Consuming Christian Higher Education: Administrators' Imaginations for Consumption and Neighborliness

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Five
  In Roundtable Session: Increasing and Decreasing Religious Commitments in Higher Education (Table 18)

Abstract

Ongoing mission distortion via commodification and competition threatens the formational capacities of Christian higher education. Consumption, or the use and exchange of goods, services, and ideas can account for these distractions. However, little attention has been given to the confluence of Christianity, consumption, and higher education, particularly from the lens of administrators tasked with tending the mission of these institutions. Thus, this qualitative study addresses the research question: How do administrators at Christian institutions understand, critique, and reimagine consumption, and what do their imaginations reveal about the formation, practices, and aims of neighborliness in college? Emergent findings illuminate how Christian administrators perceive a tension between their campuses’ missions and their resource usage, often a result of budget, culture, and competition.

Author

• Sarah E. Madsen, Baylor University
  Presenting Author