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Students of Academic Capitalism: Emotional Dimensions in the Commercialization of Higher Education

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Gretzky

    (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)

  • Julia Lerner

    (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)

Abstract

This article spotlights the emotional aspect of the commercialization of university studies. Whereas the literature on current challenges of higher education highlights the students’ customer role, we reveal how neoliberal studenthood combines a consumerist worldview with the discourse of emotional experience. The narratives of Israeli students in the present article show consumerist–emotional therapeutic duality in the ways they make sense of their encounter with the university. Students evaluate how their professors meet their emotional, therapeutic, and consumer needs and perceive the knowledge they acquire as providing them with both pragmatic skills and emotional experience. We argue that this duality is significant to the emerging culture of ‘academic capitalism’ and show how the commercialized feelings and pragmatics of self-development operate as a manifestation of ‘emotional capitalism’.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Gretzky & Julia Lerner, 2021. "Students of Academic Capitalism: Emotional Dimensions in the Commercialization of Higher Education," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 26(1), pages 205-221, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:26:y:2021:i:1:p:205-221
    DOI: 10.1177/1360780420968117
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John A. Centra & Noreen B. Gaubatz, 2000. "Is There Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching?," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 71(1), pages 17-33, January.
    2. Elaine Swan, 2010. "Worked Up Selves," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-24676-8, September.
    3. Sheryl Clark & Anna Mountford-Zimdars & Becky Francis, 2015. "Risk, Choice and Social Disadvantage: Young People's Decision-Making in a Marketised Higher Education System," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 20(3), pages 110-123, August.
    4. Rosemary Deem & Rachel Johnson, 2003. "‘Risking the University? Learning to be a Manager-Academic in UK Universities’," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 8(3), pages 17-31, August.
    5. Elaine Swan, 2010. "Worked Up Selves," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Worked Up Selves, chapter 8, pages 206-224, Palgrave Macmillan.
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