Inside the teaching machine: The United States public research university, surplus value, and the political economy of globalization

Abstract

Most studies of higher education examine the university as either economically determined--relying on Louis Althusser's notion of ideological state apparatuses--or culturally determined--embracing either traditional or multicultural approaches. Alternatively, this dissertation blends postcolonial and Marxist theories to show that the U.S. public research university responds to the historical exigencies of a multivalent and dynamic political economy. I trace the evolution of this university system in conjunction with changes in the capitalist political economy and focus on the construction and reconstruction of the professional as the site of individual and collective agency. Chapters One and Two historicize the U.S. public research university system and argue that it has always been a vital component of the capitalist political economy. While the popular narrative of public higher education emphasizes civic preparation and upward mobility, these chapters demonstrate that supposedly egalitarian policies like the Morrill Land-Grant Act and the GI Bill serve the changing interests of capitalism. Such legislation forges and enables a university-produced professional class that functions both ideologically and structurally to facilitate transitions in the capitalist political economy. Mapping economic and cultural globalization onto the university system, Chapter Three discusses how contemporary university professionalization contributes to new methods for producing surplus value. Chapter Four examines how the U.S. public research university model circulates outside the United States, changing the global political economy as well as the production of surplus value in its wake. Focusing on a range of U.S. public research universities, I argue that the rhetoric and structure of mission statements move overseas through supranational organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and becomes implemented through policies attached to World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans. To conclude, Chapter Five develops specific strategies for the professional who opposes the capitalist logic of this global university system. Informed by Marxists scholars, like Althusser and Antonio Gramsci, critical pedagogues such as Paulo Freire, Peter McLaren, and Paula Allman, as well as the U.S. Third World politics of Chela Sandoval, Gayatri Spivak, and Edward Said, this chapter proposes concrete options for engaging and redirecting globalization.