Neoliberalism, the Accountability Paradox, and the Future of Higher Education

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eleven
  In Roundtable Session: Equity, Neoliberalism, and Dark Academia? Political Barriers and the Quest for Truth (Table 5)

Abstract

This article re-examines the last forty years of conceptual developments in the economic rationale known as neoliberalism against the backdrop of higher education and our journey through COVID-19. Neoliberalism emphasizes a ruthless preoccupation with the bottom-line, efficiency at all costs, and narrow, market-driven understandings of “life,” “work,” “management,” “competition,” and “leadership.” We identify an “accountability paradox,” wherein calls for greater efficiency lead to bureaucracies that ensure that efficiency is never achieved and explicate it through the primary lenses that dissect neoliberalism, the neo-Marxist and the Foucauldian. Because this paradox cannot be resolved by continuing along present lines, the only option left for higher education faculty to demand a severe reduction in accountability regimes.

Authors

• Lance E. Mason, Indiana University - Kokomo
  Presenting Author

• Paul Cook, Indiana University Kokomo
  Presenting Author