Academic capitalism and the informational fraction of the transnational capitalist class

This article is based on the idea that if we are witnessing an on-going shift towards the transnational phase of capitalism, this objective structural change should also be taken into account in higher education studies. In this sense, this article reflects the increased scholarly attention into the relationship between globalisation and higher education since the 1990s. The main purpose of this article is to contribute to these discussions by developing dialogue between global capitalism theories and the theory of academic capitalism. In order to achieve this, William Robinson's concept of the transnational capitalist class (TCC) will be amended to include also the informational fraction. Furthermore, the causal history of TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) will be used as an illustrative example of how transnational corporations have stimulated the emergence of academic capitalism at transnational level. First, I will discuss the theory of academic capitalism. Second, I will introduce and amend the concept of the TCC. Third, I will present my conclusions.     

Transnational academic capitalism in the Arab Gulf: balancing global and local,and public and private,capitals

This article contributes to the emerging theoretical construct of what has been called ‘transnational academic capitalism’, characterised by the blurring of traditional boundaries between public, private, local, regional and international, and between market-driven and critically transformative higher education visions. Here we examine how these issues are reflected in higher education policy in the Arab Gulf, asking: what kinds of capital are being constructed and traded? By and for whom? What is the relationship between higher education competition, governance and the public good? We find contradictory trends, which we see as strategic ambivalence pointing to country-specific readings of similar regional markets and attempts to hedge bets between rival forms of apparent capital. The exploration offers a counterpoint to more widely cited examples, hereby helping to shape new paradigmatic ‘glocalised’ understandings of this field.     

论学术资本主义的生成逻辑与价值冲突

学术资本主义是一种市场导向的知识生产与转化方式,是一种基于专业化理念的大学组织与管理模式,是一个影响大学及其成员身份定位的文化系统。政治上的新自由主义浪潮,经济上的资源依附压力,社会文化中的绩效至上、自由竞争理念,大学自身在全球化时代的组织转型等因素共同促成了学术资本主义的生成。学术资本主义隐含有一系列价值冲突,表现在大学自身的属性定位、学术科研导向及大学治理变革上。     

经济全球化不等同于资本主义化

经济全球化使全球社会生产要素得到最佳合理的配置，使生产力得到了很大的发展，使生产力得到巨大发展的经济形式下的经济全球化，经济全球化不会导致资本主义化，相反按照马克思主义历史唯物主义观点，只会向社会主义方向发展。     

Entangled in academic capitalism? A case-study on changing ideals and practices of university research

During recent years universities have engagedincreasingly in academic capitalism as aresponse to the decrease in budget funding andthe external push towards entrepreneurialactivities. This paper explores on the microlevel what impacts the changing fundingpatterns have on university research, how thechanges are responded to in different researchunits, and how researchers experience them.Based on focused interviews with seniorresearchers in three different types ofresearch settings in Finland, the paper arguesthat engaging in academic capitalism iseveryday reality in all units but takes adiversity of forms depending on how close ordistant the field is from the market. Inaddition the disciplinary and institutionalcultures shape the process of adaptation to thechanging environmental conditions. It isconcluded that increasing market-orientationdoes not displace traditional academicpractices, values and ideals as researchers tryto accommodate them to entrepreneurialactivities. However, especially due to thegrowth and intensification of project work onshort-term contracts, achieving a balancebetween the two value-sets is at present feltto be increasingly difficult, thus generating avariety of tensions in the daily work of theresearchers and even endangering the quality ofresearch.     

Gender inequalities in transnational academic mobility and the ideal type of academic entrepreneur

Based on a study on academic career paths of PhD graduates in Switzerland, this paper is concerned with the individual and institutional factors that affect transnational academic mobility in the postdoctoral period. It will be argued that the institutionalisation of geographic mobility in academic career paths through research funding institutions and universities have gendering and stratifying effects. Complex formations related to gender, partnership, children, and dual-career constellations, as well as to social class and academic integration, are resulting in inequalities in the accumulation of international cultural and social capital.     

从经济全球化透视当代资本主义的命运

经济全球化是当今世界发展的大趋势,而经济全球化与当代资本主义的命运是息息相关的。经济全球化使资本主义有了新变化,但这不仅没有消除反而加深了资本主义的固有矛盾,并且使资本主义出现了新的矛盾和危机,经济全球化为社会主义和共产主义的胜利准备着条件,从而进一步加快了资本主义的灭亡。     

对资本主义发展阶段的再认识

第二次世界大战以后,资本主义的生产力和生产关系无论从外延和内涵上都发生了巨大变化,对资本主义发展阶段的划分,有许多不同的观点,但深入研究当代资本主义所处阶段的发展趋势,可以发现:资本主义正处于区域垄断资本主义阶段,并逐步向国际垄断资本主义过渡。     

Advocating and administering critical realism in a study of transnational educational collaborative partnerships

ABSTRACT

Transnational higher education is an increasingly important and essential part of the internationalisation of higher education. As the number of global educational institutions and international students participating in these types of initiatives increases, it becomes of paramount importance that research methodologies that investigate the phenomenon are developed and shared within transnational research communities. This article seeks to contribute to transnational education research by exploring a paradigm that has the potential to generate alternative forms of knowledge concerning transnational collaborative partnerships. By exploring functionalist and interpretivist approaches, often applied in partnership research, this article argues that neither approach, when applied in isolation, can fully articulate the notion of a TNE collaborative partnership. The article therefore champions the application of critical realism when investigating these partnerships and provides an empirical example of two Chinese-British case studies to illustrate the application of the paradigm, followed by a vignette of the type of findings generated, and its value to research and practice.     

经济全球化下跨国公司的发展新趋势

当前世界经济的主要发展趋势及特征是经济全球化。随着经济全球化的深入和发展,在近几十年全球经济一体化进程中,跨国公司始终处于核心地位。经济全球化推进了跨国公司的发展。而在当前经济全球化快速发展的情况下,跨国公司又有新的发展趋势。     

经济全球化与我国企业跨国营销对策

经济全球化,可以使我国在竞争中优化资源配置,实现超常规发展。这是千载难逢的机遇,但也伴随着风险与挑战。我国企业面对国外过剩的商品、资本、品牌输入所形成的挑战,应更新观念,捕捉国际市场商机,确立大市场营销战略、企业集团化与企业名牌战略,运用世界贸易原则与市场机制进行跨国营销。     

经济全球化时代资本主义基本矛盾的扩展

经济全球化使资本主义发展冲出民族国家的界限,由国家垄断资本主义向国际垄断资本主义过渡.国际垄断资本主义在一定程度上促进资本主义经济的发展,为资本主义生产关系的调整和发展开辟新的空间.但它的产生,并没有消除资本主义本身的固有矛盾,而是使这种矛盾进一步的发展.     

Practices of conformity and resistance in the marketisation of the academy: Bourdieu,professionalism and academic capitalism

The paper reports on an empirical study based on qualitative interviews with staff from four Australian universities. These universities are shown to be undergoing significant social change as processes of marketisation impact on the everyday practices of academic workers. The universities are analysed as sites of contestation between the new professional managers and the established academic profession over the control of the conditions of work, the production of expert knowledge and the worksite itself. The theory of academic capitalism is examined, and the relevance of Bourdieu’s work for the analysis of a university sector in a context of marketisation is assessed. Bourdieu’s interlinked concepts of capital, habitus and the field are employed to investigate the nature of the contestation, revealing a dynamic process in which academics innovatively respond to threats to reduce their autonomy, to increased levels of surveillance and other constraints on practice. In addition, the study illustrates the processes through which actors within the sector, through acts of both conformity and resistance, contribute collectively to the growth of academic capitalism in the neoliberal university.     

经济全球化的本质及其对资本主义的影响

经济全球化既是生产力发展到新阶段的结果，又与资本主义的全球扩张相联系。经济全球化的本质属性应包括两个方面。经济全球化是由发达资本主义国家倡导和推动的，在为发达资本主义国家带来巨大物质利益的同时，也使资本主义世界体系内的一系列矛盾更加尖锐。     

The distinction between academic standards and quality: implications for transnational higher education

Although the conceptual distinction between academic standards and the quality of learning opportunities is fundamental to an understanding of the role of quality assurance in higher education, the distinction, and its implications, have not always been well understood in the case of transnational higher education. This paper explores both the source of academic standards and the criteria by which the quality of learning opportunities can be judged. It is argued that the distinction is of particular importance in the context of transnational education, because whilst judgements about quality may legitimately be susceptible to a degree of cultural influence, the same is not true of judgements about academic standards. It is suggested that a lack of attention to the logical distinction between standards and quality has hampered efforts by regulatory régimes around the world to develop coherent policies with respect to hosting transnational higher education provision.     

Reconceptualising diasporic intellectual networks: mobile scholars in transnational space

In this article, we explore how Chinese scholars in the USA recount their transnational collaborations and linkages. Guided by post-colonial theories and cultural studies of transnational academic mobility, we utilise in-depth interviews to resituate the scholars' experiences within a discourse of diasporic intellectual networks. We argue that their movement is not simply a transfer from one physical location to another, but rather that the movement itself constitutes a new space of identification, of belonging and of global imagination. We conclude by considering the transnational implications of local agency for global connectivity and emergence of new subjectivities in a fluid global world.     

德里克全球资本主义批判理论探析

随着科技进步和经济全球化的发展,当代资本主义已经进入＂全球资本主义＂的新阶段。全球资本主义代表一种更深层的资本的非领地化、抽象化与集中化。全球资本主义的霸权形式呈现出以下特征：第一,全球的阶级关系发生了新变化。阶级并没有消失,而是以新的方式存在着,其中最重要的就是在当今世界形成了＂跨国资本家阶级＂和＂跨国无产阶级＂的对立。第二,边缘化。第三,资本的控制方式趋向隐蔽化。     

Academic mobility,transnational identity capital,and stratification under conditions of academic capitalism

Academic mobility has existed since ancient times. Recently, however, academic mobility—the crossing of international borders by academics who then work ‘overseas’—has increased. Academics and the careers of academics have been affected by governments and institutions that have an interest in coordinating and accelerating knowledge production. This article reflects on the relations between academic mobility and knowledge and identity capital and their mutual entanglement as academics move, internationally. It argues that the contemporary movement of academics takes place within old hierarchies among nation states, but such old hierarchies intersect with new academic stratifications which will be described and analysed. These analytical themes in the article are supplemented by excerpts from interviews of mobile academics in the UK, USA, New Zealand, Korea and Hong Kong as selected examples of different locales of academic capitalism.     

浅析毛泽东对资本主义的认识

如何认识和对待资本主义是关系到革命和建设成败的重大问题之一,毛泽东对资本主义的认识经历了否定—肯定—否定的历史演变过程。他对资本主义的正确认识有着理论、历史、现实和策略方面的原因,而他晚年对资本主义的全盘否定既有主观因素又有客观原因毛泽东对资本主义的认识对我们在新世纪正确认识和处理社会主义和资本主义的关系有着借鉴意义。