Management education and the theatre of the absurd

In this paper we adopt a humanities perspective to reflect on the nature of business schools and management education (Vargish, 1991; March & Weil, 2005; Adler, 2006; McAuley & Sims, 2009). Business schools have been criticised for becoming the “hired hands” of business (Khurana, 2007) to the detriment of a higher purpose, institutions that champion a utilitarian morality, the shallowness and indeed the dangers of which are revealed in various business scandals and especially the financial crisis of 2007-8, the effects of which cast a long shadow over today’s economic and social landscape. This has led to the criticism that business schools have lost part of their essential “philosophic connection” to issues of humanity and human identities (Augier & March, 2011: 233-4). We argue that one way to encourage philosophical reconnection is to expand management education’s engagement with the humanities (Czarniawska & Gagliardi, 2006)

The Educational Rights of Asylum-Seeking and Refugee Children within the Neo-Liberal State and Inclusive Schools in the UK

In the age of globalisation states exercise their power through the control of their physical and material borders, which has implications for the symbolic spaces of citizenship and belonging. Those seeking asylum are trapped within such spaces, not able to traverse the borders of hospitality and membership. Asylum-seeking and refugee children are defined as ‘a migrant first and a child second’ yet, as children, they carry rights to education and protection under the 1989 UNCRC. In the context of neo-liberal economic policies which define those ‘deserving’ and the ‘undeserving’ (Sales 2002) of protection, educational institutions become one of the few sites promoting human rights and ‘personhood’. This paper indicates what happens when asylum-seeking and refugee children cross these territorial and symbolic borders into liberal democratic educational systems. It reports the findings of a recent study of the ethico-political conditions affecting asylum-seeking and refugee children in the UK, contrasting inhospitable immigration policies that deny these children’s human rights with inclusive schooling approaches (Pinson, Arnot and Candappa, 2010). Teachers’ responses to such hostile agendas by drawing on child-centred approaches or on more radical interventions on behalf of the refugee child challenge these government actions. The paper raises the question about how the tension between the strong and weak aspects of the neo-liberal state has considerable significance for these young people’s lives

Premises, promises, and perils of the Academic Potemkin Village

Increased competition for students and financial resources has contributed to a managerialist perspective in higher education. In this competitive landscape, institutional decision-making may prioritize choices perceived as rational imperatives to the forces buffeting higher education, bringing unintended consequences when they are driven mostly by short-term, marketing-based, revenue-enhancing considerations. In their efforts to “look good,” such institutions risk becoming Academic Potemkin Villages where symbolic façades are erected to impress relevant stakeholders at the risk of overshadowing core missions of learning and research. Exploring the Academic Potemkin Village metaphor, we examine its premises (factors that are pressuring higher education), its promises (the seduction of building various symbolic façades to respond to those pressures), and its perils (the impact on institutions, faculty, and students). We then suggest ways of building out Academic Potemkin Villages into lasting and unique collaborations, re-focused on the core values of higher education