Archives par étiquette : Marx

The Direct Subordination of Universities to the Accumulation of Capital.

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Cecilia Rikap and Hugo Harari-Kermadec for Capital and Class, in Press.

Universities have historically contributed tothe reproduction of capitalism. However, they have been historically conceivedas a separate sphere or institution detached from the Market, thus onlyindirect participants of capital’s accumulation processes. Our aim in thisarticle is precisely to contribute to acknowledge this transformation byfurther developing a theoretical explanation integrated to a Marxist analysisof contemporary capitalism. In particular, following Levín (1997), we distinguish thata portion of world’s social capital has monopolized the capacity to plan andprofit from innovation. The wide gap in terms of innovation capacities betweenindividual capitals leaves those non-innovative with no better option but to subordinateand let go part of their surplus. It is in this context that we will suggestthat universities integrate to direct capital’s accumulation structures. To doso, we will conceptually distinguish between two sides of universities’ transformation:1) the adoption of capital enterprises’ characteristics resulting in exchangesof their products (teaching and research results), where we will identify differentdegrees of bargaining power to decide the conditions of those exchanges, and 2)the transformation of academic labor, adapting itself to capitalist productionprocesses. Considering the former, we argue that universities’ adoption ofindividual capitals’ features can be better understood as a differentiatedprocess. We suggest three types of differentiated market-university, accordingto the different enterprises in Levín’s (1997) typology. Ourconcluding remarks include further research questions and nuance the generaltransformation of the University as an economic actor offering some clues fordeveloping countertendencies.

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Universities’ direct subordination to capital’s accumulation

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Séminaire ACIDES du 16 janvier 2018, Cecilia Rikap (Université de Buenos Aires et IFRIS) et Hugo Harari-Kermadec (IDHES, ENS Cachan)

Présentation – slides

It was not until recently that universities became direct participants of capital’s accumulation processes, even if they had historically contributed to the reproduction of capitalism. Our aim in this article is precisely to contribute to acknowledge this transformation by further developing a theoretical explanation integrated to a Marxist analysis of today capitalism. In particular, following Levín (1997), we distinguish that a portion of world’s social capital has monopolized the capacity to plan and profit from innovation. The wide gap between capitals’ innovation capacity leaves those non-innovative with no other option but to accept being dominated and planned. It is in this context that we will suggest that universities’ integrate to direct capital’s accumulation structures. To do so, we will conceptually distinguish two successive transformations of universities: 1) the internal transformation of academic labor, adapting itself towards capitalist production processes, and 2) their adoption of capital enterprises’ characteristics resulting in exchanges of their products (teaching and research results), including the different bargaining power they have to decide the conditions of those exchanges. Considering the latter, we argue that universities’ adoption of capital enterprises’ characteristics can be better understood as a differentiated process. We suggest three types of differentiated market-university, according to the different capital enterprises in Levín’s (1997) typology. Our concluding remarks refer to a further research and political agenda triggered by the general framework developed throughout the article.

Soutenance d’HDR : Frais d’inscription et quantification néolibérale de l’Université

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Hugo Harari-Kermadec soutiendra son habilitation à diriger des recherches intitulée

Frais d’inscription et quantification néolibérale de l’Université

soutenue le vendredi 17 juin à 14h à l’Université Lille 1
Jury
  • Florence Jany-Catrice (garante), Professeure, CLERSE, Université Lille 1
  • Christian Bessy (rapporteur), Directeur de recherche, IDHES, ENS Cachan
  • Cédric Durand (rapporteur), Maître de conférences, CEPN, Université Paris 13
  • Sandrine Garcia (rapportrice), Professeure, IREDU, Université de Bourgogne
  • Richard Sobel, Maître de conférences, CLERSE, Université Lille 1
  • Jean-Marie Harribey, Maître de conférences, GREThA, Université Bordeaux
  • Nicolas Vaneecloo, Professeur, CLERSE, Université Lille 1

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Economie de l’éducation (ENS Cachan, L3)

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Cours d’économie de l’éducation (10h) du département de Sciences Sociales en première année (Licence 3), par Hugo Harari-Kermadec. Cours alterné avec celui de sociologie de l’éducation de Xavier Pons.

Commodity Fetishism at the University

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Elsa Boulet (University Paris IV and ENS Cachan) and Hugo Harari-Kermadec, IDHES – ENS Cachan and CEPN, Historical Materialism Conference, November 2013, London.

We study the ongoing marketisation of higher education in Europe, using the case study of an English university as an illustration. We use the concept of fetishism to focus on the transformation of the substance of higher education through the process of commodification. First, the ongoing reforms modify the production process in the universities through governance arrangements (norms, quality certification, rating, ranking, etc.) and other forms of the new spirit of capitalism (Boltanski and Chiapello 1999). These transformations have an ideological twin: specificities of science ideology must be removed or at least subordinated to the budget logic. A central moment of these two faces of the abstraction process is an operation of quantification (Desrosières 2008a, 2008b), which renders different activities commensurate, and turns differences in nature into magnitudes (Espeland and Stevens 1998). The final step of this abstraction process is the actual selling of teaching and research through tuition fees and patents or innovation consultancy. We conclude on the subjectivity of the resulting academics, producers of the knowledge commodity. Continuer la lecture →

Fetichismo de la mercancía y reformas de la universidad

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Hugo Harari-Kermadec (ENS Cachan y IDHES, CNRS, Francia) y Pierre Jean (Universidad Paris 1), Jornadas de economia critica, Agosto 2013, Mendoza, Argentina.

Resumen

En varios países, el sistema universitario está sufriendo un largo proceso de mercantilización. Esta transformación se suele analizar dentro del marco más general de la privatización de los servicios públicos, un fenómeno que D. Harvey interpreta como una forma continuada de acumulación primitiva, la acumulación por desposesión. Este artículo se concentra en las transformaciones substanciales que conllevan esta mercantilización de la educación superior, armándonos con otro concepto marxista, el fetichismo.

Mostraremos la mercantilización opera a nivel ideológico y en la organización del trabajo universitario. A tal fin, se van desplegando toda una serie de dispositivos de gobierno –normas y certificación de calidad, puntaje, ranking– que tienden a estandarizar el proceso de producción en la Universidad y a someter el imaginario científico a la racionalidad capitalista. El trabajo universitario se va incorporando al trabajo productor de valor, es decir en trabajo abstracto.

Uno de los momentos centrales de este proceso es la cuantificación –en el sentido de Desrosière– es decir la normalización y medida del trabajo: esta operación consiste en descontextualizar el trabajo, vaciarlo de sus determinaciones especificas (a un científico particular o a una disciplina científica) de modo que se pueda comparar de manera puramente cuantitativa con otro trabajo académico y, en última instancia, con cualquier trabajo. Este valor, liberado de la subjetividad del trabajador o de la trabajadora que lo produce, adquiere un poder sobre él o ella. El conocimiento y l@s docentes ya no cuentan sino por sus capacidades para producir valor económico, que llega a realizarse bajo la forma del arancel universitario.

Esta transformación de la universidad impacta de una manera particular en los estudiantes: la carrera toma el sentido y la forma de una acumulación de “capital humano”, un concepto neoclásico que analiza la calificación como un factor de producción. Al invitar a que l@s estudiantes se piensen como capitalistas, se va creando la subjetividad de futur@s trabajadores lineada con el capital. Los aranceles y el crédito para estudiantes correspondiente le dan una base material a la construcción ideológica de los estudios como  inversión económica. Continuer la lecture →