Neoliberalism and Democracy: An Analysis of Violations of Faculty Free Speech

• In Event: Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Ties to the Outside, Free Speech, and Tenure

Abstract

Higher education institutions are supposed to be bastions of democracy. Yet, challenges to faculty free speech—a key value of democracy— are frequent. This qualitative retrospective study uses content analysis to examine news articles from the last twenty-five years (1990-2015) on cases of violations of faculty free speech. The authors assert that neoliberal ideologies present in higher education institutions diminish democratic values and call into question the legitimacy of higher education institutions’ as models and mechanisms for democracy. Findings indicate that institutional responses to free speech are motivated by neoliberal ideologies and that consequences for controversial speech of adjunct faculty are disproportionately severe compared to their tenured counterparts. The authors discuss implications of findings for higher education practices.

Authors

• Marie C. Martin, University of California – Riverside

• Ariadna Isabel Lopez Damian, University of California - Riverside