Reflections on Privitization of the University, Commodification of Knowledge Lecture
Posted by Haley A. McEwen | 14 May, 2009The Leslie Social Sciences lecture theatre swelled with students and academic staff to hear what contemporary social theorist, Robert Jensen, had to say about the current state of Academia.
Before Jensen deployed his own arguments, Jan Theron of the Institute of Development and Labour Law here at UCT, commended the Student-Worker's Alliance for the work that it is doing to achieve improved working conditions for the 1000 (more or less) contract works who currently work at UCT. Theron explained that the central motivation for the outsourcing (or "externalisation", as he prefers) of workers is that UCT saves approximately R50,000,000 each year. He also acknowledged that upon outsourcing workers, the University has effectively turned its back on its social responsibility.
Professor David Cooper of the Sociology Department related the declining wage earned by workers to the increasing wage of academic staff, warning the Student Worker's Alliance that as they pull on this brick which contributes to the very foundation of the University, they are engaging in something which is 'dangerous' beyond their comprehension- while some academic staff may be progressive, many are not and will surely resist the compromise of their growing wage. Professor Cooper also spoke about his contention that we are currently in the second academic revolution in which civil society will begin to draw more on academic knowledge production (particularly in the social sciences and humanities) to solve social complex problems.
Robert Jensen, a self-professed 'self-hating academic', argued that within the social sciences and humanities lies a suspicion/fear/belief amongst academics that they have no 'real' function, as the knowledge they produce is not as valued in the capitalist system as that which emerges from the science and technology field. Upon making this realisation, Jensen explained that also, once he realised his own 'mediocreness' (or, a person with 'average' intelligence who just happens to work quite hard), the 'sky became the limit'. In other words, in his own career, once he achieved the highly coveted tenure at his institution, he 'turned his back' on the academic system (stopped publishing in journals, etc. and thus making himself less and less relevant, socially) and began to direct his energies more into the community in which he lives.
So, what does all of this have to do with the Open Educational Resources Movement?
So, I asked, "how does the OER movement serve as something that academics can step into as an alternative way of being an academic? And to Professor Cooper, how might the role of the University change as the OER movement gains momentum within the context of your prediction that we are now in a second academic revolution where the University will actually become increasingly relevant in civil society?
and I waited for an answer...
but none ever came
So, I am left wondering. However, I can perhaps make a few inferences (standing in correction) about how this presentation can contextualise my own understanding of the OER movement.
Perhaps Professor Cooper is correct in saying that we are in a second academic revolution, and perhaps he is also correct in his argument that while the humanities and social sciences are not deemed relevant in the field of production, they are VERY relevant at the level of reproduction (solving complex social and economic problems). So, perpaps, in this light, the opening of educational resources will accelerate the process of getting academic knowledge production 'to the ground', in that non-academics will be able to access information currently surfacing in the Ivory Towers across the globe- thus promoting the value and relevance of academic knowledge in civil society: A culture of sharing that goes beyond academia. Such a culture is currently in its fledgling stages, as we know from the current statistics of existing OER projects across the globe available on this blog. But, at the same time, should the OER movement prove inevitable, the role of the academic institution/ university itself will change. Just as we are witnessing the declining role of the Nation in a global era of free trade and economic deregulation (which has caused the economic meltdown in which we are currently embroiled), so to the Universities walls will inevitably become porous as the regulation of knowledge becomes less and less possible: We live in an era where information and knowledge is in abundance to the point where we actually have to sift through it. Information on any subject can be found for free TODAY on the internet. As the knowledge we produce becomes increasingly located in the public realm, we, as academics, will need to find new ways of being academics. Hopefully, this will entail an end to the 'self-hatred' and 'fear of irrelevance' which currently plages the Humanities and Social Sciences.
