Capital in Higher Education

This book offers a systematic, sectoral, and in-depth Marxist perspective on the critique of political economy of higher education. It proposes an original method of analysis of higher education as a field of capitalist production, grounded at the intersection of mainstream higher education research and contemporary debates in Marxist theories. At the same time, it imbues a political perspective based on the embedding of higher education within the wider social network of antagonistic relations that traverse the capitalist economy at large.

“A fascinating, innovative application of Marxian analysis to how labor in higher education is being subsumed by capitalism, not just within one country but internationally. Focusing on the work of research and publishing, especially interesting is Szadkowski’s analysis of capitalist efforts to measure in order to control academic labor-despite its complex heterogeneity. Beyond subsumption, his theory highlights the existence of commons in higher education, and struggles to liberate them from capitalism’s grasp.” (Harry Cleaver, author of Reading Capital Politically)

“No other author in critical higher education studies applies robust Marxian analysis to produce a razor-sharp disquisition of the conditions of contemporary academic labour under capitalist capture, better than Szadkowski. Add to this an Engelsian lively language and attention to storytelling detail, and this otherwise heavy book makes a delightful read, albeit its insights leave little to take delight in when it comes to present-day universities.” (Mariya Ivancheva, author of The Alternative University: Lessons from Bolivarian Venezuela)

“Szadkowski gives an answer to the crucial question: why restart from Marx in the analysis of the global university? This work builds up an autonomous method and a collective point of view, contra mainstream liberalism and orthodox Marxism. Thus, situated within and against the edu-factory, the author tells us that those who want to understand the contemporary university must be committed to its transformation.” (Gigi Roggero, author of The Production of Living Knowledge: The Crisis of the University and the Transformation of Labor in Europe and North America)

“This book analyses how academic labour has been entangled in capital on a global scale. Using a deep understanding of Marx, it creates a fresh, clear and engaging understanding of the historical moments when the university’s multiple internal mechanisms of status, distribution of prestige, communication practices, and freedoms have been turned into a metricized, quantified, and competitive acceleration of academic labour. Breaking with existing Marxist and liberal analyses, the book’s outstanding scholarship provides an exciting and much-needed new understanding of the transformations of higher education.” (Susan Wright, Co-director of Centre for Higher Education Futures, Aarhus University, Denmark)

Krystian Szadkowski is Assistant Professor in the Scholarly Communication Research Group at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.