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

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Excellent study of higher education

Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education
Sheila Slaughter , and Gary Rhoades
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University
Knowledge and Money: Research Universities and the Paradox of the Marketplace
Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education
The Future of Higher Education : Rhetoric, Reality, and the Risks of the Market
Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education

ASIN: 0801879493

Book Description

As colleges and universities become more entrepreneurial in a post-industrial economy, they focus on knowledge less as a public good than as a commodity to be capitalized on in profit-oriented activities. In Academic Capitalism and the New Economy, higher education scholars Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades detail the aggressive engagement of U.S. higher education institutions in the knowledge-based economy and analyze the efforts of colleges and universities to develop, market, and sell research products, educational services, and consumer goods in the private marketplace.

Slaughter and Rhoades track changes in policy and practice, revealing new social networks and circuits of knowledge creation and dissemination, as well as new organizational structures and expanded managerial capacity to link higher education institutions and markets. They depict an ascendant academic capitalist knowledge/learning regime expressed in faculty work, departmental activity, and administrative behavior. Clarifying the regime's internal contradictions, they note the public subsidies embedded in new revenue streams and the shift in emphasis from serving student customers to leveraging resources from them.

Defining the terms of academic capitalism in the new economy, this groundbreaking study offers essential insights into the trajectory of American higher education.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent study of higher education.......2006-09-02

This is a book that actually engages social theory in a very rigorous way while trying to explain general trends within American higher education. It is very, very good, starting with the fact that it avoids platitudes and simplified comments that one would find in short editorials.

Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery

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More Economic History than Economic Thought
Great Topic; Anecdotal Book
Disappointment
Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations
Academic

Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery
David Warsh
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics
Stumbling on Happiness
The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth
Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Understanding the Process of Economic Change (Princeton Economic History of the Western World)

ASIN: 0393329887

Book Description

"What The Double Helix did for biology, David Warsh's Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations does for economics."—Boston Globe

A stimulating and inviting tour of modern economics centered on the story of one of its most important breakthroughs. In 1980, the twenty-four-year-old graduate student Paul Romer tackled one of the oldest puzzles in economics. Eight years later he solved it. This book tells the story of what has come to be called the new growth theory: the paradox identified by Adam Smith more than two hundred years earlier, its disappearance and occasional resurfacing in the nineteenth century, the development of new technical tools in the twentieth century, and finally the student who could see further than his teachers.

Fascinating in its own right, new growth theory helps to explain dominant first-mover firms like IBM or Microsoft, underscores the value of intellectual property, and provides essential advice to those concerned with the expansion of the economy. Like James Gleick's Chaos or Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe, this revealing book takes us to the frontlines of scientific research; not since Robert Heilbroner's classic work The Worldly Philosophers have we had as attractive a glimpse of the essential science of economics.

Customer Reviews:

More Economic History than Economic Thought.......2007-06-24

Warsh has authored a well written book with a compelling tale of the foundations of theory of economic growth. More than anything else, it is a story of Paul Romer and his groundbreaking ideas. Romer is a remarkably creative thinker on a search for an economic theory (aka model) to explain growth. The author starts us on Romer's odyssey first with a brief history back to Adam Smith. It is clear Romer stood on the shoulders of giants (Smith, Marshall, Arrow, et al) in formulating theories (models) for growth, recognizing the value of knowledge and technology.

The kernel of the story becomes a bit muddled at times as Warsh becomes more fascinated with the great economists than he is about great economic ideas. The book is not written with a clear exposition of the evolution of economic thinking. It is written toward explaining the history of events of how the evolution of the thinking occurred. As such, it can be a tough slog as we are introduced to one economist after another without sufficient explanation of each person's contribution of ideas and how it fits into the mosaic of 'the real economy' (my emphasis). Romer comes and goes throughout the chapters but he is the central subject.

Toward the end (chapter 25), the history of Microsoft is introduced as an example of the ultimate 'pin factory' (Adam Smith). At this point in the story, reading about MS feels artificial and disconnected. I would have left it out completely.

One interesting observation was leading economists make 'discoveries' through models, explaining through sophisticated mathematics what the average businessman already knows from observation and experience. I felt this throughout the book so was not surprised when the author recounted a story of Krugman testing a new learning from a model on a non-economist friend. The friend's response was the discovery was "obvious". This says something about the theoretical economist's need to connect with the real world as opposed to spending all their time with models. To be fair economists must work with models which are mathematically well behaved, similar to physicists and engineers working with linear equations which are tractable for solution. These models often require assumptions or simplification which leaves out important factors. (I do worry at the unreal assumptions in the models described since many of these same economists find their way to be Presidential advisors or Fed Governors.)

I am glad I read the book and learned about how the profession develops its thinking. I also wonder if the time was well spent.

Great Topic; Anecdotal Book.......2007-05-12

A good overview, particularly for non-technical readers. Too superficial, anecdotal, repetitive, and imprecise for readers who want to find out what the major economic models really are and how they compare with economic data. For such readers, Charles Jones's Introduction to Economic Growth is much better.

Disappointment.......2007-02-17

Most of the reviewers of this book apparently found it to be impressive. Sadly I did not.

Too little time is devoted to offering adequate clear explanations of the economic ideas and theories being addressed, too much time is devoted to irrelevant social asides. The non-economist reader seeking to understand the economics as opposed to learning a great amount of academic gossip and politics will probably be disappointed. I wanted to understand growth theory. I did not and do not care that the reason why Paul Romer left Chicago for the Bay Area was that his wife had a disagreement with her lab manager or that Paul Romer has developed software to teach economics. I found such digressions to be unnecessary and distracting.

To cite just two of the book's specific limitations:

(1) The book lacks referential footnotes and a bibliography. Readers not already familiar with the subject wishing to pursue a topic further will be at a loss.

(2) The book lacks a glossary. Throughout the book numerous technical terms are introduced and, at best, briefly described. It would have been nice to have all of these key terms explained in one place for easy reference.

Small efforts on the part of the author would have remedied both of these deficiencies.

Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations.......2007-01-20

This is an exceptional, non-technical explanation of Endogenous Growth Theory. In addition, it tells a great story and has all the fun gossip about economists that most economists like.

Academic.......2007-01-09

You would think that economics is called the dismal science because it is of dismal interest to people outside the field. Well, think again!
This is a book that elegantly illustrates the importance of a rigorous discipline to develop new insight of outmost importance to society.
The author masters to provide the overview of a wide field based on a story, i.e. the story of growth and how to account for it. Growth is important to most politicians and business managers. But how can we better understand the driving mechanisms behind growth? David Marsh provides the answer!

As a marketing professor I am amazed by how David Warsh keeps the reader to the story by providing a rich coverage of not only US researchers but key players around the world. At times Warsh provides insight that makes me believe that he himself is a player in the field.

As a researcher I realize how much we can learn from thinkers in economics and how sharp minds can set the agenda. Not through catchy phrases but solid thinking backed by stringent mathematical models and solid empirical evidence.

In short: this is a book for you if you enjoy refreshing your economics 101. This is a book for you if you appreciated strong research traditions. This is a book for you if you appreciate the importance of knowledge for economic growth. This is a book for you if you enjoy great writing skills employed to an important field.

Knowledge and Class: A Marxian Critique of Political Economy

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New Breakthrough in Dealing Essentialism of All Orders

Knowledge and Class: A Marxian Critique of Political Economy
Stephen A. Resnick , and Richard D. Wolff
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical
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Re/presenting Class: Essays in Postmodern Marxism

ASIN: 0226710238

Customer Reviews:

New Breakthrough in Dealing Essentialism of All Orders.......2000-03-12

Whenever We think anything, we are actually captive within the models of thought that we did not make but just learning to live with. These models are diehard ones. The empires break down, the universes bang and bang again, but cool and still remain the models of thought. Databases come and go, make place for new ones, but these models do not. We just cope with the new databases within the confines of the old models. And the area that is affected the most by these diehard thought-models is philosophy. Essentialism is, maybe, the clan-chief of all these models. And this book has attacked it with an unparllel ferocity. Not just the attacks, but this book has taught us how to live with and tame down essentialism to suit with the ever-changing universe. In one form or another essentialism goes on remaining. So, let us learn a way how to channelize it into thinking in a timely manner in this postmodern world -- this book has taught us.

China and Historical Capitalism: Genealogies of Sinological Knowledge (Studies in Modern Capitalism)

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What's the impact of historical analysis on China today?

China and Historical Capitalism: Genealogies of Sinological Knowledge (Studies in Modern Capitalism)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accumulation of Capital (Routledge Classics)
Planet of Slums

ASIN: 0521525918

Book Description

Until recently, capitalism has been regarded as unique to Europe and as an organic outgrowth of Western civilization. By examining China in these Eurocentric terms, China has been perceived, by Westerners and Asians alike, to be a failed version of the West. The aim of this collaborative project is to examine how the experience of capitalism as a European social formation, and as a world system, has shaped knowledge of China. In addition the volume seeks to establish new foundations on which a theory of Chinese society might be built.

Customer Reviews:

What's the impact of historical analysis on China today?.......2000-02-10

The book is a good read and highly recommended, but there is room to update us on technology's impact on culture and society in China today.

Why did the development of capitalism and technology fail in China? Does it matter? Has the West trumped the deck in favour of itself through selective interpretation of events? China and Historical Capitalism tells us it is more important to look beyond finding reasons in order to find out what actually happened in China after the fork in the road of economic development.

The essays are reflections of current thinking on the 'post-Needham' project by well established scholars using, if I can stretch the terminology, post-marxist analytical tools and language. Joseph Needham, and his lifetime work on Science and Civilisation in China, is, of course, the backdrop for the essays. The chronology of the essays begins with the development of European capitalism and is completed with the identification of a market economy in pre-modern China.

My favorite essay is that of Francesca Bray, "Towards a critical history of non-Western technology." Perhaps it is because I read her book, The Rice Economies of Asia (University of California Press, 1986). But it is also because she is probably one of the more qualified persons to bridge Needham's work with post-Needham work given that she produced Volume VI of Needham's series. Parts of her essay deal with basic definitions of technology, economy and capitalism. In essence it provides clear guideposts to reinterpret Needham's work by showing the development of technology beyond the cut-off period that signals the rise of the West. The following chapter, by R. Bin Wong, goes on to narrate the development of China's market economy, where Europe's economic development is the usual topic of study.

Having experienced the development of the internet over the last half decade, one can't help but look back at the exercises in this book as also partly misguided. The authors state at the beginning that they do not address current economic development in Asia, but instead focus on how capitalism "has been conceived as a European social formation" and how capitalism, "as a world system has shaped knowledge of China." Yet, so often, the assumptions that underlie their uses of terms such as 'capitalism' result in freezing time to suit their needs and to leave the West in a category of cultural and social development that built the world outside into an image of what it wanted to see. They do not to see capitalism and technology as systems that can develop beyond their experience to date. Neither do they consider current (or even recent) interaction between technological development and society in China. Certainly, it is another large topic. But a peak at the issues would help.

Ultimately, the reality they build comes with its own set of distortions. Perhaps its the nature of the beast, but it would be nice to leave the door open and say: "Hey, Needham, Weber and all the social scientists and thinkers pre-Foucault or Pre-Habermas, etc. just had a different set of problems than we have today. ... But we recognize that we are also missing part of the picture. ... and here is where we need to focus next."

(This is short version of the review that excludes chapter summaries)

Charles de Trenck is based in Hong Kong and published "Red Chips and the Globalisation of China's Enterprises" in 1997

The German Historical School of Economics: Welfare Capitalism Begins: Knowledge Products (Great Economic Thinkers) (Library Edition)
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The German Historical School of Economics: Welfare Capitalism Begins: Knowledge Products (Great Economic Thinkers) (Library Edition)
Nicholas Balabkins
Manufacturer: Knowledge Products
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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Monetarism and Supply Side Economics: Knowledge Products (Great Economic Thinkers) (Library Edition)

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The Keynesian Revolution: Knowledge Products (Great Economic Thinkers) (Library Edition)

Frederich Nietzsche: Knowledge Products (Giants of Philosophy) (Library Edition)

ASIN: 0786169494

Product Description

Beginning in the early 1840s, a group of German university professors denounced the abstract theories of classical economists, rejecting theoretical analysis in favor of a historical approach. They believed that theories only express what happens in a simplified world, not in the real world, and that they offer little solution to the pressing social problems of the underprivileged. Seeking to find a middle ground between laissez faire capitalism and the Marxist revolution, they pioneered welfare capitalism.

Book Description

The book discusses the notion of knowledge cultures in relation to claims for the new economy and the communicative turn, as well as cultural economy and the politics of postmodernity. It focuses on national policy constructions of the knowledge economy, fast knowledge and the role of the so-called new pedagogy and social learning under these conditions to argue for knowledge networks as development possibilities in educational policy futures.

The Market: Ethics, Knowledge and Politics (Economics As Social Theory)

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John O'Neill's non-market associational order

The Market: Ethics, Knowledge and Politics (Economics As Social Theory)
John O'Neill
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415154227

Book Description

Following the failure of "really existing socialism" in Eastern Europe and Asia, the market is now generally perceived, by Left and Right, to be supreme in any rational economic system. The current debate now focuses on the proper boundaries of markets rather than the system itself. This book examines the problems of defining these boundaries for the recent defences of the market, and shows that they highlight major weaknesses in the cases made by its proponents. The author draws on considerable research in this area to provide an overdue critical evaluation of the limits of the market, and future prospects for non-market socialism. The issues discussed cross a number of academic boundaries including economics, philosophy and politics.

Customer Reviews:

John O'Neill's non-market associational order.......2000-03-30

This book ranks highly among those which seek to provide an intellectual basis for post Reagan/Thatcher/Berlin Wall politics. O'Neill's objective is to elucidate the operation of `international functional units of planning' that are capable of using global resources in `an ecologically rational way'; and he sets out `to defend non-market associations' and `to puncture the intellectual case for the market economy'. His inspiration is `Otto Neurath's strong form of associational socialism', which is his guide to a `non-market associational order'.

O'Neill's subject - the market - comprises `social and institutional arrangements through which goods are regularly produced for, distributed by and subject to contractual forms of exchange in which money and property rights over goods are transferred between agents'. By the precepts of Austrian school politics, the market (i) is an amoral, arational, non-economic, non-teleological institution which offers no judgement of the end-states that it fosters and (ii) affords a framework for the peaceful co-existence of individuals with diverse goals. These precepts support an ethos of benign neutrality which rivals the perfectionist account of political and social institutions.

Rival paradigms of political theory point to different values in negative liberty; it is a prerequisite for either (i) neutrality: with an accommodation of different perceptions of the good, or (ii) perfectionism: with an inducement to character building. However, the author identifies three (not two) issues: (i) `the powers and dispositions of character' needed to become an autonomous person; (ii) the freedom from coercion needed to exercise that autonomy; and (iii) the material means needed to effect action. He argues that the blurring of the first two issues has obscured the positive component in Hayek's endorsement of liberty.

O'Neill laments `the rejection of the enlightenment project of a rationally ordered social life' and points to an Austrian paradox: to assert that autonomy is good, is to invite rational debate over the conception of the good, which surrenders the virtue of neutrality. O'Neill believes that `the most effective defence of market institutions would not be to appeal to institutional neutrality between conceptions of the good but rather to develop a perfectionist liberal economics according to which the free market is a necessary condition for that good.' Yet, (as O'Neill concedes) Hayek does not propagate a purely contractarian version of liberalism. The perfectionism in Hayek is especially evident in respect of such desirable traits as `independence and self-reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility'. For Hayek the key issue is the nature of the `Great Society', where individuals can find `the best conditions for achieving their aims'.

O'Neill finds the best welfare defences of the market in classical economics: `material conditions of well-being, the social and cultural conditions for the development of human excellences ... autonomous choice and the possibility of cultural accomplishment, and conditions that foster proper social relationships'. These constituted the vision before the paradigm shift from substantive accounts of welfare to preference satisfaction. Any concern with the content of well-being was then abandoned. Thereafter there was either the (neo-classical) calculus of pleasure and pain or the (Austrian) remit of allowing individuals the best prospect for achieving personal goals. Aristotle was reversed: an item is desirable because of an individual's beliefs about it, not because it is objectively good. However, O'Neill's account is blemished by his conflation of neo-classical constrained optimisation (whose unlikely assumptions deter many students) with Hayek's social theories of sequential causation and co-ordination. In consequence much of his purported criticism of Hayek flies wide of the mark.

O'Neill presents the market as having encroached too far upon non-market associations: at best, the market creates a tension between welfare gains - although he finds `little relation between growth in economic welfare and growth in reported `satisfaction'' - and contractual relations that are incompatible with non-market associations; the market corrodes conditions of human well-being: the commitments of personal relationships; social bonds and loyalties; social identity and the narrative order of human life; the norms of recognition that are vital to the internal order of the sciences, arts and crafts; skills and social esteem; and the public nature of the sciences and arts. (In like fashion, might not gravity be indicted for causing backache?) At the very least markets need boundaries, `so that non-market associations and relations can flourish'. O'Neill questions the perceived values of the market: liberal neutrality (chapter 2); welfare (chapters 3 and 4); autonomy and freedom (chapters 5, 6 and 7); `the forms of recognition it is taken to foster' (chapter 8); those values which emerged from the socialist calculation debate (chapters 9, 10 and 11); and those drawn from public choice theory (chapter 12).

In chapters 9, 10, 11 the focus switches to defences of the market which emanate from Austrian economics. The issue of economic calculation under socialism led to the watershed of Hayek's `Economics and knowledge' in 1937. O'Neill argues for two (not one) debates in the 1920s and 1930s: between von Mises and Neurath (on the necessity for commensurability through market valuations) and between Hayek and Lange (on epistemological realities).

There would seem to be few ills that non-market associations cannot put right, and these include the political opportunism exposed by public choice theorists. O'Neill points to the paradox that `[i]f one took seriously what they are saying in their theories, one could not take seriously their acts of saying them'; in other words, what is the hidden motivation of public choice theorists? Although public choice theory says `something right' in its critique of state benevolence, the author believes it is too narrow in its view of self-interest, which should be taken in the particular institutional context. Associational socialism again takes its cue: non-market institutions can re-orient an individual's self-interest.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Arena Magazine, published by Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd. on October 1, 2000. The length of the article is 5440 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: DEBATING THE KNOWLEDGE NATION.(Excerpts from three speeches)(Transcript)
Publication: Arena Magazine (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2000
Publisher: Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd.
Page: 33

Article Type: Transcript

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Capitalism, Socialism and Knowledge: The Economics of F.A. Hayek

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Capitalism, Socialism and Knowledge: The Economics of F.A. Hayek

Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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