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Category Archives: Rikowski News

Interview with Glenn Rikowski – Marxism & Sciences

Interview with Glenn Rikowski – Marxism & Sciences

This interview is now available at:

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368654826_Interview_with_Glenn_Rikowski_-_Marxism_Sciences

Academia: https://www.academia.edu/97210925/Interview_with_Glenn_Rikowski_Marxism_and_Sciences   

Glenn Rikowski is interviewed by Siyaveş Azeri and Ali C. Gedik

Marxism & Sciences: A Journal of Nature, Culture, Human and Society, Volume 2 Issue 1 (2023), pp.178-184.

For a PDF of all of the interviews, see: https://marxismandsciences.org/interviews-rethinking-the-foundations-of-marxism-and-ilyenkovian-contributions/ and https://marxismandsciences.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/interviews_ms_230102107.pdf  

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2023), The Foundations of Marxism II: Ilyenkovian Contributions – see: https://marxismandsciences.org/volume-2-issue-1/  

Marxism & Sciences: A Journal of Nature, Culture, Human and Society – see: https://marxismandsciences.org/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

@ Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski  

A Place To Call Home

A Place To Call Home

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recorded at the London Coliseum, 30th October 2019

English National Opera (ENO) is pleased to announce that the single “A Place to Call Home” is released today (6th December 2019).

This astonishing new song by former BBC Young Composer of the Year Alex Woolf will help to raise money in aid of Shelter’s Christmas appeal. Recorded live at the London Coliseum, nearly 2000 Community Singers joined ENO’s brilliant Chorus and Orchestra, as well as opera stars Sir Bryn Terfel, Alice Coote and Lesley Garrett. It was conducted by the ENO’s Martin Fitzpatrick.

Ruth Rikowski was one of the Community Singers.

 

You can share these links to friends and family to ask them to buy the single:

Youtube Music: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k4UJhToa5xk3gPOlodPPXWv0Sad2wu3D4

Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/album/1ACV8jAS9MfrldTVp59CJT?highlight=spotify:track:5meFJRCIK7FGE1yo9ExAK0

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=Bj7r6u7i4sah224aid3lqkpmhym&tid=song-T2iiwcftnytvyvqnyop2kyhoigy&hl=en

Amazon Music: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082DJ1D76/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=a+place+to+call+home+sir+bryn+terfel&qid=1575593985&s=dmusic&sr=1-1

 

A quick method to get it on Youtube is to go to http://www.youtube.co.uk and then search for: A Place to Call Home ENO – and then it comes up!

Please share, please donate to Shelter….please make a difference for the homeless: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/singforshelter

 

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

Music and Lyrics by Alex Woolf

Lyrics

 

I stumbled across

A figure unknown,

Alive but alone, lost in his dreaming.

I stumbled because

That figure alone

He must have known what I was thinking:

That’s no place to call home.

 

I’ve stumbled before,

And I’ll stumble again.

I wish I’d known then how to give shelter.

I’ll stumble some more,

But I’ll seize the day, then

We’ll see the day when it’s not much to ask for:

A place to call home.

 

Sure as home is where the heart is

Homelessness is heartless and cruel.

Home…

If the heart is where the home is,

Aren’t we all homeless too?

 

I stumbled again

On that figure now known,

No longer alone, secure and with shelter.

I stumbled and then

I saw how he’d grown

In a place of his own.

 

So if home’s where the heart is

Then surely it’s smartest to start helping figures unknown.

Then we’ll all have a place…

A place to call home.

A place to call home.

 

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

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

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

Blackheath Halls Opera 2019: Offenbach’s ‘La Belle Helene’

Blackheath Halls Opera 2019: Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène

 

 

Ruth Rikowski is singing in the Chorus for this event.

 

TUE 16, WED 17 & FRI 19 JUL 7pm | Great Hall
SUN 21 JUL 2.30pm | Great Hall

La belle Hélène: Opéra Comique in Three Acts
Music by Jacques Offenbach
Libretto by Henri Meillac and Ludovic Halévy
English Version by Jeremy Sams
Performed by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited

Director James Hurley
Conductor Christopher Stark
Designer April Dalton
Lighting Designer Ben Pickersgill

Helen Ellie Laugharne
Paris Oliver Johnston
Calchas Ben McAteer
Menelaus Joe Shovelton
Agamemnon Nicholas Merryweather
Oreste Rachel Maby**
Achilles Lars Fischer**
Bacchis Megan Linnell**
Parthenis Shana Moron Caravel**
Leona Gemma Wahl**
Ajax 1/Ajax 2 Michael Collins/Alexander White**
Blackheath Halls Opera Company
Blackheath Halls Orchestra

Blackheath Halls Opera is thrilled to present this exciting production of La belle Hélène on the 200th anniversary of Jacques Offenbach’s birth. This performance brings together a cast of world-class professional singers, talented vocal students from Trinity Laban and committed local amateur performers of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, united in their passion for music-making.

La belle Hélène tells the tale of the abduction of the fair Helen by the Paris, Prince of Troy. He is aided and abetted by the wily high priest, Calchas, who outwits Helen’s much deceived husband, Menelaus, as well as an assortment of bumbling Greek heroes. The score includes some of Offenbach’s best-loved melodies.

Whether you are a seasoned concert-goer, or have never been to an opera before in your life, there is not a better place to start than with La belle Hélène.

“The quality of performance plus the community engagement is a wonderful combination. It must be close to unique.”Audience feedback, Opera 2018

TICKETS: £19 | £17 conc. | £6 under 12s
Running Time: approx. 150 mins including interval

** Vocal student at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

 

Booking details: https://www.blackheathhalls.com/whats-on/blackheath-halls-opera-2019-offenbachs-la-belle-h%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne

 

Ruth Rikowski

 

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

 

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***

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

Subversive Magic and Libraries – Presentation

Ruth Rikowski
Framlingham Castle

SUBVERSIVE MAGIC: LIBRARIES, EDUCATION AND CAPITALIST FUNCTIONALITY – PRESENTATION POWERPOINT

 

Ruth Rikowski, London South Bank University & Series Editor for the Chandos Information Professional Series

This is Ruth Rikowski’s presentation at the recent International Conference on Critical Education VIII, held at the University of East London, 25 – 28 July 2018.

The Presentation PowerPoint can be viewed at: http://www.academia.edu/37142301/Subversive_Magic_Libraries_Education_and_Capitalist_Functionality_Presentation_

 

 

ABSTRACT

A Magical Marxism – as writers such as Andy Merrifield and Derek Ford have noted – can illuminate the future whilst helping to shatter the shackles of the past. Shining this light on libraries and education in contemporary capitalism allows us to glimpse the subversive magic which, on the one hand is dreaded by representatives of capital, and on the other generates hope for humankind. A brief autobiographical account of how libraries hold a certain kind of personal magic is included. Then the notion of ‘subversive magic’ is outlined, with reference to ideas drawn from Giordano Bruno and his ‘Essays on Magic’ (1588). This is contrasted with Abstract Magic: a form of magic ground in the capitalist impulse. From these preliminary points and in the context of libraries in England, the first stop in the analysis is the Mechanics Institutes. This is followed by examining the capitalist state’s attempts to curtail, or at least control, their subversive magic through establishing constraining cultural spaces; that is, a public library system. The strange cases of John Passmore Edwards and Andrew Carnegie libraries are considered at this juncture: specifically, their effects in terms of possibilities for enchanting the public library system. The falling apart of the capitalist state’s paradigm for libraries is then taken up, with an examination of Thatcherism and neoliberalism from the 1980s. During the 1980s, and 1990s, but especially after the capitalist crisis of 2007-09, together with Tory austerity policies and related cuts, public libraries have faced a resulting atmosphere of disenchantment. Today, the state library system has given way to capitalist functionality, together with desperate local attempts to re-enchant them. This point is illustrated through developments in libraries in the London Borough of Newham. The paper ends by discussing prospects for a new subversive magic in libraries. It also explores whether it is possible for state-financed libraries to ever let the subversive magic that is required to flourish, and whether they can nourish the dangerous imaginative qualities required for nurturing the communist impulse.

 

The Paper is available at: http://www.academia.edu/37112556/Subversive_Magic_Libraries_Education_and_Capitalist_Functionality

 

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Subversive Magic: Libraries, Education and Capitalist Functionality

Ruth Rikowski

SUBVERSIVE MAGIC: LIBRARIES, EDUCATION AND CAPITALIST FUNCTIONALITY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruth Rikowski

London South Bank University & Series Editor for the Chandos Information Professional Series

 

Thisd is Ruth Rikowski’s paper that she will be presenting at the Internatioanl Conference on Critical Education VIII, at the University of East London, Stratford Campus, on Saturday 28th July 2018.

Ruth’s paper can be down loade at Academia, at:  http://www.academia.edu/37112556/Subversive_Magic_Libraries_Education_and_Capitalist_Functionality

 

ABSTRACT

A Magical Marxism – as writers such as Andy Merrifield and Derek Ford have noted – can illuminate the future whilst helping to shatter the shackles of the past. Shining this light on libraries and education in contemporary capitalism allows us to glimpse the subversive magic which, on the one hand is dreaded by representatives of capital, and on the other generates hope for humankind. A brief autobiographical account of how libraries hold a certain kind of personal magic is included. Then the notion of ‘subversive magic’ is outlined, with reference to ideas drawn from Giordano Bruno and his ‘Essays on Magic’ (1588). This is contrasted with Abstract Magic: a form of magic ground in the capitalist impulse. From these preliminary points and in the context of libraries in England, the first stop in the analysis is the Mechanics Institutes. This is followed by examining the capitalist state’s attempts to curtail, or at least control, their subversive magic through establishing constraining cultural spaces; that is, a public library system. The strange cases of John Passmore Edwards and Andrew Carnegie libraries are considered at this juncture: specifically, their effects in terms of possibilities for enchanting the public library system. The falling apart of the capitalist state’s paradigm for libraries is then taken up, with an examination of Thatcherism and neoliberalism from the 1980s. During the 1980s, and 1990s, but especially after the capitalist crisis of 2007-09, together with Tory austerity policies and related cuts, public libraries have faced a resulting atmosphere of disenchantment. Today, the state library system has given way to capitalist functionality, together with desperate local attempts to re-enchant them. This point is illustrated through developments in libraries in the London Borough of Newham. The paper ends by discussing prospects for a new subversive magic in libraries. It also explores whether it is possible for state-financed libraries to ever let the subversive magic that is required to flourish, and whether they can nourish the dangerous imaginative qualities required for nurturing the communist impulse.

 

***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

 

 

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***

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

 

 

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***

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

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***

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

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