Beyond the neo-liberal value discourse towards a concept of social wealth

Abstract

A neo-liberal narrative dominates the cultural value discourse wherein the value of publicly funded art and higher education is increasingly assessed on the basis of extrinsic values. Higher education is expected to contribute to the knowledge economy and the arts to social amelioration, cultural tourism and regeneration. Such an overt focus on the extrinsic values of art and education sidelines their intrinsic values – how they contribute to the common good by promoting collective well-being and sustaining a critical public sphere. Rather than arguing for how their intrinsic values might be marshalled into this neo-liberal value discourse as many cultural analysts continue to do, this article calls for a redefinition of value based on principles of commoning. In place of ‘value’, it looks to the concept of ‘social wealth’, which is created by radical experiments in producing the commons. It considers how ‘art institutions of the common’ and ‘universities of the common’ that have emerged in recent years are producing forms of social wealth that offer a viable alternative to the neo-liberal discourse of value.