Value and the Humanities: The Neoliberal University and Our Victorian Inheritance

ISBN-13: 9783030378912 / Angielski / Twarda / 2020 / 255 str.

Zoe Hope Bulaitis

Recenzje

"Bulaitis's analysis of the values conveyed both in higher education speech and policies provides a useful study of how they are perceived, imagined, and put into practice within the British neoliberal context. ... Bulaitis has articulated very convincing academic arguments to explain the shift from liberal to neoliberal university values and debates. This book offers accurate, clear, and meaningful food for thought for those interested in the study of the processes of 'marketisation' and 'economisation' of higher education." (Catherine Coron, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 60 (4), October, 2021)

Spis treści

Chapter One: Introduction

Part I: The State of the Debate

Critical University Studies

The Public Value of the Humanities

Social Impact Studies

New Contributions

Part II: The Relationship with the Past: From Liberal to Neoliberal Education

Describing 2008-18 as the Present Moment in Higher Education

Economic Value as a Monoculture under Neoliberalism

The Dominance of Economic Value within Higher Education

Arguing Against Crisis in the Humanities

Part III: From Liberal to Neoliberal Education

Articulating the Values of a Liberal Education

Speaking of Liberal Values in the Neoliberal University

Part IV: Chapter Synopses

Chapter Two: A History of Payment by Results: Lowe’s Code (1862) and the Browne Report (2010)

Introduction

Part I: Lowe’s Code

The Newcastle Commission

Robert Lowe and Economic Motivations

Critical Responses to Payment by Results

Part II: The Browne Report

Contextualising the Browne Report: The Move towards Minimal Government Involvement in Higher Education

National Economic Motivations

National Gains: The Debate Concerning Tangible Knowledge

The Rise of Individualism and the Student as Consumer

Conclusion

Chapter Three: Controversy and Conversation:  The Relationship Between the Humanities and the Sciences

Introduction

Part I: Policy and the Relationship between the Disciplines

Present Policy Preferences

A Brief History of an Age-Old Argument

Part II: The “Two Cultures Controversy”, Then and Now

The Birth of a Controversy

The Form of the Debate

  The Two Cultures Today

Part III: A Liberal Valuation: Arnold and Huxley’s Exchange

The Start of a Conversation

  “Darwin’s Bulldog” and “Our Chief Apostle of Culture”

Articulating the Value of a Liberal Education

Conclusion

Chapter Four: The Relationship between Academic Fiction and Academic Life

Introduction

Part I: Using Academic Fiction as a Discursive Tool

Part II: Defining Academic Fiction

Understanding the Appeal of Academic Fiction

 Situation and Settings for the Academic Novel

Subject Matter and Style in Academic Fiction

Part III: Investigation One: The Qualities of a Liberal Education

The Qualities of an Education in Tom Brown at Oxford

The Secret History: A Classical Education Out of Time

Assessing the Value of the Humanities in Novels that Engage with Educational Principles from the Past

Part IV: Investigation Two: Representing the Processes of Humanities Research

 Middlemarch and the Pursuit of the Key to All Mythologies

 Possession and the Processes of Scholarship

 Assessing the Value of the Humanities in Novels that Explore the Process of Writing and Research

Part V: Investigation Three: Pressures of Economics in Education

  Jude the Obscure and Barriers to Education

 Frank Parkin’s The Mind and Body Shop: Everything for Sale

 The Future of a Liberal Education in Zadie Smith’s On Beauty

Conclusion

Chapter Five: Impact and the Humanities: The Rise of Accountability in Public Cultural Life

Introduction

Part I: Debates in Public Access, Use, and Accountability in the Victorian Museum

 Defining Foucauldian Governmentality

 National Interests in the Public Museum: Governance and Powers of Display

 The British Museum: The Rise of Debates in Public Accountability and Access

 The Rise of Accountability: Quantification as Justification in the Victorian Museum

Conclusions, Regarding the Victorian Public Museum

Part II: Public Expenditure and Public Values

“There is No Alternative”: The Rise of Economic Models of Valuation in the Cultural Sector

 New Public Management

 Responses from the Cultural Sector

 The Arts and the Economy Embroiled: The Rise of the Creative Industries

Part III: REF-lections for the Academic Humanities

 Reinforcing National Interests within the Impact Agenda

 The Focus on Outputs and Impacts Misrepresents the Value of the Humanities

 “The System Does Not Speak for Me”

 The Humanities and the Creative Industries

Part IV: A Response from the Humanities

Conclusion

Chapter Six: Conclusion

Part I: Reflections on Questions of Value 

Part II: Future Directions for Research

Part III: Voices of the Humanities, and a Call to Arms

Part IV: The Need for the Humanities in an Age of Populism

O autorze

Zoe Hope Bulaitis is a literary scholar with expertise in cultural and higher education policy. She is a researcher in the Creative Industries: Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) within the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at the University of Manchester, UK. She holds a PhD from the University of Exeter where she previously taught literature and critical theory within the English Department.

Blurb

Tracing the shift from liberal to neoliberal education from the nineteenth century to the present day, this open access book provides a rich and previously underdeveloped narrative of value in higher education in England. Value and the Humanities draws upon historical, financial, and critical debates concerning educational and cultural policy. Rather than writing a singular defence of the humanities against economic rationalism, Zoe Hope Bulaitis constructs a nuanced map of the intersections of value in the humanities, encompassing an exploration of policy engagement, scientific discourses, fictional representation, and the humanities in public life. The book articulates a kaleidoscopic range of humanities practices which demonstrate that although recent policy encourages higher education to be entirely motivated by outcomes, fiscal targets, and the acquisition of employability skills, the humanities continue to inspire and aspire beyond these limits. This book is a historically-grounded and theoretically-informed analysis of the value of the humanities within the context of the market.