ERIC Number: EJ1157055
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0818-8068
EISSN: N/A
Austerity-Privacy & Fossil Fuel Divestment Activism at Canadian Universities
McGray, Robert; Turcotte-Summers, Jonathan
Australian Universities' Review, v59 n2 p36-49 2017
Austerity has signalled several political and cultural changes in the past ten years. One frequent and highly criticised change has been the increasing privatisation that has occurred as part of the agenda. This has occurred in most levels of formal education. One related, but under-investigated, aspect of austerity has been the feature of privacy that has worked to enable the increasing privatisation. In this essay, we attempt to unpack how what we refer to as austerity-privacy has enabled formal education--specifically Canadian universities--to withdraw from critical public discourses. While not unrelated to privatisation, we argue that austerity-privacy was a necessary step for postsecondary education institutions to speed their neoliberal march. To illustrate this phenomenon, we examine the divestment movement in Canadian universities to illustrate the ways in which austerity-privacy obfuscates critics of neoliberal agendas. Conversely, we also examine the ways in which divestment can democratise the economy of university life.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Activism, Fuels, Universities, Privacy, Privatization, Neoliberalism, Educational Finance, Financial Support, Investment, Governance, School Community Relationship
National Tertiary Education Union. PO Box 1323, South Melbourne 3205, Australia. Tel: +61-3-92541910; Fax: +61-3-92541915; e-mail: editor@aur.org.au; Web site: http://www.aur.org.au
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A