Accelerated Time in the Neoliberal University

Abstract

This chapter explores the ramifications for critical social work pedagogy when it is delivered online in a post-pandemic world, and in the context of accelerated time under neoliberalism. It brings together critical literature found in sociology of education, sociology of time, and social work education in order to theorise what actually happens to critical pedagogy in social work education when it is produced remotely through digitalised platforms. The chapter draws on different perspectives found in the critical literature on neoliberalism to discuss the ways in which neoliberalism has reconstituted universities and the lives of students and academic workers. It examines the possibilities and perils that exist when critical social work education goes online in the neoliberal university The suggestive acceleration theory is deployed in order to explain educators’ and students’ experiences of work intensification and time scarcity under neoliberalism.