Academic Capitalism in the Student Union

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Academic Employment in Higher Education

Abstract

Using an academic capitalism framework, this study examines the contemporary landscape of student unions in order to understand the educational and commercial tensions embedded within these prominent and student-focused campus structures. The significance of this study is its exploration of campus commercialization and those who foster it. Theoretically, the analysis builds on the scholarship of academic capitalism and examines its impact on student affairs and campus life. Practically, the study demonstrates that student unions are not simply auxiliary enterprises. Rather, as defining features of campus, they provide tangible contexts for the ways in which physical space, social relationships, and economic exchanges coalesce.

Author

• Amy Liu, University of California - Los Angeles