Universities at War

Epistemology and Kinship: Reading Resistance Literature on Westernised Education

“…Westernised education, particularly the Westernised university, has become a primary servant and driving force of (supra)national economies in the context of globalisation. This form of education is increasingly linked to the expansionist logic of private and personal enrichment as the force behind 'progress' and modernity (Docherty, 2015). Under these conditions, we can derive important lessons about the pursuit of individual advancement through education and imperial control (be it through government or capital) from the writings of Achebe, Beti, Dangarembga, Kane, and Ngũgĩ.…”

“…On the subject of resistance literature and education, Harlow writes, '[e]ducation requires the resistance struggle no less than it is necessary for the resistance movement to include education as crucial to its agenda of liberation' (Harlow, 1987: 59). My intention here is to honour Harlow's analysis, noting the power of resistance literature to analyse power relations, which sustain a system of domination; and also to identify strands of critique, which will assist the analysis of the perceived demise of Westernised education (Readings, 1997;Docherty, 2015). To this end, I…”

The university, Prevent and cultures of compliance

“…1 Such signs of extremist deviance may therefore take behavioural form (people's actions) or cognitive form (the ideas or views they express). To the first will then be applied what we might call the 'government of the body'; to the second (borrowing from Seamus Heaney via Thomas Docherty) the 'government of the tongue' (Docherty, 2015). If the advice given elsewhere is to be applied in universities, behavioural signs to be subject to scrutiny and governance might include the sudden or unexpected adoption of religious forms of dress or the 'unexpected growing of a beard' (Wandsworth Family Information Service, 2015).…”

The boiled frog and the dodo

“…It creates a fissure between the 'official' university (where senior managers live) and the 'clandestine' institution (where actual work is done) (Docherty, 2015). The only way to heal this wound is through the re-engagement of more democratic structures, not just in the institution, but also in our society as a whole, a society that is itself increasingly 'managed' .…”

“…The term 'apparatchik' is controversial, but correct because this is a routinized, everyday Stalinism, a leadership form that is modelled on a Soviet-style policing of activity (see Docherty, 2011). This looks extreme: no one is being sent to work in labour camps.…”