Class, neoliberal global capital, education and resistance

Abstract

The paper bases itself in the tradition of transformative activism stressing the need to develop a just society. Outlining the contemporary context of neoliberal capitalism it seeks to understand the educational developments in the larger context of the labour-capital conflict with certain specific examples from Britain. It highlights the obscene and widening economic, social and educational inequalities both within states and globally; the detheorisation of education and the regulating of critical thought and activists through the ideological and repressive state apparatuses; and the limitation and regulation of democracy and democratic accountability at national and local educational levels. The author argues that there are possibilities of bringing about change in the education system and this can be undertaken by the critical educators and intellectuals. Education being a product of social relations and an instrument of reproduction therefore becomes an important site of struggle and change. As the conclusion Dave Hill outlines the ‘arenas’ located at diverse sites where the struggle to bring about change can be undertaken such as through a broader movement for economic and social justice, local action outside the classroom and within the education and media apparatuses.