'The Book' - Blog 25

Chapter Eight:
The Transformation of Higher Education
and the Emerging of the White Collar Proletariat

University used to be a privilege to attend. This is no longer the case. Around the time the book was written, the authors state that roughly half of the relevant age group attend University, or other post secondary institutions.

Along with this increase in the actual enrollment of students in higher education, the authors feel that colleges and universities play a role in the production of labour power, in the reproduction of class structure, and in the perpetuation of the values of social order. The capitalist society has reproduced itself into higher education. There are three historical tendencies that have influenced the recent conflicts and reforms that are occurring.

1. The demand for technical, clerical and other white collar skills.
2. White collar labour and privileges are being brought in line with profit and control objectives of corporate enterprise.
3. The demand for expanded access to higher education by minority and working class youth.

The technocratic viewpoint cannot explain why the social relations of higher education have developed the way they have. Why this creation of a reserve of skilled workers? Why has there been a stratification of education that has clearly been developing? These answers cannot be answered by the liberal or technocratic viewpoints.

The authors analyze this in terms of the idea that the recent expansion of of the state and corporate sectors at the expense of the family and agriculture / household / entrepreneurial sectors that have worked in two ways. There was an integration of minorities into the wage labour system. This served to legitimize the stratification process by relying on education credentials.

This lead to to a contradiction between social relations of higher education and the emerging economic order. The traditional system of education was suitable for training an economic elite, but was not very effective to accommodate this new wave of students. There was also a heightened degree of awareness of the part of minorities in the fact that there was now a large number of credentialed workers and only so few jobs to fill that needed this increased level of education.

This continued expansion for the economy has created the following: self-employed individuals are no longer a major part of the economy and the 'middle manager' role has been created. These roles have been in of themselves compartmentalized and mirror the roles of blue collar workers, which is all part of the divide and conquer strategy. The last item that has occurred because of this rapid expansion of corporate capital has brought on the need of new roles such as assistants, secretaries ect. that did not exist before.

The authors note that the expansion and over expansion of college enrollments have been, in part, due to the response to the change in the types of jobs that have been created, mentioned above. These increased enrollments have effected two changes in the social position of higher education: there is an increased scientific, cultural and social role of the college community and many four year universities have now moved beyond being the training ground for the elite and have taken up the task of training technical workers.

So with all of this expansion and restructuring of higher education the authors conclude that there is an attempt to fragment the culture of the college community, the means to stratify higher education through colleges and vocational schooling and the third is to slow down the rate of growth of post-secondary education system to restrict the army of white collar workers.

The fundamental issue of higher education poses problems that undermine the legitimacy of the capitalist society: Through the transmission of knowledge that makes one aware of the contradictions of the capitalist way of running things is necessary to divulge due to the need of capable skilled workers.

The authors feel that out of this specialization of jobs and an attempt to gain back control comes in the form of the fragmentation of studies. Students are discouraged to deal with the whole problem, this allows for the advancement in certain areas for a student. This in turn ignores the larger social consequences of ones work.

I did see some of this in the business degree that I have obtained. There were very few courses that were mandatory that dealt with the consequences of certain business practices. It was almost like the ethical side of business was one chapter in the texts I utilized in my degree, and they were an after thought at that. The ethics that were brought into play were usually ones that needed to be looked at in case they effected the bottom line of a company. I think that the idea that was brought up by the authors, that students only look at parts of a subject to be outdated in most subjects. This may be due to the fact that I am now in the Education program and there are so many angles we are to look at it almost makes you dizzy. We as future teachers, not only in this class, are encouraged and warned that if we do not look at the policies and laws that are being passed it could be at our own peril.

The authors also point out that higher education has developed a multi-tiered system. This system reflects both the social status of the families and the students and the hierarchy of work relationships into which each type of of student will move into after graduation. The authors are getting at the fact that vocational schools vs. universities are bring used to filter certain classes of individuals into their respective places within the hierarchic division of labour. I think that this may have been the case when this book was written but what the authors may be missing at this point is that certain individuals are tailored and want to go to school like SAIT and NAIT where they learn skills that are more suited to what they are interested in.

To be continued ...