A Falling Rate of Learning? Commodification and Neoliberal Education, by Yanis Iqbal

Slaves to Money, Solidarity (9 of 25)

Image by Glenn Halog via Flickr

by Yanis Iqbal
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Aligarh, India
January 12, 2022

Under neoliberal capitalism, the commodification of education has accelerated. Before the establishment of the current accumulation regime, the educational sector was predominantly controlled by an interventionist state, committed to countercyclical macroeconomic management. The labour process of teaching within a state-owned domain followed the general pattern of any other production process. According to Michael Heinrich, such a general form – which is independent of any social determinations – comprises a distinction “among functional activity (labour), the object of labour (which is modified by labour), and the means of labour (the tools with which this process of modification is made possible) as elements of the labour process.”

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