Education Crises as Crises for Capital

Glenn Rikowski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

Critique of the Classical Theory of Education Crisis

Glenn Rikowski

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

This is a paper prepared for the International Centre for Public Pedagogies (ICPuP), International Seminar for Public Pedagogies at the University of East London for 21^st February 2018. See the post below for details.

The paper is now available on Academia, see: https://www.academia.edu/35164258/Critique_of_the_Classical_Theory_of_Education_Crisis

 

ABSTRACT

The Classical Theory of Education Crisis is the default theory utilised by educational theorists for understanding the constitution and explanation of education crises in contemporary society. Following a brief outline of the concept of crisis, and the histiography of the notion of education crisis from the Second World War to the neoliberal recession of 1980-82, there is a an outline of The Classical Theory of Education Crisis as most fully expressed in Madan Sarup’s classic Education, State and Crisis: A Marxist Perspective (1982). The key aspect of the Classical Theory is that education crises are derivative of economic crises. This is followed by the main event: critique of the Classical Theory. Its reliance on structuralist thought (with associated determinism, functionalism and reductionism) and the inflow of economics imperialism are some of its key deficiencies. The Conclusion outlines ground still to be covered and the need to move beyond the Classical Theory of Education Crisis.

 

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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

Autogenous Theories of Education Crisis

New College, Oxford

AUTOGENOUS THEORIES OF EDUCATION CRISIS

 

A paper prepared for the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) Annual Conference, New College, Oxford, 31^st March – 2^nd April, 2017

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

Abstract: ‘Crisis’ is a concept increasingly used in media reports on education. This paper argues that philosophers of education have a unique contribution to make regarding the nature and constitution of education crisis. Thus, they have a responsibility to take up the challenge of developing perspectives on education crises. Following examinations of the concept of crisis and The Marxist-oriented Classical Theory of Education Crisis (where education crises are derivative of economic ones), the paper forges an autogenous theory of education crisis through Robin Barrow’s (2011) précis of R.S. Peters’s concept of education. Some education crises are crises of education; not necessarily crises in education with origins elsewhere in society. For these forms of crisis, the concept of education itself should be the starting point for analysis. The paper opens up a new field of study for educational philosophers by indicating how education crises can emerge from within education institutions and settings.

 

My paper is now available at Academia: http://www.academia.edu/32222291/Autogenous_Theories_of_Education_Crisis and also at ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315646975_Autogenous_Theories_of_Education_Crisis

 

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

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

Crises, Commodities and Education: Disruptions, Eruptions, Interruptions and Ruptures

Glenn Rikowski

CRISES, COMMODITIES AND EDUCATION: DISRUPTIONS, ERUPTIONS, INTERRUPTIONS AND RUPTURES

Dr. Glenn Rikowski

RESEARCH IN CRITICAL EDUCATION STUDIES (RiCES) SEMINAR

RiCES @LincsCritEd

University of Lincoln

School of Education
Brayford Pool, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK, LN6 7TS

Thursday November 19th 1.30-4.00pm in room BH1201:

Dr Glenn Rikowski, Independent Scholar

Crises, Commodities and Education: Disruptions, Eruptions, Interruptions and Ruptures

ABSTRACT

After a brief analysis of the concept of crisis (drawing on the work of Roitman, 2014) and following an outline and critique of some previous work (Rikowski, 2014) – on the Classical Theory of Education Crisis (in the light of Sarup, 1982) and philosophical perspectives on education crises – Rikowski explores the notion of crisis in relation to phenomena pertaining to the social forms of capitalist education. Starting out from Marx’s analysis of the ‘two great classes of commodities’ (following Adam Smith), Rikowski charts what ‘crisis’ might mean, and could be, in terms of the two commodity forms pertaining to educational processes in capitalist society. The final part of the paper explores actual and possible empirical manifestations of these crises of the commodity form in terms of the notions of disruption, eruption, interruption and rupture. It is argued that last two of these forms of crisis pose particular problems for the continuance and development of capitalism in general and the national capital and capitalist education in particular.

Note: A paper will be written prior to the event and posted to Academia. Meanwhile, it would be useful for those interested in coming to the seminar, or for those reading the paper on Academia, to read in advance the following paper (which is on Academia). This is because Rikowski’s paper prepared for the RiCES Seminar builds on and goes beyond this paper:

Rikowski, G. (2014) Crises in Education, Crises of Education, A paper prepared for the Philosophy of Education Seminars at UCL Institute of Education, 2014-15 Programme, 22^nd October 2014, 20 Bedford Way, London, online at Academia: http://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education

For further information contact Dr. Cassie Earl at: CEarl@lincoln.ac.uk

RiCES – About – People – Research: http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/education/research/researchincriticaleducationstudies/

Research in Critical Education Studies (RiCES) blog: http://criticaleducation.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/

Glenn Rikowski

***END***

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

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Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Praxis and Critique: Liberation, Pedagogy, and the University

Herbert Marcuse

PRAXIS AND CRITIQUE: LIBERATION, PEDAGOGY, AND THE UNIVERSITY

International Herbert Marcuse Society Sixth Biennial Conference

Praxis and Critique: Liberation, Pedagogy, and the University

12-15 November 2015, Salisbury University (Salisbury, Maryland, USA)

 

CALL FOR PAPERS: Abstracts due May 20, 2015

 

In recent years, the problems and contradictions intrinsic to capitalist society have resulted in a number of manifest, seemingly permanent, crises. Many researchers, academics, and activists have seized on the urgency of recent coalescing crises—from environmental degradation to economic inequality, political instability to social unraveling, and beyond—in an attempt to ameliorate and analyze the consequences of these dilapidated social relations. The work of Herbert Marcuse aims to radically re-envision social relations via critical theory as a way to formulate a praxis of liberation. However, if we live in a society, as Marcuse puts it, “without negation,” how shall this critical rationality be cultivated?

The International Herbert Marcuse Society seeks papers for the 2015 biennial conference, “Praxis and Critique: Liberation, Pedagogy, and the University,” that address the broad pedagogical concerns of cultivating emancipatory rationality. Faculty, independent scholars, activists, artists, and others are invited to submit papers. Papers may want to address, but are certainly not limited to, the following problematics:

• What role can and should critical pedagogy play in today’s institutions of higher education? Given Marcuse’s emphasis on praxis, critical pedagogy cannot be limited to classroom space in universities – how can a critical rationality translate into programs of activism, agitation, and organization?
• How is the work of Marcuse, the Frankfurt School, and/or critical theory generally relevant to the current context of political, social, economic, and cultural struggles?
• What is the meaning of praxis and critique today? Do Marcuse’s contemporary interlocutors help us refine, understand, recast, or critique visions of a critical rationality?
• What can we learn from activists and scholars from a wide range of critical theories, dealing with liberation in areas such as critical race theory, intersectionality, LGBTQIA studies, disability studies, and postcolonial theory?
• How does Marcuse’s critical theory provide a lens through which to assess the current condition of advanced industrial society?

Student participation is also encouraged. The conference organizers are particularly interested in encouraging undergraduate and graduate student participation. To this end, we encourage faculty to teach related or special topics classes in fall 2015 and to bring students of all levels to the conference. Undergraduate students are invited to present papers in special concurrent sessions. Undergraduate and graduate students will also have the opportunity to submit conference papers for publication to special conference editions.

This conference is an interdisciplinary, multimedia engagement with the many dimensions of Herbert Marcuse’s work. So, in addition to the presentation of papers, the conference will also present artistic work.

Artistic Presentations:

The Salisbury University Gallery will present two related exhibitions.

The first is “Versprechen, dass es anders sein kann” (Promises that it can be different) by painter Antje Wichtrey.
Salisbury University Gallery Director, Elizabeth Kauffman, will curate the second exhibition.

For more information, contact the conference organizers:

Dr. Sarah Surak (smsurak@salisbury.edu) and Dr. Robert Kirsch (rekirsch@salisbury.edu)

 

**END**

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Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

UNICONFLICTS

Education Crisis

UNICONFLICTS

UNICONFLICTS In Spaces of Crisis: Critical Approaches In, Against and Beyond the University

International Open Gathering

11–14 June 2015

At the Department of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Encounters and Conflicts in the City

Details: http://urbanconflicts.wordpress.com/

 

Calling

The group “Encounters and Conflicts in the City” calls radical research groups, critical workshops and researchers, students and collectives that are placed in, against and beyond the neoliberal university in an open gathering on the 11-14th June 2015 at the Department of Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Through this gathering, we aim to create a public space of dialogue transcending divisions among academic and scientific disciplines and to critically approach the urban issues of the era of crisis, through a dialectic, intersectional and postcolonial approach.

The central questions that we wish to raise are two:

1. What is the role of knowledge, of the university and of researchers in the era of crisis?
2. What are the critical epistemological and methodological tools for studying the spatial expressions of the ongoing crisis at multiple scales?

Within this context, we seek to examine the ongoing crisis not just as an over-accumulation crisis but also as a crisis of social disobedience and of the inability of the circulation of capital, patriarchy and nationalism. Moving against the mystification of the crisis, we are interested in critical approaches that focus on the spatialization of social relations and examine the spaces of dissent. Particularly, we wish to examine the articulations, the limits, the contradictions and the dialectic relation of commons, enclosures, inclusion, exclusion, insurgency and counter-insurgency as well as their hybrid intermediate forms, which emerge in and through physical space, modes of communication and the constitution of communities. Overall, we aim to break the North/South or East/West dichotomies and to focus on the fields of gender, race, class and culture.

Building on the critical evaluation of social relations, the circulation of social struggles and subjects and communities in motion, we search for their contentious spaces and their spatial transformations, limits, possibilities and contradictions in the era of crisis. Moreover, understanding education as a unity of theory and practice, we seek these epistemological and methodological tools that emerge from and aim to the deepening and the circulation of social struggles and social movements. In the context of today’s global and local crisis, we note that while a plethora of social struggles and insurgencies emerge, the academic research often appropriates and commercializes their ideas. It is exactly here that we identify the dead-end.

Hence, we seek to surpass the so called academic activism and to set as a main target of this open gathering the critical examination of the following:

A. The role of knowledge and of researchers in the university and in social movements

The neoliberal University and the educational system constitute strategic mechanisms for the production and reproduction of social relations. In particular, within a dynamic process of neoliberalization, the university studies are intensified and are linked more and more to the labour market. Within this context, we wish to examine issues such as the production of knowledge, knowledge as a common, the neoliberalization of the University, the new educational enclosures and the concept of Anti-university.

The transformation of knowledge into private property and consequently into a commodity creates new enclosures in the field of knowledge. These new enclosures in neoliberal education are expressed both through the commodification of the physical space of the universities and through the objectification of human abilities. Some indicative examples are the increase of studying costs, the studying loans, the control of access to information, the commercialization of academic papers and books, the securitization of the University space, the criminalization and the rhetoric against student mobilizations, the suppression of the struggles of university employees and the restriction of the freedom of speech.

However, since 1960s and 1970s, the universities are spaces of collective emancipatory movements, of social struggles and of radical experiments of self-organization for the production of knowledge. As a response to these movements, since 1980s, a number of educational reforms have been introduced. These reforms seek to promote the marketization of the university, aiming to produce the appropriate competitive workforce and to supress student movements.

Yet, during the last decade, many dynamic student movements have emerged in France (2006), Greece (2006-2007), the USA (2009-2010), the UK (2010), Italy (2010-2011) and so on, which targeted the enclosure of knowledge and were connected and inspired many other urban social movements.

 

Axes of Discussion

A.1 Social education and emancipatory movements in the universities

-Student movements: limits and contradictions, connection with other urban movements, confrontation of their suppression and criminalization

-Perspectives of a radical pedagogy towards the knowledge as common

-Ideas and practices of free–‐autonomous universities beyond the education of the neoliberal university

A.2 Control and commodification of knowledge

-Public, state and private education in the neoliberal era

-Politics of knowledge enclosures and copyrights

-The suppression of academic freedom and of the freedom of speech

-Knowledge as private property and commodity for the production of value and surplus value

-Student loans and study costs as mechanisms of disciplining

-The cultural politics of the neoliberal university

-Paid and unpaid work at the University

A.3 The role of the researcher

-Lifelong education, competitiveness and the precarious status of the researcher

-The researcher as producer of dominant discourses and her/his role in the reproduction of power

-Competitiveness, academic carrie and academic divisions and hierarchies

-The biopolitical character of the neoliberal education and the construction of new identities

-Education as praxis, understood as a unity of theory and practice

-Researchers, networks and groups against and beyond the neoliberal university

 

B. Critical epistemological and methodological tools for the study of the crisis’s spatial expressions at multiple scales

Against the privatization and commodification of the academic knowledge and the intended hegemony of the neoliberal perspectives, we seek those critical epistemological tools of knowledge production that encourage social emancipation.

During the last years, urban movements and a plethora of visible and invisible practices of resistance and emancipation offer a variety of tools for the destabilization of the dominant ideologies, ways of disaggregation of power, negotiation of contradictions and visibility of differences. In parallel, today there is the urgent need for the promotion, circulation and deepening of these critical perspectives and their linking to social struggles. Thus, we aim to discuss epistemological and methodological tools, such as the following:

B1. Dialectic critical urban theory

Which are those critical approaches that assist us to perceive and examine the multiple dimensions of urban space? How do dialectic approaches and critical urban theory contribute to the understanding of the spaces of social movements and the spaces of capital, racism and patriarchy?

B2. Intersectionality and urban space in the era of crisis

How does intersectionality contribute to the study of the urban space? Which are the intersectional crossings of the multiple systems of domination, oppression and discrimination such as race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, dis/ability, age, cast, language, culture, body size, education level or citizenship?

B3. Cultural and postcolonial approaches

How do cultural and postcolonial studies contribute to the understanding of urban space and the conceptualization of body, identity and modes of communication. How does the criminalization and the suppression of alternative modes of culture, information and lifestyle operate as mechanisms of control, disciplining and normalization? What is the role of social media in the communication of social struggles? We seek the expression of the ongoing crisis through the spaces of architecture, art, media, and internet.

 

Within the above context, we call critical research groups, workshops, collectives and individuals to participate in a gathering during 11-14 June 2015. If you would like to participate, please provide us with your abstract (300 words) by 1 March 2015 at the latest, to the following e-mail: urbanconflicts@gmail.com

Participation is free and we will try to provide accommodation for as many participants as possible.

 

“Encounters and conflicts in the city” group

Costas Athanasiou, Eleni Vasdeki, Elina Kapetanaki, Maria Karagianni, Matina Kapsali, Vaso

Makrygianni, Foteini Mamali, Orestis Pangalos, Haris Tsavdaroglou

Thessaloniki

**END**

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Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Crisis

Para-Academia

Para-Academia

PARA-ACADEMIA

BOOK LAUNCH

‘Para-academia’
With Deborah Withers, Alex Wardrop, and Charlotte Cooper
Saturday 6th December, 6.30pm

Housmans, radical booksellers since 1945

Caledonian Road, King’s Cross, London, N1 9DX
Entry £3, redeemable against any purchase
‘Academia is dying, and in the process compulsively crushes the desires for learning, creating, teaching, cooperating it claimed to foster’, Isabelle Stengers writes as endorsement for The Para-Academic Handbook: A Toolkit for making-learning-creating-acting, a unique collection exploring the margins of contemporary academia.

The book collects global perspectives of people who feel connected, in different ways, to the practice of para-academia. Those people who work alongside, beside, next to, and rub up against the proper location of the Academy, making the work of higher education a little more irregular and perverse.

This event will discuss the perils, possibilities and necessities of para-academic practice. It will explore how alternatives to the marketised university can not only be sustained, but also flourish. Speakers include editors of the collection Deborah Withers and Alex Wardrop, and contributor Charlotte Cooper.

Events at Housmans: http://www.housmans.com/events.php

Published by Hammer On Press: http://www.hammeronpress.net

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.co.uk

Glenn Rikowski’s latest paper, Crises in Education, Crises of Education – can now be found at Academia: http://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education

Glenn Rikowski’s article, Education, Capital and the Transhuman – can also now be found at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9033532/Education_Capital_and_the_Transhuman

Crises in Education, Crises of Education

Glenn Rikowski

CRISES IN EDUCATION, CRISES OF EDUCATION

Glenn Rikowski, Visiting Scholar, Department of Education, Anglia Ruskin University, UK

A paper prepared for the Philosophy of Education Seminars at the University of London Institute of Education 2014-15 Programme, 22^nd October 2014.

 

INTRODUCTION

The capitalist crisis of 2007-09 cast a grim shadow over social existence in developed Western nations. The fallout from the banking crash of September 2008 post-Lehman cascaded over welfare, health, social services and education provision in the form of austerity measures, the drive to cut sovereign debt levels, the erosion of workers’ living standards and vicious service cuts and taxes aimed at the poor and disadvantaged (e.g. the bedroom tax in the UK).

On the back of this maelstrom, the Journal of Education Policy (JEP) celebrated its 25^th anniversary by running a special issue on ‘Education, Capitalism and the Global Crisis’ in 2010[1]. The JEP is to be congratulated on unveiling articles addressing relationships between the crisis of 2007-09 and education: it was unusual for a mainstream education journal to dedicate a whole issue to this topic. However, with the possible exception of Clarke and Newman’s (2010) contribution[2] it could be concluded that little progress has been made in understanding relations between capitalist crises and education since Madan Sarup’s classic Education, State and Crisis: A Marxist Perspective of 1982. Furthermore, there seemed to be a coy elision regarding the constitution of crisis within or of education itself. The crisis of 2007-09 was basically ‘economic’ in nature, it appears, with various spill-over effects for education: e.g. cuts in expenditure, deepening educational inequalities and rationing of access to higher education (Jones, 2010). Thus: education crisis was derivative of, and consequential upon, economic crisis. Furthermore, the economy, or the ‘economic’ system (for structuralists) is the starting point for analysis of education crisis.

The notion that an ‘education crisis’ can only ever be derivative of a capitalist economic one begs the question as to whether all crises can only ever be basically economic in nature; only ‘economic’ crises fundamentally put either the whole capitalist economy and society at risk, or, are the foundation for crises in other parts of the social system but still basically ‘economic’ in nature; thereby generating spectres of reductionism, economic determinism and crude renditions of historical materialism. On the other hand, references to ‘crisis’ litter media reports and academic outputs in relation to all kinds of topics – and there is nearly always some kind of ‘education crisis’ foregrounded by the print media. In terms of everyday usage the concept appears to have extensive legitimacy, though Gamble notes that ‘the term crisis [is] being thrown around fairly indiscriminately in everyday discourse’ (2009, p.7).[3]

It should be borne in mind that the concept of crisis can be traced back to the writings of Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 370 B.C.) in ancient Greece, where it was used in relation to medicine, specifically indicating the turning point in the course of a disease or medical condition. In such writings as Epidemics, Book 1, Hippocrates used the concept of crisis to denote the point (the turning point) at which a patient either began to make a recovery from illness, or the disease won out and death resulted (Hippocrates, 1983). Furthermore, reading the ground-breaking work on crisis by Janet Roitman (2011 and 2014), which built on the classic text on the topic by Reinhart Koselleck (1988), indicated that an exploration of the concept of crisis beyond the economic sphere could be a worthwhile project. Maybe there could be essentially ‘education crises’ after all, and with this in view, this paper is structured into three parts, as follows.

Part 1 begins with a rudimentary outline of the concept of crisis. Madan Sarup’s (1982) classical theory of education crisis is then explored, coupled with some evidence showing that Sarup’s approach still has relevance for today (with contemporary examples drawn from the United States, Australia and England). It is demonstrated how contemporary accounts of the 2007-09 economic crisis could supplement and deepen Sarup’s account, whilst also avoiding the issue of the possibility of definitive education crises. This is followed by a brief outline and review of some work by Vincent Carpentier (2003, 2006a-b and 2009), which, although manifesting more sophistication (and much better data) as compared with Sarup’s classic work, nevertheless falls prey to subsuming education crises under economic developments. In the same context, David Blacker’s work on The Falling Rate of Learning and the Neoliberal Endgame (2013) is examined. This is an attempt to apply Marx’s notion of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall (TRPF) (via the work of Kliman, 2012) to developments in education in the United States (primarily). Blacker stamps the TRPF on contemporary education and thereby develops an original account of education crisis. Yet nevertheless, his rendering of education crisis is still derivative of economic crisis. Blacker also fails to pin down what a falling rate of learning actually is. He prefers to focus on a fall in the mass of learning and the elimination of learning, instead. These developments rest on economic, but also environmental, crisis. This first part of the paper ends with a brief critique of Crisis Fundamentalism: the notion that real, bona fide crises can only be economic ones. This is what the concept of crisis in education is concerned with.

Part 2 takes another tack: a different starting point, an alternative methodological approach. Rather than viewing education crises as flowing from economic ones, it explores the concept of education and what it is to be an ‘educated person’, and then seeks out possibilities for education crises within educational phenomena, institutions, processes and ethics. Such crises are crises of education, it is argued. The work of R.S. Peters (via Robin Barrow, 2011) is the focus here. There is an attempt to work through what an ‘education crisis’ might be on the basis of Barrow’s rendition of what he (Barrow) takes to be the four key components of Peters’ conception of the educated person. The discussion of some of the consequences of this approach is deepened through bringing the work of Janet Roitman (2011, 2014) to the keyboard. Rather than providing a history of the concept of crisis, as in Koselleck (1988), or providing a new (and improved) concept of crisis, Roitman shows the various ways in which the concept has been, and can be, put to work. Hence, Roitman’s approach to crisis is ‘put to work’ on R.S. Peters’ work on the educated person, pace Barrow. The last base in Part 2 examines the notion of ‘education for its own sake’ and what I call ‘island pedagogy’, flowing from the work of Furedi (2004a and 2009) and his followers. The argument here is that this approach to education crisis falls either into an ethics of blame or conjures up an education Colossus; a kind of Nietzschean figure with a monumental drive to learn and teach, unsullied by material interests and motivations. This approach is also basically idealist, transhistorical and sociologically naïve. It is also the flipside of Crisis Fundamentalism (education crises derive from economic ones – crises in education): quintessentially education crises can only arise within the educational sphere itself – leading to a kind of Educational Crisis Idealism (crises of education).

The Conclusion argues that we need to think about crisis in relation to education and economy in a new way: such crises are not essentially ‘education’ or ‘economic’ in nature. An anti- (rather than post-) structuralist perspective rooted in class struggle is advanced as a way forward, and neither Crisis Fundamentalism (crises in education) nor Educational Crisis Idealism (crises of education) will do. It also discusses the question of whether, and why, exploring the issue of crisis and education is a worthwhile pursuit for critical educators and theorists and for those who wish to move beyond capitalist education and society.

 

The whole paper can be downloaded at Academia: http://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education

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

 

[1] Journal of Education Policy, Vol.25 No.6, November, edited by Stephen Ball, Meg Maguire and Ivor Goodson. A book based on this special 25^th Anniversary was produced by the same three editors, also called Education, Capitalism and the Global Crisis, in 2012 (Ball et al, 2012) – but with some additional articles.

[2] Clarke and Newman (2010) explore the notion that crises are ‘socially constructed’ and the roles discourse and social power play in these constructions.

[3] See also: ‘Crisis is much overused in everyday discourse. 24-hour news lives by manufacturing crisis. Most of them are entirely ephemeral. Any event that is in any way out of the ordinary or where there appears to be conflict and the outcome is uncertain becomes labelled a crisis’ (Gamble, 2010, p.704).

Crisis and Education

Glenn Rikowski

CRISIS AND EDUCATION

Glenn Rikowski 

Anglia Ruskin University

Department of Education

Chelmsford Site

Bishops Hall Lane

Chelmsford, Essex

CM1 1SQ

2013-2014 Joint Research Meetings: Critical Education and Justice (CEJ) and Early Childhood Research Group (ECRG)

ALL WELCOME

OPEN INVITATION

Weds 12 March 2014

CEJ led Research Seminar

4.30-6.30

Room: SAW 005

Dr. Glenn Rikowski will speak on Crisis and Education

Rikowski is an independent education researcher based in London. Until 31st October 2013, he was a Senior Lecturer in Education Studies in the School of Education at the University of Northampton. A number of his papers can be found online at Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

For further information: paulette.luff@anglia.ac.uk or dave.hill@anglia.ac.uk

Travelling to the Chelmsford Campus:  http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/your_university/anglia_ruskin_campuses/chelmsford/find_chelm.html

Chelmsford Campus Map:

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/your_university/anglia_ruskin_campuses/chelmsford/find_chelm.Maincontent.0017.file.tmp/Chelmsford%20campus%20with%20smoking%20areas.pdf

Crisis

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‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

The Sale of Student Loans: How Do We Stop It?

Education Crisis

THE SALE OF STUDENT LOANS: HOW DO WE STOP IT?

A Teach-in at the Houses of Parliament: ‘The sale of student loans…how do we stop it?’

Monday, January 13th 2014, 7pm
Details: http://andrewmcgettigan.org/2014/01/07/teach-in-at-the-house-of-commons-monday-13-january/
***
‘The sale of student loans; the latest move turning first rate public universities into third rate private companies: How do we stop it?’

Speakers so far confirmed:

Stefan Collini, Professor of English at Cambridge and author of the ‘Sold Out’ article in the London Review of Books, 24th Oct 2013

Andrew McGettigan, author of The Great University Gamble: Money, Markets and the Future of Higher Education

Natalie Fenton – Professor of Media and Communications at Goldsmith and past president of the University and College Union

As the changes to university funding are advancing Collini argues that ” … the coalition government took the decisive steps in helping to turn some first rate universities into third rate companies. If you still think the time for criticism is over, perhaps you had better think again”.

The Higher Education Teach-In is your opportunity to hear and question the experts so then we can press the Coalition to think again.

*Entry via Cromwell Green Public Entrance – Please allow at least 15 minutes to clear security*

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Education Crisis

Capitalism in the Classroom

Education Crisis

CAPITALISM IN THE CLASSROOM

 Call for Papers:

Capitalism in the Classroom: Neoliberalism, Education and Progressive Alternatives

 

Conference & Special Issue Call For Papers

Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research

Edited by Carlo Fanelli (Ryerson University) and Bryan Evans (Ryerson University)

Capitalism in the Classroom: Neoliberalism, Education and Progressive Alternatives

See: http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/announcement/view/403

As the austerity agenda intensifies, this special issue of Alternate Routes is seeking papers that explore how education is being restructured in light of market pressures to commodify and marketize learning and teaching from pre-school to post-secondary education and beyond. The conference will be held on Friday April 4, 2014 at Ryerson University. Paper proposals may include but are not limited to: How have state policies increased pressures to corporatize and privatize public education? How have children and youth programs been affected? How has the quality of work and labour been impacted? How have intersecting axes of oppression related to class, race, ethnicity, gender and so forth been reinforced or contested in the classroom? In what ways have student curriculums and teachers’ academic freedoms been affected? Have educators and employees challenged such pressures? What role have trade union and community activists played in challenging the prerogatives of capitalism in the classroom? Are there progressive educational alternatives to neoliberalism?

Additional topics may include: ongoing theoretical debates; community outreach and education campaigns; cross-sectoral and international comparisons; new pedagogical methods and policy proposals for schooling and education; corporate influences on campus and in the classroom; new technologies and online-learning; publishing and dissemination of research; new public management and academic/non-academic labour; and social justice activism.

Conference submissions must be received no later than January 5, 2014. Please include an abstract no longer than 300-words and brief biography. Conference decisions will be made within one week. 

If you are interested in submitting an article but cannot attend the conference, articles must be submitted by May 15, 2014. 

New authors are encouraged to visit www.alternateroutes.ca for author guidelines and additional information. Conference proposals and article submissions must be sent directly to editor@alternateroutes.ca

For all other inquiries, please visit http://www.alternateroutes.ca  or send an email to editor@alternateroutes.ca

ISSN: 1923-7081

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Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Education for Action

Education Crisis

EDUCATION FOR ACTION

Inspired by the debates in the ‘uncut’ and ‘occupy’ movements around the globe, a group of us have been meeting in Leeds to talk about what’s been happening to adult and workers’ education. We’d like to ask you to join in our discussions so we can generate ideas and action that work in communities and trade unions and inspire new ideas about the content and delivery of an education that we own ourselves.

This group has started to evolve. We are a loose collective that is committed to empowerment through education for a social purpose. Education is being turned into an economic commodity and is being slowly privatised in the interests of the rich and powerful. We want to join forces with others who oppose those that want to reduce the experience of living (for the 99%) to providing consumer demand for stuff!

See: http://education4action.wordpress.com/

**END**

 

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski