The Modern University, Ltd.

Today, the university in the United Kingdom (UK) appears to be being led far from its educational, egalitarian roots. It appears to be a corporate beast, increasingly marketised, commodified and commercialised. In recent years, many words have been written on this matter. In this article, I wish to consider how these perceived changes could affect a cherished notion for academics – academic freedom. I connect the marketisation of UK higher education to the (comparatively) recent economic changes in the structure of capitalism, and the rise of neoliberal economic theory. This article contends that the modern shift to commercialisation and bureaucratisation in the university is not a new trend. Going back several hundred years’ state and market control in rationalising learning has been constant. The university should be seen as the precursor to the modern corporation, rather than its antithesis, with the historically marketised elements of the university simply being accentuated. Changes in the nature of capitalism have led to a change in the structure of corporations, which now operate in a system of competition rather than exchange. The effects of this change have made their mark in higher education. In this system, the work of the academic, and the widely touted idea of ‘academic freedom’, serves the ends of the university as a corporation. What this indicates is that far from being the hotbed of revolt and revolution, the university is an embodiment of what many academics in their politics aim to overthrow. I conclude that it is only by understanding the intrinsically corporate nature of the university that bettering the university can be achieved

It was not meant to be this way: an unfortunate case of Anglo-Saxon parochialism?

In June 2016, the United Kingdom’s electorate voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. This article examines ‘Brexit’ from the perspective of British, or English, exceptionalism. It argues that the Leave vote was caused by a number of factors: underlying myths and exceptionalism about the U.K. and its relationship with ‘Europe’; the fallout from the 2007–2008 financial crisis; the austerity policies undertaken in the U.K. since 2010; and the increased migration into the U.K. after the financial crisis, in particular from other EU Member States. The article concludes by arguing that Brexit should serve as an important lesson to listen to all people who feel abandoned by the EU, austerity and globalisation, to hear their stories and perspectives. Only then can we start to think about whether there are shared values and principles which could form the basis for a European politics of the future

'Redemption between politics and ontology: Agamben on the coming politics' [Review] Abbott, M (2014) The figure of this world: Agamben and the question of political ontology; Whyte, J (2014) Catastrophe and redemption: the political thought of Giorgio Agamben

Review of: Abbott, M. (2014) The figure of this world: Agamben and the question of political ontology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 9780748684090 Whyte, J. (2014) Catastrophe and redemption: the political thought of Giorgio Agamben. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 978143844852

The promise of liberty to all: the long march to marriage equality

In June 2015, the United States of America became the eighteenth country where same-sex marriage could be performed. In the judgment of Obergefell v Hodges, a bare 5-4 majority of the United States Supreme Court held that there was a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and that individual States must recognise lawful same-sex marriages performed in other States. The decision is the culmination of a more than forty year judicial story, clearly illustrating the power of one judge to influence and shape the interpretation of the Constitution, and the direction the law takes

[Review] William Outhwaite (2017) Brexit: Sociological Responses

Brexit: Sociological Responses edited by William Outhwaite, London: Anthem Press, 2017, 224 pp., £25, $40 (ppk), ISBN: 978178308645

Brexit update: the meaning behind the second meaningful vote. University of Sussex European Law and Policy Research Group [weblog article, 13 March 2018]

This is a blog post published on the European Law and Policy Research Group blog on 13 March 201

The dispositif between Foucault and Agamben

This article interrogates the specter of resistance in the writings of Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault, arguing they open up divergent ways of theorizing resistance to power. This article’s focus is on both philosophers’ use and interpretation of the dispositif, or apparatus, which controls and orders subjects, and which is the target for forms of resistance. Whereas for Foucault resistance is a practice existing as a transcendent possibility for any individual, Agamben reads such transcendent forms of resistance as ultimately reinforcing the control of the dispositif, arguing that only a turn to ontology and immanent politics can resistance be meaningful

[Review] Jessica Whyte (2013) Catastrophe and redemption: the political thought of Giorgio Agamben

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Thirty-four months on: what next for Brexit?. Brexit Institute News [weblog article, 11 April 2019]

This blog post discusses the European Council's decision of 10 April 2019 to offer the UK a six-month extension to the Article 50 process, as well as discussing the likely next steps that the UK could take

'Neoliberalism and democracy – is there no alternative?' [Review] Wendy Brown (2015) Undoing the demos: neoliberalism’s stealth revolution

There exist, in the academy today, huge numbers of scholars opposed to neoliberalism. In university libraries are hundreds of monographs on neoliberalism, many (if not all) casting a critical eye on this concept, and its perceived deleterious effects on democracy and the social structures of modernity. All this has occurred because, in the words of one such volume, ‘we live in the age of neoliberalism’ (Saad-Filho and Johnston, 2005, p.1). Nevertheless, what is often effaced in a great many of these volumes is a detailed consideration of exactly what is meant by ‘neoliberalism’ and ‘democracy’. Despite the centrality of the concept of neoliberalism to many critical works, many, like Saad-Filho and Johnston, find it ‘impossible to define neoliberalism purely theoretically’ (Saad-Filho and Johnston, 2005, p.1). Nor are Saad-Filho and Johnston alone in this matter (Chomsky, 1999; Harvey, 2005). Likewise, democracy is a contestable and contested notion, which has varied meanings depending upon the individual writing about it (Agamben et al., 2012). Democracy means rule by the people. But who are the people, and how (if at all) does democracy operate for their benefit? Wendy Brown’s Undoing the Demos is, first and foremost, a critique of neoliberalism and its impact upon democracy. In fact, this is the main strength of Brown’s argument in the volume, and the reason why Undoing the Demos is a welcome addition to the scholarly literature. It does not provide any blueprint or toolkit for activists wanting to challenge the status quo (p. 28). Her critique of neoliberalism is not a call to rehabilitate liberal democracy, nor to specify a kind of democracy which can resist neoliberalism. Undoing the Demos makes clear that even if neoliberal policies were abandoned, this would not stop the undermining of democracy through the normative economisation of political life (p.201)