Autonomist Marxism and Educational Theory: Compositional Struggles, Educational Insurgency, and the Politics of Recuperation

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Marxian Analysis of Society, Schools and Education SIG Roundtable Session

Abstract

This paper considers the possibilities unveiled by the employment of autonomist Marxist analysis in educational theory. In recent years, educational theorists have turned to autonomist insights in efforts to rethink resistance theory, theorize the educational common, critique educational enclosures, and to consider how educational policies misappropriate educational creativity for capitalist ends. This paper provides a detailed overview of the tradition, exploring how autonomist axioms, insights, and inquiry map onto contemporary educational problems. For the purpose of presentation, however, our genealogy of the tradition will be more concise, and augmented by an exploration of several key concepts that are perhaps the most exciting for Marxist educational theorists and activists.

Authors

• Graham Bryan Slater, University of Utah

• Gregory N. Bourassa, University of Northern Iowa