{"id":1300,"date":"2020-03-30T00:20:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T00:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nixhome.com\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2020-04-01T19:30:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T19:30:30","slug":"resisting-neoliberalism-what-are-our-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nixhome.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/30\/resisting-neoliberalism-what-are-our-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Resisting Neoliberalism: What are our options?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In the previous four consecutive posts I have traced the modern shift to a neoliberal agenda by both major political parties. I have outlined how that movement away from regulation has transformed tertiary education to a business-oriented framework. I have discussed and provided references that substantiate those claims, and a few references that argue against my claims. This is the fifth and final<\/em> post of that series (at least for 2020). Before I discuss ways that we might mindfully resist (Ashlee, 2019<\/a>) some of the negatives, I want to add one more point to ponder.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In her groundbreaking work, Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism\u2019s stealth revolution (2015)<\/a>, Wendy Brown discusses how neoliberalism has destroyed the political (homo politicus<\/em>) person in favor of hollowed-out individuals judged in terms of speculative worth\/capital (homo oeconomicus)<\/em>. I highly recommend that all student affairs professionals read at least chapters IV and V <\/em>from that book. There isn\u2019t a better synopsis of why this matters<\/em> to democracy written anywhere else. Brown deploys a critical Foucauldian framework in a thorough (yet still accessible) explanation of neoliberalism as political rationality. The work isn\u2019t without limitations, but this is neither the time nor place for that critique. To understand the (sometimes frightening) depths of the conversions from non-economic arenas to economic logics this is a must-read. <\/strong>In an interview about the book<\/a> with Dissent Magazine<\/em>, Brown said, \u2018Even Alan Greenspan says that elections don\u2019t much matter because, \u201cthanks to globalization . . . the world is governed by market forces,\u201d not elected representatives.’ That point is glaringly evident as we navigate through uncharted waters stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide. <\/strong>In a neoliberal framework people are nothing more than \u201chuman capital\u201d and must constantly and consistently (re)create their own present and future values through entrepreneurial activities. Neoliberalism shifts the focus to speculative value (away from current societal value). Ratings, rankings, and potential values are more important than immediate profit or benefit. The outcomes of the neoliberalist philosophical policies are extreme inequalities of wealth, disposable populations, and intimate relationships between finance-capital and states.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I have a bit of a different perspective here because I also have a dozen years’ experience in advanced manufacturing. The \u2018movement\u2019 toward measuring and assessing everything in higher education has shifted the focus that we used to have, \u2018students as customers\u2019 to one in which students are becoming (or have already become) products. We treat students as customers<\/em> in the face-to-face (or as Erving Goffman termed these<\/a>, \u2018front stage\u2019) interactions so they acquiesce to becoming products. Students don\u2019t resist.<\/em> But in our \u2018backstage reality\u2019 of a neoliberalistic framework, students are widgets that we package and ship to the corporate customers.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What do we do? As student affairs professionals, and student affairs assessment professionals, what are our choices? While I have 20+ years of experience in those areas, I\u2019m currently working as an assistant professor. As an administrator, I constantly heard faculty\u2019s messages \u201cVince, you don\u2019t understand how this is affecting us.\u201d They were right I didn\u2019t. To wit, I will describe my actions as a faculty member. This behavior is based on the framework of Krathwohl, Masia, and Bloom\u2019s (1956)<\/a> Affective Domain Taxonomy. <\/em>As an online instructor my tactics are to <\/p>\n\n\n\n