Academic Capitalism in Architecture Schools: A feminist critique of employability, 24/7 work and entrepreneurship

Abstract

This chapter examines the current situation that many universities worldwide are facing due to globalisation, which is of transitioning from institutions for education (Foucault’s ‘premodern or medieval university’) toentrepreneurial businesses (the ‘modern university’). The modern university is governed by a neoliberal system of production and consumption of students, staff, knowledge and research for the purpose of improving nation economies. Looking particularly at schools of architecture, it discusses employability, 24-hour work and entrepreneurship in relation to marketisation and economisation. It tracks the inequalities that arise from the neoliberalisation of public universities on teaching content, an administrative-directed work, workloads, wellbeing and gender. The chapter argues that the shift to entrepreneurial architectural education needs to be challenged through a ‘feminist politics for resistance’ (Mountz et al. 2015) so as to not undermine higher education. Those resistances should aim to actively challenge, at every opportunity, rather than acquiesce to ‘academic capitalism’.