®®® Undermining the dominance of neoliberalism before it undermines us neoliberal ideology has taken root in the language, paradigm and milieu of the current university system. It fills the halls, classrooms and the space between our social relations. As university workers, in our academic and administrative labour, we live its effects. Neoliberalism treats higher education teaching as valuable only when a profit can be placed on its delivery. Research is viewed through this lens as pie in the sky and useless, unless research invents something the private sector can immediately profit from. University workers are constantly pressured to reduce funding, encouraged to downsize, and to compete against private providers; to let the market decide. Union activity is also framed as illegitimate because neoliberals view collective action as a harmful intervention in the natural authority of university management. Through this lens, workers have no place in institutional decision-making, should not seek to improve their working conditions, and should never assume they have a place at the negotiating table or the right to consult over how they do their work. Management’s prerogative rules, and anything that undermines this prerogative is framed as adverse for the organisation.
research outcomes, and as a result, our institutions better off. We believe in our work and value each other’s contribution. Telling these counter stories is not easy. Resisting the dominance of neoliberalism is, by definition, difficult work. Neoliberalism frames our language, delegitimises our union narrative and constrains all our relations. Neoliberalism turns much academic work into casual – disposable – work. Neoliberalism creates an environment of toxic shame, competition, inferiority, precariousness, stigma and debilitating anxiety in academia.5,6 We can be confined to ‘neoliberal horizons’, where ‘disimagination’ perpetuates to a pervasive insecure narcissism and reduces us to continual lifeless measurement.7 We can lose personal connection, to others and self, and narrowly view social attachment solely for marketable worth.
Neoliberalism automatically places management on a pedestal, in the hero frame. Management are taken for granted as naturally acting in the best interest of their institutions. Funding cuts are When we recognise that neoliberalism good, downsizing is desirable, efficiency is in the air that we breathe, in the dividends apparently make us all structures of our workplaces, in better off. Unionists, on the other the attitudes towards unions, hand, are automatically in in the culture and ideology the neoliberal villain frame of the country we live because we challenge in, it is obvious why the unilateral power resisting these ideas of our employers to Neoliberalism treats is emotionally and dictate every aspect intellectually difficult. higher education of our working lives. By having knowledge We also challenge teaching as valuable of this difficulty, and the wisdom of the by confronting it, we only when a profit can managerial prerogative, can defeat the force be placed on its often defending student of these ideas. Naming educational outcomes as delivery. them is powerful. Listening much as we fight for our own to people’s experiences benefit. of them is powerful. Telling our own stories that undermine As university workers and as unionists, neoliberalism is powerful action which we do our best to counter neoliberal makes a real difference to our collective framing which tells us we are illegitimate. power. We tell a different story demonstrating the value of the work we do. We believe in a Neoliberal ideology need not dominate democratic, cooperative, collectivist and our lives and universities. With awareness supportive public university sector. We of the theoretical basis to connect the know that we each contribute to quality dots and see more clearly, we can realise teaching and research, and that without that our troubles are not the fault of our dedicated academic and professional staff, shortcomings, but those of cruel shortuniversities would be nothing more than sightedness. With that awareness, we can buildings. We act in solidarity with each reframe the narrative and legitimately other, recognising that only as a collective demand what we believe in for our sector. can we ensure problems are solved in our workplaces that make us, our students, our
Image: Moritz Mentges/Unsplash
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References 1. Bregman, R. (2020). ‘The Neoliberal Era is ending, what comes next?’ The Correspondent. 2. Mitchell, M. & Fazi, T. (2017). Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a PostNeoliberal World, Pluto Press, London. 3. Sitaraman, G. (2019). ‘The Collapse of Neoliberalism’, The New Republic. 4. Connell, R. (2019). The Good University: What universities actually do and why it’s time for radical change, Monash University Printing, Clayton, Australia. 5. Gill, R. (2009). ‘Breaking the silence: The hidden injuries of the neoliberal university’ in Secrecy and Silence in the Research Process: Feminist Reflections, Routledge, New York. 6. Sims, M. (2019). ‘Neoliberalism and new public management in an Australian university: The invisibility of our take-over’, Australian Universities’ Review 61 01. 7. Wilson, J. (2017). ‘The Moods of Enterprise: Neoliberal affect and the care of self’ in Neoliberalism, Taylor & Francis Group, London.
Connect ® Volume 13, no. 2 ® Semester 2, 2020
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