Crises, Commodities and Education: Disruptions,Eruptions, Interruptions and Ruptures

Glenn Rikowski

CRISES, COMMODITIES AND EDUCATION: DISRUPTIONS, ERUPTIONS, INTERRUPTIONS AND RUPTURES

Dr. Glenn Rikowski

RESEARCH IN CRITICAL EDUCATION STUDIES (RiCES) SEMINAR

RiCES @LincsCritEd

University of Lincoln

School of Education
Brayford Pool, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK

LN6 7TS

Thursday November 19th 1.30-4.00pm in room BH1201:

Dr Glenn Rikowski, Independent Scholar

Crises, Commodities and Education: Disruptions, Eruptions, Interruptions and Ruptures

ABSTRACT

After a brief analysis of the concept of crisis (drawing on the work of Roitman, 2014) and following an outline and critique of some previous work (Rikowski, 2014) – on the Classical Theory of Education Crisis (in the light of Sarup, 1982) and philosophical perspectives on education crises – Rikowski explores the notion of crisis in relation to phenomena pertaining to the social forms of capitalist education. Starting out from Marx’s analysis of the ‘two great classes of commodities’ (following Adam Smith), Rikowski charts what ‘crisis’ might mean, and could be, in terms of the two commodity forms pertaining to educational processes in capitalist society. The final part of the paper explores actual and possible empirical manifestations of these crises of the commodity form in terms of the notions of disruption, eruption, interruption and rupture. It is argued that last two of these forms of crisis pose particular problems for the continuance and development of capitalism in general and the national capital and capitalist education in particular.

Note: A paper will be produced prior to the event and posted to Academia. Meanwhile, it would be useful for those interested in coming to the seminar, or for those reading the paper on Academia, to read in advance the following paper (which is on Academia). This is because Rikowski’s paper prepared for the RiCES Seminar builds on and goes beyond this paper:

Rikowski, G. (2014) Crises in Education, Crises of Education, A paper prepared for the Philosophy of Education Seminars at UCL Institute of Education, 2014-15 Programme, 22^nd October 2014, 20 Bedford Way, London, online at Academia: http://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education 

For further information contact Dr. Cassie Earl at: CEarl@lincoln.ac.uk

RiCES – About – People – Research: http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/education/research/researchincriticaleducationstudies/

Research in Critical Education Studies (RiCES) blog: http://criticaleducation.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/

***END***

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia

Ruth Rikowski

RUTH RIKOWSKI @ ACADEMIA

Ruth Rikowski is now a member of Academia and a collection of her published papers and articles can now be found there.

Ruth Rikowski at Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski  

Ruth Rikowski is a Visiting Lecturer in the Business School at London South Bank University, UK. She is also a Freelance Editor for Chandos Publishing, Oxford, UK.  Ruth is an Associate of the Higher Education Academy (AHEA) and a Chartered Librarian. Ruth Rikowski is the author of Globalisation, Information and Libraries (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2005) and editor of Knowledge Management: Social, cultural and theoretical perspectives (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2007) and Digitisation Perspectives (Sense Publishers, 2010). She has written numerous articles in journals such as Business Information Review, Policy Futures in Education, Information for Social Change and Managing Information and given many talks and presentations, focusing in particular on globalisation, knowledge management, information technology, Marxism and feminism. She is currently engaged in writing a series of novels.

The Rikowski website, ‘The Flow of Ideas’ can be found at http://www.flowideas.co.uk  and Ruth’s blog, ‘Serendipitous Moments’ is at http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/.

Discussion on the Education White Paper for England and Extensions of the Commodification Process in Libraries and Schools

Ruth Rikowski

DISCUSSION ON THE EDUCATION WHITE PAPER FOR ENGLAND AND EXTENSIONS OF THE COMMODIFICATION PROCESS IN LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS

This, rather long title, pertains to the only paper / article written by us (Ruth and Glenn Rikowski) jointly. It appeared in the winter 2005/06 edition of Information for Social Change, Issue 22. We were both mightily concerned with processes and policies relating to the commodification of public services at the time, with Ruth focusing on libraries and Glenn on schools in England.

Furthermore, at the time, both of us were interested in the international dimension to the commodification of public services. Specifically, we were concerned with the likely impact of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This joint interest brought us together in a practical political sense too, when we became members of Attac London in 2000 and along with others organised a conference on the commodification of state services.

Of course, these topics have gained renewed importance with the current development of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Maybe the halting of significant advances in the WTO’s GATS process since Seattle 1999 in some way precipitated this development.

It is a shame that we have not written more together, and this is something that we aim to rectify in the future.

Meanwhile, this ‘Discussion’ piece can now be found at Academia:

For Glenn, it is at: http://www.academia.edu/12010645/Discussion_on_the_Education_White_Paper_for_England_and_Extensions_of_the_Commodification_Process_in_Libraries_and_Schools

For Ruth, it is at:

http://www.academia.edu/12010645/Discussion_on_the_Education_White_Paper_for_England_and_Extensions_of_the_Commodification_Process_in_Libraries_and_Schools

Glenn Rikowski’s papers and articles at Academia can be viewed at: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski’s papers and articles at Academia can be viewed at: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Ruth and Glenn Rikowski

London

September 2015