Abstract
The neoliberal attack on universities needs to be understood for what it is: an explicit and deliberate attack on the very idea of knowledge and of human agency in its creation. To understand why in turn requires an understanding of what neoliberalism is, and in particular of how it differs from traditional forms of liberalism. I therefore offer an abbreviated account of neoliberalism, based on Mirowski’s analysis, that situates it in its political context. I emphasize Hayek’s antipathy (however contradictorily expressed) to knowledge, as opposed to information, and thus to the traditional liberal notion of the individual as epistemic agent, before going on to elaborate how and why universities thus cannot but be anathema to the neoliberal project of ‘engineering the human soul’.
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Notes
- 1.
Where quotations are not referenced they are taken from documents published by a UK university since 2014. I have taken the liberty of rendering them anonymous, since my purpose is not to embarrass any particular institution, but rather to offer a critique of the direction the entire UK university sector is taking. Readers may turn to any university website, or to any issue of the Times Higher, for all too many current examples.
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Brecher, B. (2019). Universities: The Neoliberal Agenda. In: Clack, B., Paule, M. (eds) Interrogating the Neoliberal Lifecycle. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00770-6_6
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