latter, otherwise education is doomed to be tied to capital’s prerogatives.

 

Glenn Rikowski at ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

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Education Crises as Crises for Capital

Glenn Rikowski

EDUCATION CRISES AS CRISES FOR CAPITAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My article, Education Crises as Crises for Capital was recently published in ‘Theory in Action’, Vol.12 No.3 (July). See doi:10.3798/tia.1937-0237.1924.

Alternatively, you can get it from Academia, at: https://www.academia.edu/40121601/Education_Crises_as_Crises_for_Capital

ABSTRACT

Accounts of education crises typically start out from the notion that these are derivative of economic crises. Hard times for capitalist economies – with recession and consequent shortfalls in tax takes as unemployment rises – leads to cutbacks in budgets for state services, including education. The victims of these cuts are schools, colleges, universities, and students (as provision is trimmed) and staffs (redundancies, recruitment freezes and restructurings). This is The Classical Theory of Education Crisis. A critique of this perspective on education crisis is outlined in this article. Alternatively, it is argued that education crises can be crises for capital, where capitalist development in education institutions becomes threatened or terminated. Through the analysis of commodity forms, the conditions for education crises generating crises for capital are demonstrated. In this perspective, it is capital that is the victim. It is argued that when conscious attempts to go beyond existing forms of capitalist education are forged along anti-capitalist lines in alternative, oppositional educational organisations, then this poses the most threatening scenario for capital and its human representatives.

Glenn Rikowski

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The Concept of Educative Experience in Walter Benjamin’s Critical Theory

Walter Benjamin

THE CONCEPT OF EDUCATIVE EXPERIENCE IN WALTER BENJAMIN’S CRITICAL THEORY

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Talk by Matthew Charles (University of Westminster)

At the UCL Institute of Education

20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL

Wednesday, 19th July 2019

5.00pm – 7.15pm

Room 828

 

Free

Open to All

No booking required

 

Organised by Judith Suissa for the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB), London Branch

 

Following a revival of interest in a theory and practice of learning influenced by the critical theory of Walter Benjamin, Matthew Charles (University of Westminster) proposes to examine Benjamin’s philosophy of education through the focus of his concept of educative experience.

 

Matthew Charles

Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, University of Westminster.

Matthew is the author of a forthcoming book ‘Modernism Between Benjamin and Goethe’, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, forthcoming entries on Walter Benjamin for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and chapters and articles on critical theory and education in the Sage Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Pedagogies of Disaster, New German Critique, Boundary Two, Studies in Philosophy and Education, Pedagogy, Culture and Society and Radical Philosophy. His next book, to be published in Punctum’s Risking Education imprint, is on the ‘educational grotesque’.

See: https://benjaminpedagogy.wordpress.com/2019/06/11/talk-the-concept-of-educative-experience-in-walter-benjamins-critical-theory-wed-19th-july-2019-london/ and https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2019/jun/concept-educative-experience-walter-benjamins-critical-theory

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Privatisation: Education and Commodity Forms

PRIVATISATION: EDUCATION AND COMMODITY FORMS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An article by Glenn Rikowski

My article has recently been published in:

Keywords in Radical Philosophy and Education: Common Concepts for Contemporary Movements

Edited by Derek R. Ford

Brill | Sense

Leiden | Boston

2019

 

This article, Chapter 25, is now available at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/39344962/Privatisation_Education_and_Commodity_Forms

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

While education is an inherently political field and practice, and while the political struggles that radical philosophy takes up necessarily involve education, there remains much to be done at the intersection of education and radical philosophy. That so many intense political struggles today actually center educational processes and institutions makes this gap all the more pressing. Yet in order for this work to be done, we need to begin to establish common frameworks and languages in and with which to move.

Keywords in Radical Philosophy and Education takes up this crucial and urgent task. Dozens of emerging and leading activists, organizers, and scholars assemble a collective body of concepts to interrogate, provoke, and mobilize contemporary political, economic, and social struggles. This wide-ranging edited collection covers key and innovative philosophical and educational themes–from animals, sex, wind, and praxis, to studying, podcasting, debt, and students.

This field-defining work is a necessary resource for all activists and academics interested in exploring the latest conceptual contributions growing out of the intersection of social struggles and the university.

Contributors are: Rebecca Alexander, Barbara Applebaum, David Backer, Jesse Bazzul, Brian Becker, Jesse Benjamin, Matt Bernico, Elijah Blanton, Polina-Theopoula Chrysochou, Clayton Cooprider, Katie Crabtree, Noah De Lissovoy, Sandra Delgado, Dean Dettloff, Zeyad El Nabolsy, Derek R. Ford, Raúl Olmo Fregoso Bailón, Michelle Gautreaux, Salina Gray, Aashish Hemrajani, Caitlin Howlett, Khuram Hussain, Petar Jandric, Colin Jenkins, Kelsey Dayle John, Lenore Kenny, Tyson E. Lewis, Curry Malott, Peter McLaren, Glenn Rikowski, Marelis Rivera, Alexa Schindel, Steven Singer, Ajit Singh, Nicole Snook, Devyn Springer, Sara Tolbert, Katherine Vroman, Anneliese Waalkes, Chris Widimaier, Savannah Jo Wilcek, David Wolken, Jason Wozniak, and Weili Zhao.

 

See: https://brill.com/abstract/title/54628?rskey=CsCTpk&result=1&fbclid=IwAR2QI5FkI42O-ZaKJXeE0FmlfSn-uKBKU02a9tFOpFMN6P0Se2q8bIqplrc

 

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Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

 

Keywords in Radical Philosophy and Education: Common Concepts for Contemporary Movements

KEYWORDS IN RADICAL PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION: COMMON CONCEPTS FOR CONTEMPORARY MOVEMENTS

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Derek R. Ford

Brill | Sense

Leiden | Boston

2019

 

While education is an inherently political field and practice, and while the political struggles that radical philosophy takes up necessarily involve education, there remains much to be done at the intersection of education and radical philosophy. That so many intense political struggles today actually center educational processes and institutions makes this gap all the more pressing. Yet in order for this work to be done, we need to begin to establish common frameworks and languages in and with which to move.

Keywords in Radical Philosophy and Education takes up this crucial and urgent task. Dozens of emerging and leading activists, organizers, and scholars assemble a collective body of concepts to interrogate, provoke, and mobilize contemporary political, economic, and social struggles. This wide-ranging edited collection covers key and innovative philosophical and educational themes–from animals, sex, wind, and praxis, to studying, podcasting, debt, and students.

This field-defining work is a necessary resource for all activists and academics interested in exploring the latest conceptual contributions growing out of the intersection of social struggles and the university.

Contributors are: Rebecca Alexander, Barbara Applebaum, David Backer, Jesse Bazzul, Brian Becker, Jesse Benjamin, Matt Bernico, Elijah Blanton, Polina-Theopoula Chrysochou, Clayton Cooprider, Katie Crabtree, Noah De Lissovoy, Sandra Delgado, Dean Dettloff, Zeyad El Nabolsy, Derek R. Ford, Raúl Olmo Fregoso Bailón, Michelle Gautreaux, Salina Gray, Aashish Hemrajani, Caitlin Howlett, Khuram Hussain, Petar Jandric, Colin Jenkins, Kelsey Dayle John, Lenore Kenny, Tyson E. Lewis, Curry Malott, Peter McLaren, Glenn Rikowski, Marelis Rivera, Alexa Schindel, Steven Singer, Ajit Singh, Nicole Snook, Devyn Springer, Sara Tolbert, Katherine Vroman, Anneliese Waalkes, Chris Widimaier, Savannah Jo Wilcek, David Wolken, Jason Wozniak, and Weili Zhao.

See: See: https://brill.com/abstract/title/54628?rskey=CsCTpk&result=1&fbclid=IwAR2QI5FkI42O-ZaKJXeE0FmlfSn-uKBKU02a9tFOpFMN6P0Se2q8bIqplrc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

 

Marxist Education Across the Generations: A Dialogue on Education, Time, and Transhumanism – by Derek R. Ford & Glenn Rikowski

Postdigital Science and Education

MARXIST EDUCATION ACROSS THE GENERATIONS: A DIALOGUE ON EDUCATION, TIME, AND TRANSHUMANISM

 

A Dialogue by Derek R. Ford and Glenn Rikowski

A pre-print of this Dialogue was published in Postdigital Science and Education on 9th January 2019

 

In this dialogue, two educational theorists discuss a range of topics at the nexus of Marxism and education, exploring the rich and diverse paths traversed within and around Marxist educational theory. The first part consists of a synthesis of their own trajectories and how they fit into broader social movements and political and academic conversations. In particular, they focus on the social production of labor-power and pedagogical logics. The second part concentrates on postdigital debates, including conceptions of time and transhumanism.

In June of 2018, Derek Ford contacted Glenn Rikowski proposing a collaboration, and Glenn suggested a dialogue. After a few months of preparation, they began the dialogue over e-mail in early October. A few weeks later, Derek visited Glenn in England for 5 days. They finished the conversation over e-mail, completing it in December 2018.

This dialogue is now available in pre-print format at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/38235324/Marxist_Education_Across_the_Generations_a_Dialogue_on_Education_Time_and_Transhumanism

 

END

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Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Marxism and Education: Fragility, Crisis, Critique

Glenn Rikowski

MARXISM AND EDUCATION: FRAGILITY, CRISIS, CRITIQUE

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a new article out in Cadernos do GPOSSHE On-line, Vol.1 No.1 (2018): pp.142-170, Marxism and Education: Fragility, Crisis, Critique.

It now available at Academia, @ https://www.academia.edu/37616749/Marxism_and_Education_Fragility_Crisis_Critique

It is also available at ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328428970_Marxism_and_Education_Fragility_Crisis_Critique

 

ABSTRACT

The article rests substantially on the work of John Holloway, especially his early articles in Common Sense: Journal of the Edinburgh Conference of Socialist Economists. On this foundation, it is argued, firstly, that the importance of Marxism resides in its capacity to pinpoint fragilities and weaknesses in the constitution, development and rule of capital in contemporary society. Understanding these fragilities sharpens the critical edge of any movements aimed at social transformation out of the madhouse of capital.

Glenn Rikowski

 

***END***

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Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Pedagogy in the Post-Truth Era: An Anti-Trump Pro-test!

Derek Ford

PEDAGOGY IN THE POST-TRUTH ERA: AN ANTI-TRUMP PRO-TEST!

 

 

 

 

 

A Seminar by Derek R. Ford (Assistant Professor of Education Studies, DePauw University, USA)

 

University of East London

Stratford Campus

Cass School of Education & Communities

17th October 2018

12.30 – 2.00pm

Room: ED201

 

Abstract: Those who are in shock that truth doesn’t seem to matter in politics today miss the mark, for politics has never corresponded with truth. Instead, political struggle is about the formulation and materialization of new truths. In this sense, the “post-truth” era offers a new opportunity to articulate and fight for a new political reality. Yet rather than embrace this opportunity, the mainstream anti-Trump “resistance” aims to suture this opening and re-stabilize the political superstructure. This paper focuses instead on the left-wing resistance that’s organizing and mobilizing to force a new world into being. After articulating the coordinates of our “post-truth” moment, it investigates the educational logic of the protest. Specifically, I propose that the protest is when movements test their political line, their organizational capacity, and the existing order of things.

Biographical details: Derek R. Ford is Assistant Professor of Education studies at DePauw University, USA. His research emerges from the nexus of subjectivity, pedagogy, and revolutionary struggles. He has written and edited seven books, including Communist Study and Politics and Pedagogy in the “Post-Truth” Era: Insurgent Philosophy and Praxis. He is education chair at The Hampton Institute (a working-class think tank), an organizer with the Answer Coalition, and co-editor of LiberationSchool.org.

 

Seminar details: This seminar is organised by Dr Alpesh Maisuria, Senior Lecturer Education Studies, part of the International Centre for Public Pedagogy (ICuP) and the Marxism and Education and Education: Renewing Dialogues Series (MERD Co-Convenors Alpesh Maisuria and Tony Green).

 

Links:

Derek Ford’s book: Politics and Pedagogy in the “Post-Truth” Era: https://www.bloomsbury.com/…/politics-and-pedagogy-in-the-…/

Dr. Alpesh Maisuria: https://alpeshmaisuria.academia.edu/

ICPuP: https://www.uel.ac.uk/…/the-international-centre-for-public…

MERD facebook:https://www.facebook.com/groups/202497469816639/?fb_dtsg_ag=AdyC300tngNeUAmV0YiduaY9LBrsFhpfgYWjBZ2UgPpmVQ%3AAdxyQFjUkbZvsBPJUuFuTTHZ2ccCxx-oTjFqw4SAjWZD1g

Tony Green’s Marxism and Education Palgrave book series https://www.palgrave.com/gb/series/14811

 

All welcome. No registration required.

Please share widely.

Communist Study

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

END*****

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Deturpações: Notas críticas sobre Mercadorias e Educação

Glenn Rikowski

Deturpações: Notas críticas sobre Mercadorias e Educação

 

 

 

 

 

 

My article Deturpações: Notas críticas sobre Mercadorias e Educação has been published in Curriculo sem Fronteiras (Vol.18 No.1), a Brazilian journal.

 

The Resumo / Abstract are below, and you can get the article from either Academia of ResearchGate.

Glenn Rikowski

 

Resumo

Este artigo argumenta que as tentativas de entender a mercantilização da educação e da pesquisa educacional, sem recorrer ao maior pensador sobre as formas de mercadoria – Karl Marx -, inevitavelmente levam a confusões e a deturpações na teoria educacional. Isso é demonstrado por meio de uma crítica a um artigo recente de David Bridges (2017), no qual o autor se concentra na mercantilização na pesquisa educacional. Ao ignorar as ideias de Marx, e também de teóricos marxistas contemporâneos, que escrevem sobre a mercadoria e a mercantilização, Bridges não realiza distinções cruciais na análise da mercantilização e, além de confundir conceitos, confunde os fenômenos que lhes são correspondentes, os quais deveriam ser tratados separadamente. No caso, Bridges e outros teóricos educacionais convencionais, que evitam a referência à Marx e à teoria marxista, acabam criando uma série de falsas declarações em suas análises sobre a mercantilização educacional. Tais abordagens camuflam a capitalização da educação; isto é, os processos pelos quais as instituições educativas “se tornam capital”, o devenir do capital. Essas teorizações são superficiais e politicamente enganosas.

Palavras-chave: mercantilização da educação, marxismo, pesquisa educacional.

 

Abstract

This paper argues that attempts to understand commodification in education and educational research without recourse to the greatest thinker on commodity forms – Karl Marx – inevitably leads to confusion and misrepresentation in educational theory. This is demonstrated through a critique of a recent paper by David Bridges (2017) where he focuses on commodification in education research. By ignoring the ideas of Marx, but also contemporary Marxist theorists writing on the commodity and commodification, Bridges fails to make crucial distinctions in the analysis of commodification, and also conflates and confuses concepts and their corresponding phenomena that should be kept separate. In the event, Bridges, and other mainstream educational theorists who avoid reference to Marx and Marxist theory, end up creating a host of misrepresentations in their analyses of educational commodification. Such approaches camouflage the capitalisation of education; that is, educational institutions ‘becoming capital’, the becoming of capital. These theorisations are superficial and politically misleading.

Keywords: commodification of education, Marxism, educational research.

 

At Academia: http://www.academia.edu/36861405/Deturpa%C3%A7%C3%B5es_Notas_cr%C3%ADticas_sobre_Mercadorias_e_Educa%C3%A7%C3%A3o

 

At ResearchGate:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325766732_Deturpacoes_Notas_criticas_sobre_Mercadorias_e_Educacao

 

The paper is in English as: Misrepresentations: Critical Notes on Commodities and Education, which is available at Academia @: https://www.academia.edu/35799008/Misrepresentations_Critical_Notes_on_Commodities_and_Education

 

***END***

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Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

 

 

Interview on Marxism, Critical Pedagogy and Inclusive Education: Discussions for a Revolutionary Discourse

Glenn Rikowski

INTERVIEW ON MARXISM, CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: DISCUSSIONS FOR A REVOLUTIONARY DISCOURSE

 

 

 

My interview with Aldo Ocampo Gonzalez, ‘Interview on Marxism, Critical Pedagogy and Inclusive Education: Discussions for a Revolutionary Discourse‘ is now available at Academia.

Aldo Ocampo Gonzalez is Director of the Center for Latin American Studies on Inclusive Education (CELEI), based in Santiago, Chile.

The website for CELEI is: http://www.celei.cl

The interview can be viewed on Academia at:  https://www.academia.edu/36752890/Interview_on_Marxism_Critical_Pedagogy_and_Inclusive_Education_Discussions_for_a_Revolutionary_Discourse

***END***

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Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate

Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate

 

 

I have had many articles, papers, reports, presentations and teaching documents at Academia for some years now. But for the last year I have built up my collection of papers, articles etc. at ResearchGate.

You can find these documents at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Here are direct links to a few of my papers and articles:

Education Crises As Crises For Capital (2018) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322642418_Education_Crises_As_Crises_For_Capital

Privatisation in Education and Commodity Forms (2017) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322144355_Privatisation_in_Education_and_Commodity_Forms

Capitorg: Education and the Constitution of the Human in Contemporary Society (2011) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309529786_Capitorg_Education_and_the_Constitution_of_the_Human_in_Contemporary_Society

Education and the Politics of Human Resistance (2006) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241262665_Education_and_the_Politics_of_Human_Resistance

Education for Industry: A Complex Technicism (2001) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44837860_Education_for_Industry_A_complex_technicism

 

***END***

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Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Misrepresentations: Critical Notes on Commodities and Education

Glenn Rikowski

Misrepresentations: Critical Notes on Commodities and Education

 

 

 

 

Glenn Rikowski

Visiting Fellow, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, UK

 

This is a paper I wrote in response to a presentation I went to at the 2017 Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) Annual Conference at Oxford, by David Bridges.

The paper was completed on 3rd October 2017, at is now available at Academia.

 

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that attempts to understand commodification in education and educational research without recourse to the greatest thinker on commodity forms – Karl Marx – inevitably leads to confusion and misrepresentation in educational theory. This is demonstrated through a critique of a recent paper by David Bridges (2017) where he focuses on commodification in education research. By ignoring the ideas of Marx, but also contemporary Marxist theorists writing on the commodity and commodification, Bridges fails to make crucial distinctions in the analysis of commodification, and also conflates and confuses concepts and their corresponding phenomena that should be kept separate. In the event, Bridges, and other mainstream educational theorists who avoid reference to Marx and Marxist theory, end up creating a host of misrepresentations in their analyses of educational commodification. Such approaches camouflage the capitalisation of education; that is, educational institutions ‘becoming capital’, the becoming of capital. These theorisations are superficial and politically misleading.

 

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

 

Dr. Glenn Rikowski