Devaluing what cannot be counted: Why
Commercialisation is problematic for
Education
Kathleen Lynch,
UCD Equality Studies Centre,
School of Social Justice
www.ucd.ie/esc
Kathleen.Lynch@ucd.ie
Presentation Clare VEC Adult and Community Education Service
Conference on Exploring the Benefits of Non-Formal Learning in
Adult Education, November 30th 2007
Why is education for education’s
sake being devalued?
Growing emphasis on Commercialisation and Privatisation and an
underestimation of its medium and long-term implications for public goods
such as education
1.

Those who are meant to uphold public interest values in Ireland have remained silent
or collaborated with the commercialisation project
Strong anti-intellectualism in Irish public life so we lack the analytical and
conceptual skills to assess the impact of these changes in the public sphere
Deep-rooted culture of consensualism in the education field which has not
encouraged critical thinking
2.
3.

There is a lack of a strong critical educational discourse a) in universities and
colleges of education generally ; b) among the education journalists in the media; c)
and the churches’ declining moral authority has weakened their voice
A Culture of consensualism was exacerbated under social partnership
4.

Controlling and Demonising of Dissent from the reigning economic orthodoxies
Market-led language has taken hold without a debate – It is redefining
educational values by redefining language
5.

customers, clients, internal markets, choice, consumers, curriculum delivery,
deliverables, work packages, performance indicators, performance managers- only
what is measured is counted
2
Understanding Educational Change in the Global
Context- growing power of neo-liberal policies
(see David Harvey, 2005, A Short History of Neo-Liberalism)

Since the early 1990s – power of global capitalist interests have increased
massively as they have attempted to reduce costs of state expenditures to
capital


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Education is seen as the new target for investors –once privatised – first step is
to privatise higher education, further, adult and community education will follow




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Reducing expenditure on public services has been core to this project and
Limiting the subvention to the development of civil society institutions – especially when
critical of the State Rising influence of global commercial stakeholders– e.g. Roundtable
of Industrialists in the EU
Sections of secondary education are privatised (for-profit grind schools); public private
partnerships (PPS) in the building of schools –poor value for money
Role of the (WTO) World Trade Organisation and the GATS (General Agreement
on Trade and service) is central in moving all of education into marketable and
measurable forms
EU Services Directive is also pressing the privatisation-for-profit agenda
Once services are defined as private they are not entitled to state subsidisation
or state management/control – only the profitable sectors will survive
‘Education is the new target for investors once it is privatised’ (see Merrill-Lynch,
1999 The Book of Knowledge)
3
The Neo-liberal model of the
citizen guides educational policy

Neo-liberal politics offer a market view of membership of society:

It is premised on the assumption that the market can replace the State (the
people) as the primary producer of cultural logic and cultural value

Neo-liberal politics defines the citizen as a ‘consumer’, an economic maximiser, a
‘free chooser’ –




It builds on the idealisation of choice in classical liberalism – which prioritises
freedom over equality
It is fundamentally Hobbesian in character; focus is on creating privatised
citizens who care only for themselves
A Market Citizen only needs education for market participation –
non-market forms of education are trivialised, especially if they are not
accredited
Cutting back and limiting informal adult and community education that is
not market relevant is inevitable within a marketised citizenship
framework as
 Education of those who are not economically productive is not valued
 And neither is education for forms of work that are not marketable (e.g. for
the social economy)
4
How has the market ideology gained
control?
Neoliberalism has gained legitimacy in popular culture through the
metaphor of ‘Choice’ - choice is promoted as a value even for those
without choice; the concept of the citizen as ‘free chooser’ completely
ignores the well-researched reality that those without resources have
no choices about school, education, hospitals or other services
 It has gained credence by public relations campaigns – ‘spinning’ the
truth
 The discipline of Economics has played a central role in granting it
ideological legitimacy– new theologians of neo-liberalism are
conservative economists
Implications of neo-liberal policies:
 They create a culture in which individuals are held responsible for failure
and success; this discredits collective belonging and solidarity
 There is a development of ‘the anxious classes’, those who feel there
is no security for themselves or their children outside of that achieved by
their own efforts.
 Anxiety is exacerbated through the intensification and glorification of
competition– all groups have to compete for funding- time is devoted to
‘the competition’ (tendering for funding) instead of running the service

5
What is Masking the move to
commercialisation?



Reorganisation of the public sector, including education, is presented as
a simple Technical Solution to technical problems to improve
‘efficiencies’
 There is an institutionalising of market values by technical processes
e.g. the creation of ‘internal markets’ within organisations– focus on
what can be measured ‘deliverables’/each NGO competes with the
other for funding/
 Hidden hand of the market is masquerading as neutral through the
discourses of ‘restructuring education’ ‘re-organising the health
services and ‘regenerating public housing’
The Operational Focus masks the way public sector services are being
commercialized (albeit packaged in the development discourses of
‘centres of excellence’ ‘world class universities’ and modernising
education generally)
Pragmatic focus hides the growing elision of the differences between
public interest values and commercial values in the operation of
education
6
What is the challenge to Adult and
Community Education from Neo-liberal
policies?

Commercialisation is presented in a TINA form –(There is no
Alternative)



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Deep-rooted Authoritarianism underlying the project- rule by experts
Bodies such as the OECD –operating powerful political and financial
influences –are presented as ‘objective’ and ‘independent’ yet they
are not
Much of adult and community education is not for the market – it
is to educate the citizen as a member of civil society, as a whole
person (with personal, cultural, social, emotional and care needs)
Yet, education for the citizen as a cultural, political or social being
or as a private and caring/loving citizen is not valued in a marketled society that equates citizenship with being an economic
maximiser and consumer
And the outcomes of informal community and adult education are
not easily quantified and measured
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Why Commercialisation is problematic for Equality of
Access, Participation and Outcomes in Education


Education is a basic human right
The State is an in-eliminable agent in matters of justice: only the state can
guarantee to individual persons the right to be educated.

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If the state absolves itself of the responsibility to educate all members of society,
rights become more contingent;
in a commercial system the right to education will be contingent on the ability to
pay.
Informal Adult and Community Education often serves the most vulnerable
in society – their rights to be educated cannot be contingent on market
forces
Democratic Accountability must be distinguished from Market Accountability



In a democratically accountable system, each individual has an equal right
engagement
In a market-led system accountability will be contingent on market capacity or
resources
Access to education at all levels is no longer a matter of choice but an
economic necessity
8
Impact of Commercialisation on Teaching
and What is Taught

Markets are driven by concerns for profit maximisation so
commercialisation undermines non-market forms of education, yet :



Critical thought, especially critical discourses and dissent is disabled
by commercialisation


a) education for work and activities that is not marketable is still vital
(e.g. for public service, civil society, the arts, carers etc.)
b) education of those who will never be major producers in market
terms is still necessary – older and isolated people, people who have
long-term mental health difficulties, people with intellectual disabilities
Disciplines and fields of education that have a strong tradition of critical
discourse and debate are not expanding at the same rate as
commercially-driven fields of knowledge
There is Censorship of Dissent by the removal of funding from
groups that are critical of government policies – e.g. Community
Workers Co-operative
9
Why Education Matters and why it needs to
be publicly controlled
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
People have a right to education – Article 24 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social And Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
Education is indispensable for realising other rights
Education has an intrinsic value for the development of the individual
– for the exercise of capabilities, choices and freedoms
Education has a care function as well as a development function: this
cannot be guaranteed in a commercialised system
Education enables one to overcome other social disadvantages
Education is a Public Good as well as a Personal Good- it enriches
cultural, social, political and economic life locally and globally
Education credentials play a crucial role in mediating access to other
goods, notably employment, culture etc.
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Why is there a move towards commercialisation in
education?


To further reduce the cost of education to Capital
The share of national wealth going to workers has been declining
at a higher rate in Ireland since the early 1990s than in the EU
generally; Only the poorer EU Eastern European states
compensate employees at an equivalent rate: e.g. Bulgaria,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

The Welfare effort has been declining in Ireland

Source European Commission Statistical Annex of European Economy, Autumn
2007
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/200
7/statannex0207_en.pdf - accessed 17th Nov. 2007

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Distribution of Wealth via Wages
(see K. Allen, 2007, Corporate Takeover of Ireland)
Table 1 Wage Share;Total Economy:
Compensation per Employee as % of GDP at Factor Cost Per Person Employed
80
75
%
70
65
74
71.8
73.2
71.2
71.4
72.9
68.7
66.3
66
62.3
61.8
60
55.8
55
50
EU15
Ireland
1980-1990
UK
1991-2000
2001-2009
Finland
12
Are Social Expenditures a way of compensating for inequalities in
wealth in Ireland?
No

Country
Total Social Expenditure % on Education % on Health

Sweden
France
Netherlands
UK
Slovenia
Czech Repub.
Ireland
Lithuania


as a % of GDP
49.4
45.7
27.6
26.4
25.3
20.2
15.9
14.1
as a % of GDP
as a % of GDP
7.7
5.8
5.1
5.3
6.1
4.4
4.3
5.9
9.2
9.7
9.1
7.7
8.2
7.1
7.3
5.7
Social Expenditures have decreased between 1994 (19.7% of GDP) and
2006 (15.9%);
Source: Tables, 4.1 and 4,2, Central Statistics Office (CSO) Measuring
Ireland’s Progress, 2006. accessed at www.cso.ie/ October 12th 2007
13
Are Social Expenditures a way of Compensating for
inequalities in Wealth in Ireland?
Expenditure as % of GDP
Table 2: Expenditure as % of GDP
Health
Education
Social
0
Sweden
Slovenia
10
20
30
France
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Ireland
40
UK
Lithuania
50
14
Rational Economic Actor (REA) Model of the Citizen- citizen valued for performance
Competing Rational Economic Actors
O = Self interested, Calculating, Competing Economic Actors.
X = Competition Between Actors.
15
Care-Full Model of the Citizen: Recognising Relational Realities
Tertiary Care Relations:
– Relations of Solidarity
Solidarity work
Secondary Care Relations
– generalised care work
Primary Care
Relations
– love labour
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