Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education

Abstract

In their timely and well-researched book, Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education, Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades consider the concept of academic capitalism as applied to higher education. The authors highlight the process of how colleges and universities in the United States participate in the socalled "new economy," a term that is synonymous in this book with the other current terms "knowledge society" and "information society." Academic Capitalism provides a much-needed overview of diverse groups of players that act in concert to cross boundaries (or to blur boundaries), both within and across different sectors, by using a variety of state resources to create new circuits of knowledge. For example, Slaughter and Rhoades describe the use of state resources to create interstitial bodies that attract corporations to universities, provide a conduit between private and public sectors, and manage the flow of resources. These state resources are also mobilized to invest in research and to build an infrastructure that is able to market the knowledge products and services of colleges and universities. Such examples serve to both describe the role of institutions of higher learning in the new economy and to characterize a paradigm shift that results from construing knowledge as a commodity.

Each of the points summarized above requires us to rethink the centrality and dominance of the academic profession. Of central concern to me is the possible shift in ascendancy of the "academic capitalist" knowledge regime. Slaughter and Rhoades show that such a shift involves moving away from a "public good" knowledge regime, which was characterized by valuing knowledge as a public good to which the citizenry has claims. In the past, basic science discovered knowledge within the academic disciplines, and new knowledge serendipitously led to public benefits, with a relatively strong separation between the public and private sectors. In contrast, the "academic capitalist" knowledge regime values knowledge privatization and profit-taking. Knowledge is viewed as a private good, it is valued for creating streams of high-technology, and for yielding models that serve to embed science in commercial success. Discovery is valued because it leads to products for a knowledge economy. Thus, private institutions, inventor faculty, and corporations become the primary beneficiaries in such a system.

Academic Capitalism also portrays the perceptions of institutes of higher learning in a new economy, for the authors indicate that colleges and universities usually present their commercial activity as win-win, as a positive contribution to the economy, and as generating external revenues while expanding educational capacity. However, the commercial activities of instruction remain problematic, for higher education institutions are often not very successful capitalists. Thus, students and the public must to pick up the tab for institutional failures. In particular, while technology transfer may bring external revenue to colleges and universities, it also takes funds from them; namely, to pay for legal fees and for technology transfer offices. Other undesirable outcomes can be attached to the entrepreneurial activities of colleges and universities. Those who support patenting argue that it will contribute to economic growth that is beneficial to the citizenry as a whole. However, the overall pattern of the new economy, at least as configured in the United States, has resulted in greater income and wealth stratification within and outside the academy than was the case under the "public good" knowledge regime.