Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
John Gunn
334.863.0933 or jrg0028@auburn.edu
Introduction
This capstone paper after four years of graduate school is partly presented as an
as being incomplete.1 When I returned to graduate school in the spring of 2013, I had been
reading about neoliberalism for perhaps a decade. I read supposedly top scholars with
neoliberalism right there in their titles while deployed to Iraq (Harvey, 2005) (MacEwan,
1999). Books by Naomi Klein, Chomsky, Zinn, and other social critics lamented how
neoliberalism, among other things, would be our ruin. I had a view of neoliberalism which
placed it as taking hold in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I also thought the term was
essentially capitalism on steroids with corporate interests shoving aside government. What I
The first portion of this paper considers neoliberalism as a construct and examines the
current camps writing about the term. Some scholars suggest neoliberal or neoliberalism is
1
These four years having also consisted of a Ph.D. program in Adult Education, working with veterans at
Auburn University, some adjunct teaching at AUM, work on several homes, etc.
jumbled jargon with no utility. However, I see one camp, what I label as the Foucauldian
I have also come to believe that some features of neoliberalism are not necessarily
new. That is the second main portion of my paper. I identify two more durable, already
existing practices in line with what is often identified as neoliberal thought. 2 First, boosters
in the postbellum American South surely engaged in economic development to attract mobile
capital. In the post-world War II period, much of that recruitment was done via an
entrepreneurial state where interurban and interstate competition was widely embraced. The
rise of quasi-public entities to carry out the early smokestack chasing and later waves of
Acts of 1862 and 1890, the Hatch Act of 1887, and the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 with
conditions in late capitalism where neoliberalism seems to dominate - not just in the economic
realm but also across society. A slight dip into higher/adult education beyond just a land-grant
lens is also attempted to buttress my belief that education for business outcomes, economic
2
A third look back to Karl Polanyis The Great Transformation from 1944 might be a proper third example of
how neoliberalism is not new. Polanyis rediscovery among critics of neoliberalism is indisputable. His
situating the rise of the modern state with the rise of a market mentality among subjects certainly predates when I
once understood neoliberalism to have been birthed. I need to better study Polanyi (and economics, the
historiography of liberal thought, ) before trying to work his insights into my ongoing struggle with
neoliberalism.
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The third and final portion of my paper examines ten tenets of neoliberal thought. To
identify neoliberal tendencies in our everyday world is I believe the start of a critique and thus
due to the definitional struggle around its meaning. A catchphrase that is often negative, ill-
admittedly appear to be a conceptual trash heap (Boas & Gans-Morse, 2009, pp. 144-145,
empirically imprecise and frequently contested (Brenner, Peck, & Theodore, 2010, p. 184).
Terry Flew accepts that neoliberalism is often just a pejorative term used to describe the
latest iteration of the dominant ideology (2015, p. 318). Nobel Prize-winning economist
Joseph Stiglitz has labeled neoliberalism as a grab bag of mere market fundamentalism
Accepting that neoliberalisms meaning may be muddled, the construct is one that
scholars are increasingly exploring. Reading the word in news and similar outlets appears to
be more common now. Situating neoliberalism into various camps or groupings seems
3
Much of my graduate work in adult education influences this capstone paper for rural sociology. To wall off
readings is difficult but also seems somewhat limiting especially in how I try to communicate ways to advance
alternatives to neoliberal logic. Critique popularized and presented plainly is what I hope to focus on in the next
chapter beyond graduate school. Reading or writing about critical pedagogy is probably far easier and safer than
putting it into practice. Still, projects are percolating. Placing aspects of autoethnography and advocacy into this
paper is perhaps ill-advised. I apologize if it makes this paper too long to labor through and needs carving out.
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countries, find two schools of thought one with neoliberalism being a by-product of power
relations and the other based in an economic view that markets work better than statist
policies (2002). Centeno and Cohen see three groups, namely that neoliberalism is placed in
either an economics, politics, or culture perspective (2012). Carolyn Hardin similarly sees
three existing orientations although they are three different ones. She believes there are
Foucauldian, Marxist, and epochalist forms. She then goes on to stake out her own position,
using corporism as her label for the privileging of the form and position of corporations
(2014). 4 If three camps are not enough, Terry Flew doubles this up to six. Offering that
neoliberalism is an oft-invoked but ill-defined rhetorical trope, he leads his list with an
all-purpose denunciatory category. Another is just the way things are (2014).
feature of neoliberalism is that an active, arguably even aggressive, state is present (Peck,
2010, pp. 52-54). The state often seems to encourage, perhaps even discipline if Foucault is to
pp. 204-205) (Bloom, 2016, pp. 10-13). The state acting to protect and structure the market
so that it can achieve welfarist goals also seems to be in line with the neoliberal ideal
(Turner, 2008, p. 163). Instead of the night watchman in classical laissez-faire liberalism,
mostly there to monitor the situation and rarely/minimally acting, the state under
neoliberalism is expected to help sustain or even create competitive, free markets (Amable,
pp. 9-10). Peck and Tickell have compared the states institutions as hardware upon which
neoliberal software in installed and then synced across systems (2002, p. 389).
Two ideas often associated with neoliberalism merit mention. As is true in many
4
Hardin is hardly the only social critic to lament that individuals in todays world are starting to be viewed as
corporations while corporations are obtaining rights once reserved for individuals
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instances of the state, local governments in more populated places may tend toward being
governed/controlled by elites and other powerful interests. Institutions may then perform as an
urban growth machine in determining exactly how development and other instances of
commerce proceed (Logan & Molotch, 1987, pp. 50-98). Under neoliberalism, new flanking
mechanisms and modes of crisis displacement (may) insulate powerful economic actors from
provide context for a later portion, competing communities under neoliberalism may task
warfare so as to capture jobs and other prizes. Large, often transnational, corporations are able
to reduce risks and cut costs in a climate where local and state governments partner up on
various ventures (Goodman) (Eisinger, 1988). A shift away from managerialism in local
municipal governance from approximately the 1960s and earlier towards a more
entrepreneurial approach has been identified in both the United Kingdom and the United
5
From best places to live, retire, do business to jockeying for position via media glow about
how awesome a locale is, a neoliberal emphasis on metrics and competition seems present in this
community (Malecki, 2004; McCann, 2004). Local schools in Auburn are seen as solid and thus
become a recruiting tool for younger couples alumni or otherwise. The real estate community surely
benefits from high rankings of local schools. The local public school system is attractive to parents
who may commute elsewhere to work. For instance, somestate workers in Montgomery commute
down I-85 so that their children can enroll in Auburn City Schools. Auburn University is routinely
touted as attractive for affluent alumni as a place to come home to. Opelikas admirable historical
preservation effort has some less pure purposes in making that area an attractive place for capital and
customers. These promotions and rankings appear to be examples of commodification of place that
David Harvey often references. With clear errors I believe in claiming how competition from China
hurt some local industry, recent reporting in the Wall Street Journal gushed over how the City of
Auburn was carrying out its economic development efforts. How Auburn University and other college
towns can help their communities better avoid economic upheaval and even prosper in the current
climate drove the reporting (Davis, 2016).
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States. With some exceptions, cities in the United States were early adopters of
interpretation is that it has sought to reinvent society and state in ways that were
commensurate with the ethos and logic of the market. Among the multiple ways
Davies, 2015, p. 298). Peck and Tickell situate neoliberalism as an ongoing ideological
project that is larger than its local institutional parts (2002, pp. 381-382). They build off
perhaps almost impossible, to resist lest a locality fall behind other cities (1989, pp. 6,12). I
believe the difficulty in dodging a competitive ethos is also applicable to many citizens as
Returning to Foucault via Wendy Browns analysis, the economized state, at times a
combination of city and larger governments acting in concert with quasi-government and
social and political principle. Rather than natural or given competition found in classical
to work alongside, prop up, and advance markets (Brown, 2015, pp. 60-65).
Within this empowered state, however, politics and citizenship are reduced in
politics by economics is how Davies describes this phenomenon (2014, p. 4). Economics in
can act as a handy shield when politicians and policy initiatives are challenged. The state and
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aligned-actors simply encouraging subjects to stay secured to a market-orientation is likewise
With markets elevated, a form of state-phobia in the wake of the New Deal, World
War II, and the Cold War is protected (Binkley, 2014, p. 159). To protect and structure the
market so that it can achieve welfarist goals seems to be in line with the neoliberal ideal
(Turner, 2008, p. 163). Absent this pervasive logic that markets have more and more answers,
that many people, certainly so as to a lay audience but also as to even scholars of various
disciplines, seem to be unaware of just how pervasive it has become (2015). A later portion of
harms and possibly even creating alternatives. If people are unaware of neoliberalisms reach,
the Foucauldian Frame being my label, then resistance and reform is impossible.
Neoliberalisms nascence?
seems often relatively fresh or hot in todays academic circles. Facets of each may,
however, be found in the past. David Harvey (2005, p. 87) claims, Competition between
territories (states, regions, and cities) as to who had the best model for economic development
or the best business climate was relatively insignificant in the 1950s and 1960s. He may,
hoever, be unfamiliar with the history of industrial recruitment, financing industry, and
Blending unabashed boosterism while deftly avoiding apologizing for the Souths
secession and slavery, the Atlanta Constitutions editor Henry Grady is among the leading
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historical figures of the post-Reconstruction South urging on industrial development (Ayers,
1992, p. 21). Gradys worry was that the South was essentially a colonized economy. He
makes his case with a compelling story of how a Georgia funeral supplied only the hole and
the corpse. The carriages, casket, clothing and other materials came from the north. Gradys
frequent laments about lost opportunities stirred the resentments of a defeated people
whether people sympathetic to, or just caught up in, the Confederacy and Civil War.
Gradys gospel of Southern thirst for capital and economic growth found a receptive
audience especially in the South but also in the North. Grady was engaged in a balancing act
between justifying or criticizing the Civil War. He and other boosters usually tried to avoid
angering the still powerful planter class, who often resisted industrialization and other
As to this delicate dance, Sheldon Hackney suggests arguments for a changed way of
life were cultural treasons which could not dissolve in the syrup of romanticism and
optimistic vision of the South meeting (or even outpacing) the rest of the nation actually
occurred, it does appears some Southerners became quite territorial and competitive. As to
political and economic elites in the South, antebellum critiques of capitalism and the free-
labor system were perhaps posed largely as a rear guard effort to justify slavery (Genovese,
1994). C. Vann Woodwards chapter on the divided mind of the New South is also
recommended reading to understand how industrialization was a quite a new way of life for
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Whether from a worry that they would lose their own labor pool and/or position of
power, the planter regime in the post-bellum period undeniably moderated initial efforts to
bring the South toward a more industrialized economy. In fact, the Prussian Road theory of
Southern industrialization suggests that only when the planters were threatened by populism
and fusion politics (yeoman farmers and other white people of modest means joining ofter
with black voters) did the Bourbon or Redeemer planter class find common cause with
industrialists, bankers, railroad men, and business boosters (Bartley, 1982, pp. 152-155)
Efforts to recruit northern industry to the South as the 19th century waned became a
common practice. 6 Even if still primarily a colonial, often extractive with absentee owners,
economy, cheap and tractable labor and other advantages continued to aid Southern
boosters in recruiting cotton mills and other industry from northern locations (Woodward,
1981, pp. 306-312). Despite depressions and dissent, these few flurries of disquietude
flowing mostly from the bookish kind whom practical men could easily ignore, by the
1920s the Atlanta Spirit and perhaps even bolder Babbitry was broadly embraced across
the South (Tindall, 1967, p. 109). Nevertheless, the neo-Whigs or business progressives
of the early 20th Century still largely followed a laissez-faire approach where bare-bones
infrastructure, low wages, quite limited regulation, and low taxes alone were relied on to
If locals wanted to entice investors south with anything beyond those four foundations,
they did this with minimal, if any at all, involvement of state or local government. An
exception in some southern states were promotional activities brought under the umbrella of
6
In some instances, involvement of former Confederate figures with these new enterprises, or at least as the
recruiting process progressed, provided useful to both Northern investors and Southern boosters.
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either the governors office or a development board set up by legislative act (Cobb, 1993, pp.
64-69). Although individuals and small extra-governmental groups might occasionally try to
assemble capital for factories or other ventures, formal programs at either the state or merely
local level to direct public or state-backed money to industry were slow to develop. Wealthy
lumberman Hugh Lawson Whites election in 1926 as mayor of rather small Columbia in
south Mississippi set into motion the first formalizing of such a government effort. Despite the
Depression, his Columbia Plan proved successful enough to propel him to higher office.
When White was elected as Governor of Mississippi in 1935, his Balance Industry with
Agriculture or BAWI legislation became the first statewide approach in the South to
Other southern states, Tennessee for example, were also trying subsidies through
industrial bond issues in the 1930s. Tennessee actually provided three times more subsidy
money than Mississippi. However, state courts repeatedly struck down Tennessees efforts as
After all the changes of the New Deal, the war footing in the early 1940s created even
more change. Part of this change related to a new generation, many of which were veterans
challenging the old guard conservatives. Machine politics and courthouse cliques not only
had to contend with former servicemen but also a new crop of bankers, developers, and
7
I feel like Im neglecting the love-hate relationship the South had with the New Deal. Theres much I could add
here but will save it for another time. The Report on Economic Conditions of the South from 1938 was brutal
about how the South lagged. It described the South as the nations main economic problem. Theres some really
good work lately on how the quite powerful Dixiecrats mucked up Social Security and other programs so as to
maintain labor and racial arrangements.
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professionals. State government jobs also became less about patronage and more about
professionalism (Bartley, 1995, pp. 20-22). Military bases and arms production sites from
World War II and into the Cold War also changed the South (Schulman, 1991, pp. 136-146)
(Frederickson, 2013).
finally found widespread adoption, partly due to difficulties in finding low-wage farm labor in
a much more mobilized society, in the South. Debt peonage systems had also crumbled.
Furthermore, various laws such as restrictions on one planter enticing laborers away from
another, emigrant agent restrictions, vagrancy laws which were designed to keep labor on
the farm, fell away by World War II (Wiener, 1979, pp. 981, 988-992).
From approximately 1945, in the wake of a big push in the form of economic
priming flowing out of the New Deal and World War II, a new era for the South begins.
Around or shortly after 1945, the big push economic priming of the Depression and World
War II had created preconditions for a new era for the South to begin (Bateman, Ros, &
Taylor, 2009). Numan Bartley suggests the protection of white supremacy and social stability
was what southern state governments existed for in 1940. Soon, or at least by 1970, their
central purpose was the promotion of business and industrial development according to Mr.
Bartley (1982, p. 162). 8 In Alabama, elites certainly had to juggle those seemingly contrary
purposes of industrial recruitment and race relations in the post-World War II period.
8
In that interlude, however, there was a First Great Melding between economic conservatism and racial
conservatism in the American South. Again, heres another facet to the story thats worth remembering if this
paper is ever expanded. The late Glenn Feldman came through AU in the early 1990s and was perhaps Dr.
Wayne Flynts most-accomplished student. Glenn, a UAB history professor, died unexpectedly in October of
2015. He was just 53. I have several of Glenns books on my shelves and think theyre gems. How neoliberalism
and race collide here might make for another good topic.
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In an effort to emulate Mississippis more direct approach to the subsidization of industrial
prospects, the Cater Act of 1949 set up processes for forming municipal industrial-
eventually leased to private firms. The Wallace-Cater Act of 1951 allowed municipalities to
directly act without the middleman of development boards referenced above (Permaloft &
Grafton, 1995, pp. 42-43). 9 Via bonds, most of which would presumably receive favorable
tax treatment as they were issued by a municipality, borrowing not only benefitted those
seeking to entice industry but also those in line (presumably the well-connected and well-
heeled) to buy the bonds and receive steady income on money advanced. Almost half of the
states had an industrial bonding program by 1962 with nearly all having the same by 1968
9
The Wallace behind the Wallace-Cater Act was none other than The Fighting Judge from Barbour County
George Corley Wallace (Carter, 1995, pp. 77-78).
10
Boosterism via bond practices have a long tradition in Lee County. The United States Rubber plant in
Opelika was built in the early 1960s with $20 million in bonds from the City of Opelika (Cobb, 1993, p. 41). The
competition to win this industry was quite fierce and predated neoliberalisms perceived emergence. It eventually
became known as Uniroyal to locals. It was the site of much labor turmoil in the mid to late 1970s. It
eventually closed and is still used by some locals as an example of the evils of organized labor. This facility
might make an especially fine case study for future research as several workers remain available for interviews.
Alabamas megadeal to land Mercedes in 1993 is considered one of the first large-scale competitions for
industry and is often cited as the beginning of high-stakes playing of one state/region off another (Gardner,
Montjoy, & Watson, 2001). The location in Vance (between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham) was secured with
$238 million in subsidies in 1993 with several subsequent incentives being awarded. Despite the significance of
Mercedes, history shows boosterism and competition date back a century or more.
Even now, many other plants here in the Auburn-Opelika area, were/are heavily subsidized. State and local
media usually paint quite an optimistic picture. How politicians engage in credit claiming around efforts to
bring businesses in seems clear even if Mayhews term relates to old practices of Congress members delivering
pork and programs to the folks back home (1974, pp. 52-63). Prestige recruiting of certain firms may be
especially useful to the hegemony. Deals seem to rarely have clawbacks if businesses do not perform as
promised or just anticipated.
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progressed into the latter half of the 20th Century. With isolated efforts to hinder unions in the
World War II period, the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 allowed southern state to pass right-to-
work laws which made organizing and maintaining a union difficult. These right-to-work
laws and other indications that southern leadership was disinclined to support organized labor
soon appeared in both marketing materials and informal assurances provided to industrial
prospects. Buttressing the anti-labor spirit came from examples of plants being shut down
when a union vote occurred or even was considered. In some instances, the clergy, the press,
and law enforcement helped state and local leaders resist organized labor (Cobb, 1993, pp.
101-110). Some Alabama/Southern history also touches on how factory owners and boosters
were almost always presented as heroic in the media (Feldman, 2013, p. 27). As the Souths
signature prejudice, by the early 1970s anti-unionism may have even replaced racism
I now turn to how the land grant complex and history of American education knocks
the neo out of some uses of neoliberalism. The Morrill Acts of 1862/1890 and subsequent
federal legislation establishing and bolstering the extension system out of these land-grant
institutions need notice. 11 Even if neoliberalism clearly now values what markets may value,
economic outcomes were arguably the main motivation for land-grant legislation (Key, 1996).
I use land-grant complex in the spirit of Wendell Berry and Jim Hightower. This paper has
not the space for a proper fleshing out of their criticisms but each worries about how
agribusiness and other corporate concerns have captured schools of agriculture and related
11
Regarding the land-grant system, Auburn Universitys own Dwayne Cox has written on the period in
examining Auburn University presidents in the early New South era. Their actions were generally in line with
what Bartley and other scholars of the period describe (2008).
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disciplines (Berry, 1996; Hightower, 1978).12 Rather than broad education functions,
economic concerns and the needs of businesses were arguably motivations for the
hardly a new development. Neoliberalism may have made things much worse but the reach of
business interests into higher education is hardly new. Thorstein Veblens biting, arguably
contrasted to staid and steady scholars motivated by simply a pursuit of knowledge) were
causing as they gained control of academic institutions is a century old. The Higher Learning
especially training, I believe it safe to suggest Veblen would view almost all of its focus as
belonging to the lower and professional schools rather than the university (2015, p. 50).
Finally, Henry Barnard, the first United States Commission of Education serving from
1867-1870 saw education as a tool to bolster support of capitalism and laissez-faire economic.
Horace Mann, the Father of the Common School Movement originating in Massachusetts in
the period before the Civil War, viewed public education as a safety valve against class
12
The state, largely the federal level but also with various states or even local governments acting in
concert, was also quite involved in higher and K-12 education in bringing together industry and
academics as relates to the Cold War and defense (Hartman, 2008).
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Ten tenets (or traces) of neoliberalism to name
As the above portions offered, aspects of neoliberalism are not especially new. That
said, I do believe neoliberal currents have been clearly building up and carrying society along
over the last three or so decades. I believe many citizens do not understand they are caught up
in these currents. To demonstrate their reach, as well as the stealth Wendy Brown identifies,
I explore various tenets which are often associated with neoliberalism. I also provide space for
what might just be labeled traces of neoliberalism. Even if perhaps not outright tenets, of
whatever definition of neoliberalism one uses, these traces seem at least to hint at features of
Separating neoliberal wheat from just run of the mill capitalist chaff is difficult. I have
no doubt anyone familiar with scholarship on neoliberalism might quibble with how I arrange
these tenets or traces. Some could probably be divided and combined. That caveat offered, I
think these ten categories might be especially useful for an exploration or introduction of
neoliberalism. The utility might especially be there for an audience engaging with the
construct for perhaps the first few times it is tackled.13 They are in no particular order.
neoliberalism. Todays citizens tend toward a focus on their needs and away from any societal
concerns (Cassell & Nelson, 2013, p. 249). 14 The more entrepreneurial among us may
celebrate such a posture. The disposed and downtrodden, however, may already feel such
13
I continue to come up with an elevator pitch (which seems like neoliberalism-based jargon about how
hurried we are now) to explain my research interest. Across this campus and community, few people seem
familiar with what neoliberalism is.
14
Thatcherism is sometimes used interchangeably with neoliberalism by some critics, especially those in the
United Kingdom or who might have matriculated through their institutions. Margaret Thatcher supposedly once
said, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no
government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first.
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alienation that putting themselves out there in a hyper-competitive world oriented toward
feeding labor into the economic system. Education with a Freirean or critical theory
orientation can provide a path for such students to develop forms of class solidarity or critical
consciousness (Martin, 2008). Still, some adult learners may have witnessed instances of
winner-take-all capitalism and watched the mediated loop tape reinforcing the normalcy of
the neoliberal consumer society to the point where they have decided to emulate the habits
and behaviors they see in those people cashing in or just surviving (Bone, 2010, pp. 733-734).
Instead of Tocquevilles belief the United States was a nation of joiners, Robert
Putnam says we are bowling alone and otherwise isolating ourselves from our fellow citizens
(2000). Under Zygmunt Baumans liquid modernity view of life where society is fragmented
or fractured, there is reward in being fluid or flexible. Solidarity turns to slush in such a
society (2006). No less than David Harvey reminds us how social relations and habits of the
where work is precarious, employers are now often looking for laborers who can walk in
ready to perform. More and more labor has been casualized in that workers in some sectors
are essentially fungible. This is not just true at the industrial or clerical level. Pressures to
replace presumably higher paid workers are as old as capitalism. Cost-cutting by outsourcing
and other alleged efficiencies is impacting education, industry, the non-profit sector, etc.
Harry Bravermans deskilling thesis where skilled labor is replaced with technology
that semi-skilled or even unskilled labor can operate/monitor has seemingly held up and
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perhaps especially so as neoliberalism has taken root (1974). 15 Even if labors power has
been dialed down, especially in the private sector, machines do not go on strike. Many
machines can be moved or delivered to where labor costs are low and regulation is limited. As
a recent example of this reality, threats of fast food workers to seek higher wages and better
Some employers are looking at various work-ready measures, some which try to
reveal personality or other psychological traits in an applicant, as a tool in todays hiring. This
may be most often true for less precarious positions as such a worker can presumably be less
prospective employees are in some instances seen as important, or perhaps more so, than
skills or knowledge. A diploma, degree, or certificate might get an application past a hiring
screener but not much farther. Some solid and stable laborers in a glut of available labor have
often become portable knowledge workers who are expected to self-fund their lifelong
learning to even remain on the market. Possessing a portfolio to promote their proficiency is
This trend is also present in higher education with increasing uses of contingent
faculty and canned content (Hayes & Wynyard, 2002). Educators who may have been
telling students how more education and training can help people weather unpredictable labor
markets, new technology, outsourcing, budget bumps are perhaps now seeing such advice
may not have been all that accurate in their own careers (Stanley, 2002, p. 1172). Vagabond
educators exist when neoliberalisms discourse and common sense is dominant. At the
modern research institution, using adjunct faculty and similar interchangeable talent for
15
Braverman and Taylorism could be a fourth way to show another condition associated with neoliberalism is
not all that new. Marxist critiques certainly can enter here.
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teaching loads is becoming quite common. The real faculty is all too often expected to
surrounding work and training dominate much of current adult education work, at least
outside of some programs and spaces where there is a strong critical pedagogy tradition,
seems certain. Consideration of how to promote democracy and practice social justice work
run a distant second to the vocational aspects of adult education involving technical and
instrumental knowledge (Alfred, 2016, p. 32). Adult education has, in the least generous light,
often taught people to obey, to work, and under no circumstance to feel (Fleming, 2012, p.
128). From an actual and unabashed Marxist perspective, Bowles and Gintis inform us that
education and training has been a longstanding priority for the capitalist class (1976, p. 281).
Lifelong learning is celebrated from at the United Nations (UNESCOs Institute for
Lifelong Learning is one example) and many successful multinationals. The Bernard Osher
Foundation and other similar efforts promote programs for older students that range from
more practical job skills to simply the idea of loving to learn. An Osher lifelong learning
effort is housed here at Auburn University. I consider myself a lifelong learner and think it a
Failing to keep ones skills and knowledge current, probably even a little ahead of the
average in some competitive areas, can end poorly for a person living under neoliberalism. In
a risk society, such being what both Ulrich Beck or Anthony Giddens have explored, one
cannot stop learning - not only in relation to work but at times just to life more generally
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obligation, if a person fails to take advantages of available opportunities then any resulting
16
failures (or perhaps even just plain bad luck) are their own fault (Kopeck, 2011, p. 255).
numbers) of higher education with older students perhaps especially pressured to keep current
on everything from diplomas to certifications to compete for scarce jobs in a tight economy
(Servage, 2009, p. 31). The term lifelong learning has also come to mean far too often
upskilling so as to keep the populace supposedly ready to compete and win on the global
playing field.
adult/higher education (Findsen, 2007, p. 545). Instead of educators asking why they and their
students are having to hustle or what happens to those who cannot keep up, I fear than many
are willing or at least silent collaborators. Such a posture about learning may also exacerbate
existing inequalities. Under neoliberalisms logic, individual people, because of their personal
Education is often presented as the path out of poverty. Education under neoliberalism
does not ask who controls the jobs and holds power/wealth. The grit narrative, a form of
bootstrapping generally imposed from those occupying privileged positions, tells poor
youth that they must push past barriers they face. Programs on resilience despite disruptions
are another version of how education adapts to serve market fundamentalism. If there is in fact
16
Where neoliberalism is perhaps best resisted is in community efforts in adult education -especially that done
out of labor unions or social justice organizations. At least in a union-supported worker education project, when
students might not advance as much as they might have wished, adult educators who are involved can more
easily and safely turn that conversation into a critique of economic, class, and/or structural conditions (Schnee,
2009).
17
For the record, I do not dismiss agency. People who can overcome, work around barriers exist. Some
citizens, however, may not be as capable, lucky, free of other responsibilities, etc.
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a job training charade which encouraged students to develop a servile attitude with a
perma-smile, then some educators are leading the game (Lafer, 2002, pp. 172-173).
from being a public good, some students embracing a neoliberal view may start to become
customers looking for deliverables. 18 With this customer orientation and under free-market
logic, if students cannot translate their education or training into a good job then the school,
learning. Obtaining various credentials and knowledge in general is, however, also related the
commodification of learning. Knowledge might not always be commodified, but some clearly
is. In a neoliberal economy, it seems more likely that a commodification perspective can and
to be added to their own commodified selves gives them an advantage not only as to the job
market but also adds to their self-evaluation of their status in a neoliberal world (Crowther &
Martin, 2005, p. 9). That homo economicus, first situated in Foucault and later Wendy Brown
among others, would view learning from a cost-benefit perspective hardly seems unlikely.
18
I also believe another concept from Foucault, the biopolitic, applies: An entrepreneurial attitude towards
ourselves and others permits the appearance of some qualities of human beings as a form of capital or human
capital. It is something for which investment was/is necessary, it represents a specific value and is the source of
future income. As a consequence, since in education this form of capital is being produced, the choice for
education is a deliberate, entrepreneurial choice: one expects that the choice will be a valuable investment and
that there will a high return. But this capitalization of life is also at issue in social life. An entrepreneurial
attitude places someone into a position in which she thinks about norms, relations and networks as social capital
that could contribute to the development of human capital or that could enlarge the productivity of someones
knowledge and skills. (Simons, 2006, p. 532)
Page 20 of 40
Adult educations andragogy is built on a view of education stressing individual motivation
and a practical view of what education can do for a particular student. Such is not necessarily
The commodification of knowledge also applies to how the state and institutions
approach knowledge. A form of branding occurs as to how a community may tout its
creative class and knowledge-economy. Boosterism around Auburn University is a tried and
true tactic for this locale. In fact, the City of Auburn and State of Alabama have essentially
partnered up with the university. 19 That there is an Auburn Research and Technology
Foundation 501C3 non-profit which controls the Auburn Research Park seems to be known by
few people here. The Vice President for Research & Economic Development at Auburn
University, Dr. John Mason, serves on the Board of Directors. Other university personnel also
hold positions. The research park is described in their own literature as a partnership between
the State of Alabama, Auburn University, and the City of Auburn. Questions I have about
That there is a Vice President for Research & Economic Development at Auburn
University also seems notable. The economic development was added rather recently to the
title. I have attended a Faculty Research Symposium and reviewed their web presence. The
University has administrators inclined toward abandoning the old-fashioned pursuit of the
common good in favor of a narrower focus on the well-being of their own institutions is
The city of Auburn also has a non-profit corporation set up to govern the Auburn Training Connection
19
couple of specialties on their respective meet the staff and directions webpage. Only one
county director of the fifteen or so pages I have clicked through does not list Community and
Workforce Development. This may merely be indicative of the need to justify ACES funding
and create goodwill among local boosters. As is true in many things, work and economic
modern societies rely on the populace self-regulating and self-governing themselves. That is
contrasted with how a powerful state will mandate, by physical or less direct measures, certain
behaviors. 20 The hegemony is never simply domination imposed from above. Instead, it
is maintained through the winning of the consent of subordinate groups by the dominant
one(s). A major means for winning this consensus involves the universalizing of the dominant
Education, whether K-12 or adult, is a key part of citizens learning what is expected of
them as it crafts both their will and abilities. Various discourses, practices, and institutions
help to construct a truth that serves the interests of the state (Servage, 2009, pp. 27-33). A
discourse or logic that ties into governmentality (Suspitsyna, 2012, pp. 55, 61). Kak and
Pupala correctly point out that adult education faced this demand of delivering adaptable
20
I find this exact language worth sharing. Foucaults theory of governmentality describes the ways in which
the state and its citizenry relate through systems or flows of power. The state does not always exercise coercive
power, nor do state and citizenry always come to fully rational agreement with respect to governance, as
proposed in a social contract theory of governance. What Foucault argues instead is that much of governance
operates through discourses, institutions, and practices that construct truth such that citizens conduct
themselves in a manner that serves the needs and interests of the state. This truth determines how it is possible
to think and act and, conversely, what is unthinkable, impossible, inactionable, or deviant(Servage, 2009, p. 33).
Page 22 of 40
knowledge workers well before the larger academe took up the burden (2011, p. 152). 21
With education at the more entrepreneurial, neoliberal university all the way down to
development efforts, the educator who openly questions aspects of late capitalism and
neoliberal though is probably at least swimming against the tide. Gathering in grants and other
activities is probably hard enough in calm waters. To confront or possibly even question
capitalism carries career risks while endorsing the interests of industry might help one climb
the ladder (McLendon, Hearn, & Mokher, 2009). For the average educator, those mere
mortals not tied to Rural Sociology and similar superior disciplines, to not self-regulate ones
behavior is perhaps done only through conscious effort. Then again, Friedlands Who Killed
Rural Sociology? and his warnings about knowledge productions pushes and pulls may
both material and symbolic rewards or sanctions deliver various judgements, comparisons
and displays of whether a teacher or larger program are measuring up (2003, p. 217)
Problems, real or imagined, may bolster this approach. For instance, the Obama
21
The discourse analysis of the United States Department of Education (USDOE) Suspitsyna completed supports
claims about the transformation toward an economic mentality and away from any type of Habemasian public
sphere of democratic deliberation. In examining various speeches about higher education from January 2005 to
December 2007, half of what was uttered was coded to be about the economy. A fourth related to affordability,
access and accountability. A fifth focused on social roles like serving democracy or promoting the American
Dream the latter surely encompassing some economic facets. The remaining was on the roles and expectations
of stakeholders. Overwhelming, the publicly presented discourse from the USDOE was dominated by concerns
about the economic role of colleges and universities and their accountability, affordability, and accessibility.
Page 23 of 40
such as graduation rates (Schram, 2014, p. 430). If a school fails to meet certain targets under
such a system, student aid is at risk. The problem is that these measures may come to
dominate a school or programs focus. Given austerity budgets, the student aid spigot being
turned off could very well doom some institutions. That many of the abuses were occurring at
subsequently discussed. 22
managerialism is emerging where the state seems to be taking a positivist posture where easy
evidence trumps wisdom. In performance-based budgeting, for instance, legislators and others
holding the purse strings may require objective proof of certain outcomes. Accountability
audits and justifying funding become routine under neoliberalism. That taxpayers and
what they are funding is now gospel (Hall, 2005, pp. 180-182). 23
Under new public management and public choice theory, stakeholders demand
quality - or at least the appearance of it. Thus, reputation management and other efforts
around public relations or essentially brand protection becomes more common in our
educational institutions (Tolofari, 2005). This public choice theory and related constructs
emerges from James Buchanans work at the domestic center of neoliberalisms rise in this
22
The new administrations direction might actually dial down performance measures at public institutions if in
fact the Betsy DeVos-led USDOE is friendly to for-profit education enterprise.
23
Some educators, perhaps especially those engaged in basic adult education programs like literacy work, may
fight back or just adapt by creative reporting. Like the feudal lord who tells his tenants to grow beans, the
savvy serf might manage to sufficiently demonstrate compliance when in fact he or she mostly grew wheat. To
scout what funding is available and then plug their programs into those funding streams is a survival strategy
(Quigley, 2001, p. 56). I understand some academic deans may rarely read but most will always count.
Page 24 of 40
24
nation, namely the University of Chicago.
follows (Besley & Peters, 2006, p. 817). Faculty and staff are reconfigured as economic
units. This shift is presented as inevitable and thus resistance is futile. Resisting faculty and
staff can then be painted as silly or even disloyal if they resist what is fated. What some might
then do, when faced with such a response, is to understandably turn away from more
intellectually-oriented work or civic-minded service and instead focus on what can be more
easily managed and measured (B. Davies, Gottsche, & Bansel, 2006, p. 307).
producing surplus value for a proprietor to the worker in a sausage factory (N. Smith, 2000).
As to adult education, a field that is often quite instrumental and frequently tied to the needs
of business, once neoliberalism is embraced then such a knowledge worker may easily morph
meets some demands of a neoliberal world. In that orientation, such a useful educator
neoliberalisms excesses, has written numerous articles and books about the rise of academic
2004). 25 For perhaps especially a lay audience, Jennifer Washburns University, Inc. from
24
Olssen and Peters have an exceptionally solid summary of how Buchanan and his collaborators changed the
public sector under neoliberalism (2005).
25
For the record, I believe Girouxs jeremiads are difficult to digest especially for a Joe or Jill Sixpack out in
Bucksnort, Alabama. Modulating his message would benefit him greatly. Truly, the trouble with many social
Page 25 of 40
2005 remains relevant. This trend toward commercialization is not necessarily new, however.
John Dyers Ivory Towers in the Market Place from 1956 shows how evening colleges and
part-time programs emerged as not just another source of revenue for schools but also a place
for adult strivers to seek education in the increasingly complicated post-World War II period
higher education (Huff, 2006). Schools could potentially profit via patents and other
intellectual property advances. While Bayh-Dole generally does not directly impact rural
sociology or adult education to the extent it does other disciplines, the impacts on the larger
institution seems clear. More and more colleges and universities are forming various public-
private partnerships such as research parks with business incubators and other supports for
business ventures (Berman, 2012). Perhaps the most well know site for such an arrangement
government resources to train (and in some instances actually decide who will be hired)
workers on emerging economic development projects. A business incubator may very well
require or at least expect educators to tend the flock. Education products, perhaps packaged,
tailored, and bundled to suit a particular client but also perhaps marketable for a wide
audience, may be requested from administrators who generally need to be kept happy.
universities in the 1980s and 1990s is that they will turn a trick for anybody with money to
invest; and the only ones with money are corporations, millionaires, and foundations. So
critics with valuable things to say such as Giroux seems to be that that err on the side of scolding rather than
solidarity. A more casualized critique might be more effective than what can come across as haughty harangues.
Page 26 of 40
said Lawrence Soley in pushing back against the idea that our colleges were full of long-
haired leftist rabble rousers. Soley is honing in on research work (1995, p. 5). Nevertheless,
thirty years after he wrote his warnings, conditions have seemingly worsened. Business
opportunities in education arguably abound as safety nets shrink and automation advances.
reconfiguring of public spaces and how actors operate in these new market-based
arrangements (2004, p. 306). Henry Giroux, among others, has also written of how the private
increasingly colonizes the public as corporate culture expands (2002, p. 429). Educators
able to commercialize their output so as to benefit private entities may become privileged as
less productive faculty slots are eased toward adjunct status (Gaffikin & Perry, 2009, pp.
120-121).
Part of the push toward more privatization, or merely an increasing role for private
interests in the public realm, is clearly related to funding needs. In a time of austerity, even
staid state schools believe they must ramp up their development offices and build solid
endowment portfolios. Marketing efforts aimed at alumni or boosters may still yield good
results yet there is also a shift to where some donors actual become investors (Kyle, 2005, p.
or other initiatives may become an important first step for what a seemingly effective faculty
or staff will deliver. Pork-barrel science where departments, business, governments and
even local economies are at the trough, seems to be welcome at most modern research
universities (Miller, 2003, p. 899). Part of that funding crunch may also flow out of the shift
of funding towards private profits and the needs of the entrepreneurial state. After all,
Page 27 of 40
educators on the public payroll engaged in economic development efforts to train or even then
select a recruited industrys workers are doing a task that that business, often a profitable
bring in revenue so that less lucrative or even loss-leading programs can be propped up
(Wood, 2006). What monies come in from various grants and commercial pursuits might, for
instance, be used to help offset the reality that critical pedagogy or transformative education-
geared professors and/or programs may struggle in paying their own way.
least one and perhaps two generations have been born into what could be viewed as a
historical bloc (Torres, 2013, p. 84). 26 What Philip Mirowski describes as the Neoliberal
Thought Collective might not have a playbook or Hayekian encyclical yet neoliberal
solutions tend to fill the public space of perceived alternatives. Citing David Foster
Wallaces murketing where consumers are manipulated to erroneously think they are
popular shared script. Neoliberalism even survived the 2007 economic meltdown relative
unscathed and is perhaps now even stronger (2013, pp. 332, 140-141).
as immutable in todays world. That capitalism is presented as the ideal is unsurprising even if
26
Margaret Thatcher made her there is no other way statement operating from her rather binary view of
socialism versus capitalism. Significant shifts away from democratic socialism in Britain occurred during the
years she was Prime Minister. Across the pond, the rise and reign of Reaganism was occurring during this
period. That neoliberalisms ascendency is often associated with the late 1970s and early 1980s is
understandable.
Page 28 of 40
perhaps the body politic is starting to question the way it operates, some outcomes, etc. A
Economics and politics are often decoupled, with neoliberalism seen by many citizens as a
form of new common sense lacking any alternative (Swanson, 2008). Henry Giroux argues
then perhaps resisted (2005b, p. 14). When politics does bump up against economics, the
latter is positioned via rhetoric to win the day more accurately decades than day as to the
carved away societal safety nets, the neoliberal worker feels that vulnerability and often
responds by dialing up their competitiveness. Fear becomes all too real for many people and
many citizens now focus primarily or in some instances exclusively on what they can do as an
individual to try to weather lifes storms (B. Davies, 2005). Please recall that as this is
occurring, the global marketplace is presented as a playing field on which states must
compete. That view naturally leads to ideas of how the human capital in the state can be
value nimble, flexible and enterprising workers. Governments and related entities engaged in
aggressive economic development see education as a form of bait or deal sweetener for
clients being incentivized to locate facilities where taxes, electricity payment ... can be
collected. In this realm, adult/higher education is put front and center. As earlier noted, there
is often money and other opportunities for the educator aligned to such a view. Activist
educators questioning such an arrangement will not be cashing in on that market. Those
Page 29 of 40
questioning such a view may risk being marginalized or even drummed out of the academy.
How to avoid those defeats, and perhaps even win at least a few battles, is briefly discussed in
Conclusion
The above is I hope a decent summary of why neoliberalism may matter and what it
means. That it might not be all that new is possibly useful to apply a Marxist lens to how
Many in the working class, especially perhaps in rural settings, are being buffeted by
global forces. Globalization and neoliberalism, in fact, are sometimes used interchangeably.
The neoliberal thought collective seems to never sleep. (Philip Mirowski, 2014) It seem
quite able to adapt to and address threats. Education, done in the tradition of Freire and
Mezirow, could, however, I believe give that thought collective a serious challenge. Late
capitalism is vulnerable and will eventually fade into a new arrangement. The question might
be how to help shape the transition to whatever is next in way that is such is not just
accelerated but also better for the citizenry. This shaping will most likely be done outside of,
maybe even in opposition to, traditional education. I hope to do my part in the shaping.
Frame when talking or writing about neoliberalism as its focus is on how people live under
neoliberal logic. That offered, neoliberalism as just a catch-all critique of late capitalism has
its uses. Any critique offers opportunity for laying out an alternative. One of the best ways to
create change is perhaps to makes neoliberalism less stealthy by putting a spotlight on its
subjects. Scholarship has a role here. That scholarship made into stories and otherwise
Page 30 of 40
Students who may feel mistreated and otherwise left out of the shrinking middle class
and where wealth is increasingly being concentrated may find motivation in expanding their
consciousness (Martin, 2008). I have occasionally even felt at least a little buffeted. Moreover,
I have watched as family and friends struggle. Trying to reach the alienated via a practice built
from critical pedagogy may be a difficult, exhausting endeavor yet it one where the work
seems worthy. Gramscis pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the mind has become a
treasured phrase in the last few years. Solidarity often seems just below the surface and within
I believe Wendell Berry tells us that faculty should be eager to open up a can of
worms. Opening up said can is presumably easier for faculty without mortgages, children to
raise, papers needing to publish, etc. 27 Lip service to the contrary, the present academic
industrial complex typically refuses to reward social engagement in any significant way
which more and more indigestible papers are read by fewer and fewer people and, on the other
hand, the mass consumptions, and regurgitation of gobbets of approved information (Hayes
& Wynyard, 2002, p. 110). Todays intellectuals (tend to) situate themselves within fields
and disciplines for good reasons. Their jobs, advancement, and salaries depend on the
evaluation of specialists (Ohmann & Radway, 2003, p. 65). This retreat of more and more
intellectuals to cloistered off campuses seems at least somewhat problematic. In the public
realm, where movements are birthed and nurtured, is perhaps where naming/shaming
27
What follows is in no way directed to this papers initial audience. I have come to marvel at the pressures
professors face at the neoliberal research university. I genuinely respect those reading this paper and treasure my
time under your guidance and care. I am blessed to have been near you.
Page 31 of 40
And that public realm is where I will be. Whatever next happens, I plan to take things I
have learned and put them before an audience of common folks trying to make their way
through a sometimes scary world. Popularizing what I have learned might have political
benefits. I believe movements are where real change occurs, however. The politics and
politicians will follow. I am of the opinion that change bubbles up instead of coming down.
I usually now self-identify as a Freirean with Gramscian goals when asked about my
educational philosophy. 28 Paulo Freire is, of course, the voice upon which much of critical
pedagogy is built. In the foreword to Freires classic Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Rev. Dr. M.
Richard Shaull wrote the following which sums up nicely the Freirean view:
Regarding the logic of the present system in the above, it is what hegemony
formulation of the concept of hegemony. Hegemony refers to a social situation in which all
aspects of social reality are dominated by or supportive of a single class the role of
education resides at the very core of his concept of hegemony (Mayo, 2008, p. 419).
populations seek to undermine the legitimacy of dominant ideology, rather than just a war of
28
Freire was a Brazilian educator partially influenced by both the economic depression of the 1930s and also
facets of liberation theology in the post-World War II period. Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist who died
just before World War II. There appears to be no direct evidence that Paulo Freire was familiar with Antonio
Gramscis writing. That they seem to almost always align is made all the more meaningful when I read their
work. Also, it is important to understand that much of what Gramsci wrote was penned in prison so as to get past
Mussolinis fascist censors. It is very difficult reading not only because of his codes but also in that he wrote in
small portions slipped out that were later cobbled together. Gramsci, like Polanyi, is currently hot in some
academic and political settings.
Page 32 of 40
maneuver aimed at seizing state power. To counter the hegemony of ruling historical blocs,
Gramsci sought to fashion oppositional coalitions capable of struggling for a world without
expolitation (sic) and hierarchy (Lipsitz, 1988, p. 149). For a Gramscian, education for the
Gramsci also wrote of traditional and organic intellectuals, with the former being
more inclined toward dominant power structures and generally more likely to be formally
educated and credentialed. The organic intellectual would usually be more oriented toward,
perhaps originating from, the working class or proletariat (Mayo, 2008, pp. 425-426). Among
the organic is where I want to mostly work. Rural sociology seems like an ideal preparation
dominated world, admittedly face perils and tough choices. For an example of such a choice, a
teacher in a consumer education class with group of disadvantaged students could focus on
instrumental learning (of) technical skills that create savvy and knowledgeable consumers
or instead go so far as to jam or disrupt, the negatives of a consumer society (Sandlin, 2005,
pp. 168, 177). In a world where everything, including even aspects of education, seems
poor and dispossessed is also revolutionary in a society where celebrity and power is
worshipped.
competitive world may find solace and/or empowerment in understanding how pressures in
29
Although perhaps not necessary, most modern Gramscians are not necessarily trying to bring about the
downfall of capitalism and thus establish communism. Many favor social democracy brought about by a war of
position. Fewer still might be anarcho-syndicalists. War is just a metaphor for the struggle to accomplish
change.
Page 33 of 40
late capitalism impact their lives. While lifelong learning and learning organization are
not necessarily negative constructs to me, a Freirean might help students understand that
individual efforts, or lack thereof, might not always explain economic or social problems.
Instead of blaming the victim for their troubles, be it in obtaining a particular job or
increasing their earnings via adding on education, critical pedagogy practice might help a
student move past economic entrepreneurialism and actually question management, plus other
In a world where decent work prospects for the newer generation seems shaky, to
question why a young person should resent or even resist retraining and other features of
relevant to rural populations where many jobs have been offshored and opportunities seem
less available than in more urban locales. Working class work left in these rural settings is in
some instances difficult and dangerous. In other settings, the pay and working conditions are
hardly ideal. Going well beyond Marxs alienation of labor from direct enjoyment of their
toils, working in a catfish/chicken processing plant, for instance, is illustrative of the jobs
plus of course how manufacturing jobs have often been offshored due to wide open trade
policy, has hit middle-age men especially hard in some rural communities. Although reasons
are hard to reduce, some political observers say the new Presidential administration owes
thanks to these battered working people. As a middle-aged man, a burly white one even,
Page 34 of 40
Protections offered by labor unions and a regulatory state are vanishing, with the
worker in a neoliberal economy left precariously poised. These precarious populations are
often told to partner with corporations and develop careers to fit in the new economy (Grace,
2007). Instead of such solutions, critical pedagogy poses questions about why this is so and
seeks to have students expand their own appreciation of forces impacting not only their lives
but also that of others around them. Thus, solidarity starts to replace competition. Other
features of neoliberalism are substituted out for a better approach to life. Market forces cannot
tell us all the answers. When they do, it is often the exactly wrong answer.
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