Week6: Summary of discussion

Ellen Schrechker, "Tough Choices': The Changing Structure of Higher Education"

Haley: Though choice: 1) changing academic priority: financial structure, arms race (vote for dining etc), great inflation, related to faculty freedom 2) research and corporizational of research: based on university's financial, money is toward big science, 3) "division of research grant" administrators  

Greg: Toward academic capitalism: 1. teaching 2. research 3. administration 

• Increasingly more accountability, labor cost keep going up, more research cost money, build lab  

Haley: Got a sense that the author is not from a big university. 

• Dean of continuing studies: civil environmental engineering (NAME) engineering has huge continuing education 

Daniel:  

• Barrel of social position 
• What would somebody in a job, deliver  
• to do it a profit. revenue generating 
• Continuing study is for generation. is it changing? it's always at the edge of the campus 

Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades, "The theory of academic capitalism"

Sunny:  

• the process that how college and university integrated into the new economy 
• In the new economy we focus on the wealth production and see individual as an economic actor rather than focusing on a social welfare 
• in academia, the authors argue that there has been a shift from a public good knowledge/learning regime to academic capitalist knowledge and learning regime 
• the academic capitalism argues that knowledge is constructed as a private good, and seen as raw material to be converted to products, processes, or services 
• However, they said academic capitalism has not replaced the public good knowledge regime, the two actually coexist, intersect, and overlap 
• the theory talks about the networks that link institutions, faculty, and students to the new economy and their development of new networks that intermediate between private and public sector . 
• they are not just being corporatized but they are initiating academic capitalism 
• (blurring boundaries) 
• comparing to other frameworks which assumes that there are relatively clear boundaries among universities, corporation, and the state, and do not look into the network, and focus on the organization  
• The authors look at networks of actors and the try to cross & blur boundaries among universities and colleges, business and non profit organization and state 

June: that is kind of a selling the prestigious of the study. brand name of the university business school  

Greg:  

• classics 
• what has been done by capitalism, academia coming to the market, not a one way 
• new economy: biggest hot   

Haley: new economy technology   

Patrice: economy in which you are more on your own, more flexibility and more uncertainty  

Greg: whatever you got, it can go away. We are not getting a tenure anymore.  

Sig: post-fordist  

• 1993: new economy  

Daniel: People on the left think it is good. 

• Mass production -> Craft production  
• New kind of stratification  

Greg: it can also be bad, there is no more mass market, manufacturing to services 

June: New economy is not a new phenomenon  

Daniel: Foundation for the middle class 

• flexibility/contingency  
• you bought your degree, come back to us the world changes around you 
• Career strategies: intellectual flexibility
• conservative = we don't need to radically change what we have been doing 

Haley: Econ professor  

Greg:   

• it helps to attract donors,  
• to get a state funding: got a have a rhetoric 
• school of education study video game: "I can't believe that! they attack the stuff (state)" 

Philip Mirowski and Esther-Mirjam Sent, "The commercialization of science and the response of STS" 

June: 

• historical contest 
• STS communities reaction to this change 
• three period: (refer the the table)  
• 2 authors' background: economic history 
• criticize mode 2 & triple helix theory- they are advocating neoliberalism (assumption that science and technology is for a new product)  

Greg: another definition of new economy = neoliberal 

Daniel:  

• Post Fordism & Fordism (mass production) 
• people on the sociodemocratically left thought post Fordism is good 
• neoliberalism: more a statement  
• government and the market and issues of  
• (deregulation, economy can take care of itself, government is indeed help)  

Greg:  

• leave markets alone  
• some market should be supported  

Jen: changes a way people's thinking?  

Greg: individualistic  

Daniel: Neoliberal confusing, parents were liberal, adam smith, atomistic, revitalize version of traditional economic   

Greg: neoliberal vs. social welfare (market failure, public goods) 

June: we have to understand the commercialization and the historical context; criticism on mode 2 and triple helix - normative theory?  

Daniel: triple helix seems pretty normative to me  

Greg:  

• normative claims 
• we need decisions about research of real need  

Daniel: public good 

Haley: survey. how you design is another step.  

Greg: state, we have representative of democracy etc.  

have any sense of direction  

Meridith: personal development in university  

Greg: cite of critique, transformative place,  

Daniel: issues of stratification, notions of public good, development of citizenship 

June: MBA point - stage for networking, ex. recruit Asian for networking (explicit) 

--- break 

Daniel Lee Kleinman and Steven P. Vallas, "Science, capitalism, and the rise of the 'knowledge worker': The changing structure of knowledge production in the United States"

Patrice:  

changes in industry 

  

Daniel:  

• Similarities with lot of different pieces 
• This is a normative piece: good for some/less good for others 
• After we published, we published interview research paper (east coast)  
• Both of the article: these things are increasing 
• Research is synchronic 

Greg:  

• Moving from the notion "market is affecting us" 
• The market take norms from academia, we often forget  
• Googleplex: took idea from university and University talks "we gotta be like~~" 
• University set up norms  

Sig: Non-hierarchical (less)  

Daniel: flat structure: google has multiple reporting line   

June: changing is not always by direct influence of each other but sometimes indirect influence. 

• Needs for inclusive definition about the knowledge, not answering 'why'?  

  

Daniel:  

• Paper plants 
• it's not just people who have credential and we tend to value only credential  
• disciplinary expertise 
• we think this is productive in some level 

Sig: 

• Re-imagining Wisconsin idea, interesting group discussion  
• need to value that kind of knowledge more 
• how do you maintain the importance of expert  

Jen: vocational route: how vocational education has fits into this 

Daniel:  

• community colleges 
• they are actually "opportunity" 

  

Greg: Key takeaway?  

June:  

• Knowledge production structure is spread out  
• Separation is not symmetry, asymmetry of power  

Greg: Collaboration, networks (equal relationship, but there is some difference of power)  

Haley: 

3 products: 1) knowledge, 2) D2P initiative, 3) human capital 

Greg: reframe what we are doing 

Sunny: 100 yrs later 

Daniel: Singing for the star  

Greg:  

• research question: identify ways  
• organized around corporate learning, competition, project with real department  

Sig: the word "crisis" : rising tuition, no jobs...  

Daniel: 

• excellent and terrifying observation 
• 1980 (new knowlege of economy emerged) in grad school 
• obama is on board of many of these changes  
• the restructuring the working group  
• it has a set of safe-guard  
• four years ago (less sensitive)  
• hard to imagine how to generate appropriate resistance 
• intellectual property. student as consumer 

Greg: safe for critic