Capitalism and the Fragmenting Pillars of Education

In this seminar, Professor Hugh Lauder discusses Capitalism and the Fragmenting Pillars of Education. Please see further information below.

Remote participation is available on zoom at : https://unimelb.zoom.us/j/82187882217?pwd=ZEEvaDNoVTVVNUJubWVMQVhaK09EUT09&from=addon

Password: 761012

Abstract

Education is typically seen as having some autonomy from politics and society. This freedom it is seen as a source of hope for the future; that at least is how policy makers often portray education. The problem is that the profits made through carbon extraction and manufacturing, financial instruments and the extended concept of property rights serve to undermine four key pillars of education: socialization into future time, knowledge and truth, democratic citizenship and the contribution that students as workers will make to society. In identifying the way that capitalism is fragmenting these pillars, the possibilities for progressive education are opened.

Hugh Lauder is Professor of Education and Political Economy at the University of Bath (1996-to present) and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He was formerly Director, The Institute for Policy Research University of Bath, (2014-2016). He has studied at The University of London, (UCL, Institute of Education), and gained his Doctorate at the University of Canterbury (NZ). He was formerly Dean of Education at Victoria University of Wellington. He specialises in the relationship of education to the economy and has for over 20 years worked on national skill strategies and more recently on the global skill strategies of multinational companies and their implications for graduate recruitment. He is a member of the Royal Society’s Working Party on Broadening the Curriculum. His current work is on the alternatives to human capital theory, the theoretical basis for neo-liberalism. His most recent book is: Brown, P, Lauder, H and Chung S.Y (2020) The Death of Human Capital? Its Failed Promise and How to Renew It in an Age of Disruption, New York, Oxford University Press: A related paper is, Lauder, H, Brown, P, and Cheung, S-Y, (2018) The Fractured Relationship between Education and the Economy, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol. 34 No. 2: Technology & the Labour Market.

Host or Publisher Social Transformations and Education (STE)