Travelling concepts: the story of the commodification of higher education in Iran.

Autor: Kazemi, Abbas Varij, Safari, Saeid
Předmět:
Zdroj: Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory; Dec2020, Vol. 48 Issue 4, p405-428, 24p
Abstrakt: This paper deals with the biography of commodification in higher education and tries to demonstrate the journey of this concept within it. The journey of this concept will then be traced from global northern to global southern countries and in particular Iran. Next the studies dealing with this concept will be addressed. Our purpose here is to discuss how the commodification of higher education finds a new identity when it travels to periphery countries especially authoritarian states which are based on Islamic teachings. Finally, at the end of this journey, four understandings of the commodification of the higher education concept in Iran will be discussed. These are the commodification of higher education as 1) privatisation 2) marketisation 3) fetishisation of scientific works and academic regulations and finally 4) commodification as a deviation from Islamization in higher education. All in all, the commodification should not be merely understood economically, but it should also be considered in the context of political and ideological values. It seems that commodification should be regarded as a part of the ideological authoritarian state apparatus. So, these forms of commodification do not necessarily mean prioritising the economic value of higher education but demonstrate the emphasis on political, ideological and social values in the ideological state of Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Databáze: Complementary Index