From Comprehensive Community College to Nouveau College

Abstract

Our purpose is to explore the multifaceted work of community college faculty, including their occupational and professional identities and roles. The overarching observation we make and explore in this book is that community college faculty resemble, or indeed are, New Economy workers. That is, they have become aligned with a globalized economy that values flexible, specialized production, particularly knowledge production tied to new technologies, and “multifaceted, pan-occupational team players,” who contribute to reduced costs, increased profits, or produce measurable outcomes, and expand markets.1 Our perspective carries with it the assumption that community colleges are now different institutions from what they have been in the past. We use neo-liberalism, globalization, postindustrialism, new capitalism, and the New Economy as concepts that frame our understanding of the community college. These concepts suggest that advanced production relies upon new technologies, and the work ethic of a labor force that is shaped by both a managerial class and corporate elites, along with global competition, defines organizations that function in a contemporary political economy. In this chapter, we explore our conceptualization of the twenty-first century community college and how this conceptualization presents an alternative discourse about community colleges as institutions. As well, and of significance to this book as a whole, we suggest implications of this conceptualization for faculty.