Book Review of "Academic Capitalism in the Age of Globalization"

Abstract

Academic Capitalism in the Age of Globalization acts as a scholarly interrogation of the theory and practice of academic capitalism within the context of globalization. Brendan Cantwell and Ilkka Kauppinen assemble an international team of leading scholars that reexamine the theory of academic capitalism and analyze the intersection of academic capitalism and globalization. Drawing on scholarship from Sheila Slaughter, Larry Leslie, and Gary Rhoades, the text situates various aspects of higher education - student recruitment, classroom instruction, faculty research, administrative governance, and the control of intellectual property - within a political economy consequent to the market and state. The authors explore how institutions and the political economy are interrelated, referencing key categories such as time, academic labour, and knowledge as a commodity within different (inter-) national settings. Cantwell and Kauppinen (Chapter 1) extend, refine, and challenge research and practice associated with academic capitalism and outline two recent and significant contributions to scholarship in academic capitalism theory. First, the authors present a conceptual framework to study the shift in institutional policy from public to private welfare and competitive regimes. Second, they offer methodological tools for tracking (re-) formation of interconnectedness in postsecondary institutions, considering intellectuals, institutions, and networks. The authors explore academic capitalism within the context of knowledge-driven economies as both a concept and analytic tool. Discourse throughout the text draws on classical Marxian and Weberian thought and Foucauldian notions of government and regime and globalization theory. Alma Maldonado-Maldonado (Chapter 11) assesses the applicability of academic capitalism in developing countries and emerging markets and proposes ideas to make academic capitalism more globally relevant. In agreement with comparative education, "a book that does not contain its counter book is considered incomplete" (Jorge Luis Borges, 1940, as cited in Cantwell & Kauppinen, 2014, p. 187). To follow, Hei-hang Hayes Tang (Chapter 12) evaluates academic capitalism in Greater China. Drawing from work by Burton Clark (1983), Tang examines the political landscape of academic capitalism in Greater China related to power exchanges between the state, market and academia.