In, Against, and Beyond: A Marxist Critique for Higher Education in Crisis

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article introduces a general framework for the critique of the university in crisis that originates in the Marxist tradition. After indicating the limitations of current proposals regarding the source and shape of this crisis, the article emphasizes the dialectical matrix that lies behind the nexus of crisis and critique, which is responsible for closing and deactivating the contradictions emerging within it. To break this theoretical deadlock, we use the ‘in-against-beyond’ figure formulated on the grounds of Open Marxism. Referring this figure back to the project of Marx and Engels from The German Ideology allows us to explicate a program and research method for critical university studies, which relies on the integrity of three moments of critique: an inquiry into the experience of being within the university subsumed under capital; going against its rule and interrupting the processes of accumulation; and rendering visible what lies beyond the current form of the higher education in crisis.