10 April 2023

The Knowledge Economy: Democratisation, Distributive

Justice or Domination?

Professor Louise MorleyCentre for Higher Education and Equity

Research (CHEER)University of Sussex, UK

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer

10 April 2023

The University of the Past

•Elitism

•Exclusion

•Inequalities

10 April 2023

The University of Today

• Diversified• Liquified• Expanded • Globalised• Borderless/ Edgeless• Marketised/ Corporatised• Hierarchically Ordered• Economically Theorised• Technologised• Neo-liberalised• Privatised?

10 April 2023

Turbulence and Torpor

Caught between:

Hyper-modernisation Archaism

Negotiating:

Nostalgia Frenzy Inertia Anxiety

Tensions between:

Desire Desiccation Democratisation Distributive justice

10 April 2023

Futurology

• Whose imaginary is informing

policy? (Ball and Exley, 2009)

• Do policy discourses limit or

generate creative thinking about

the future of universities?

• Are social inequalities resistant

to hypermodernisation forces?

• Is the University of the Future

the University of the Past?

10 April 2023

Why Democratise Higher Education?

Major site of:

Knowledge formation & dissemination Opportunity structures for social mobility Worker production for other influential

institutions Identity formation Symbolic control (Holmwood, 2011; Morley, 2011)

Fears that:

Economic crisis = Democratic crisis = Austerity driven affective ecologies.

Punitive moral economy.

Calls for:

Cognitive & epistemic justice (Fricker, 2007) Development of a sociology of absences

(Santos, 1999) (2007/8- ECU, 2009).

10 April 2023

Toxic Correlations/ Access and Social Identities

• 4% of UK poorer young people enter higher education.

(David et al, 2009; Hills Report, 2009).

• 5% of this group enter UK’s top 7 universities (HESA, 2010).

• More black young men in prison in UK and US than in HE.

• Attainment gap in UK HE highest between black and white students (Ruebain, 2012).

• Universities = hereditary domain of financially advantaged (Gopal, 2010).

• Steep Social Gradients

10 April 2023

Reproducing Power and Privilege?

Graduates from UK elite universities control:

the mediapolitics the civil service the artsthe City law medicinebig business the armed forcesthe judiciarythink tanks

(Monbiot, 2010)

10 April 2023

Democratisation = Representational Space?

Norm- saturated policy narratives

add more under-represented groups

into current higher education systems as students and academic leaders

=

a form of distributive justice/ smart economics

organisational and epistemic transformation

a happiness formula (Ahmed, 2010)

• Gender/ Ethnicity/Social Class = demographic variables (nouns), not in continual production (verbs).

• Women’s increased access = feminisation crisis discourse.

• HE products and processes = gender neutral.

• Power and privilege = under-theorisation.

• Redistributive measures = social engineering.

• Equity / Affirmative Action = threat to excellence.

• Knowledge Economy= gendered networks (Walby, 2012)

10 April 2023

Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania

Measuring:

• Sociological variables of gender, age, socio-economic status (SES)

In Relation to:

• Educational Outcomes: access, retention and achievement.

In Relation to:

• 4 Programmes of Study in each university.• 2 Public and 2 private universities.

• Quantitative Data -100 Equity Scorecards• Qualitative Data - 200 interviews with

students and 200 with staff and policymakers.

(Morley et al. 2010)

(www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer/wphegt)

10 April 2023

Equity Scorecard: Access to Level 200 on 4 Programmes at a Public University in Tanzania According to Age, Gender and Socio Economic Status

% of Students on the Programme

Programme Women

Low SES

Age 30 or over

Mature and Low SES

Women and low

SES

Women 30 or over

Poor Mature Women

B. Commerce 32.41 8.59 1.13 0.16 0.32 0.0 0.0

LLB. Law 56.18 13.48 0.0 0.0 5.06 0.0 0.0

B.Sc. Engineering

25.05 11.65 1.36 0.0 1.36 1.17 0.0

B. Science with Education

11.20 28.00 4.80 1.6 0.80 0.0 0.0

10 April 2023

Equity Scorecard: Access to Level 200 on 4 Programmes at a Public University in Ghana According to Age, Gender and Socio Economic Status (2009)

Programme

% of Students on the Programme

WomenLow SES

Age 30 or

over

Mature and Low SES

Women and low SES

Women 30

or over

Poor Mature Women

B.Commerce 29.92 1.66 5.82 0.00 1.11 0.28 0.00

B.Management

Studies47.06 2.94 6.30 0.00 1.68 3.36 0.00

B.Education (Primary)

36.36 8.08 65.66 8.08 2.02 21.21 2.02

B.Sc. Optometry

30.77 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

10 April 2023

Reverse Discrimination

17 men and 9 women out of 100 students in Ghana

Gender difference = preferential treatment for women.

Women’s failure = evidence of lack of academic abilities/ preparedness for HE.

Women’s achievement = attributed to women’s ‘favoured’ position in gendered academic markets.

Women constructed as:Corrupt/ fraudulent learners.Not entitled to higher education.Post-feminist strategic agents, not victims.Deploying corporeal style to manipulate

essentialised male desire. (Morley, 2011)

10 April 2023

Democratising Higher Education Leadership

• Are women desiring, dismissing or being disqualified from academic

leadership?

• Who self-identifies/ is identified by existing power elites, as having

leadership legitimacy?

• Is leader identity still constituted through gendered power relations?

• Do cultural scripts for leaders coalesce or collide with normative gender

performances?

• How does gender continue to escape organisational logic/rationalities?

Iceland Kuwait Sweden Turkey UK Female Rectors/ Vice-chancellors

43% 2% 43% 7% 14%

Female Professors 27% No data 20% 28.5% 20% Female Graduates 66.2% 70% 65% 46% 57%

10 April 2023

The Gendered Research Economy: Misrecognition and Misogyny

Women Cast as Unreliable Knowers

Women less likely to be:

Journal editors/cited in top-rated journals (Tight, 2008).

Principal investigators (EC, 2011)

On research boards

Awarded large grants

Awarded research prizes (Nikiforova, 2011)

10 April 2023

Absences and Aspirations in the Global Academy

• Australia (Fitzgerald, 2011)• Canada (Acker, 2012)• China (Chen, 2012)• Finland (Husu, 2000) • Ghana (Ohene, 2010)• Guyana (Austin, 2002)• Ireland (Lynch, 2010)• Kenya (Onsongo, 2004)• Nigeria (Odejide, 2007)• Norway (Benediktsdottir, 2008) • Pakistan (Rab, 2010)• Papua New Guinea (Sar & Wilkins, 2001) • South Africa (Shackleton et al., 2006)• South Korea (Kim et al., 2010)• Sri Lanka (Gunawardena et al., 2006)• Sweden (Peterson, 2011)• Tanzania (Bhalalusesa, 1998)• Turkey (Özkanli, 2009)• Uganda (Kwesiga & Ssendiwala, 2006) • UK (Deem, 2003)• USA (Bonner, 2006)

10 April 2023

Accounting for Absences/ Expanding the Theoretical Lexicon

• Gendered Division of Labour

• Gender Bias/ Misrecognition

• Management & Masculinity

• Greedy Organisations

• Women’s Missing Agency/ Deficit Internal Conversations/ Resilience

(Morley, 2012, 2013)

10 April 2023

Leaderism

Evolution of Managerialism?• Social and organisational technology • Disguises the corporatisation and values

shift Diverts attention to personal qualities, skills for organisational transformation.

Certain • Subjectivities • Values• Behaviours• Dispositions • Characteristics

Can • Strategically overcome institutional inertia• Outflank resistance/ recalcitrance• Provide direction for new university futures

However• The leaderist turn is not innocent • Transformative leadership is value-laden.

(O’Reilly and Reed, 2010, 2011).

10 April 2023

Vertical Career Success or Incarceration in an Identity Cage?

Leadership Can Involve

• Multiple/ conflicting affiliations• Unstable engagements with hierarchy &

power (Cross & Goldenberg, 2009)

• Working with resistance & recalcitrance • Colonising colleagues’ subjectivities

towards the goals of managerially inspired discourses

• An affective load/ identity work • Managing self-doubt, conflict, anxiety,

disappointment & occupational stress (Acker, 2012; Watson, 2009)

• Women in ‘velvet ghettos’ (Guillaume &

Pochic, 2009), or ‘glass cliffs’ (Ryan &

Haslam, 2005) or adjunct roles (Davies,

1996)

• Restricting, rather than building capacity and creativity.

10 April 2023

Democratisation in Higher Education …IS NOT

• Access to knowledge and

knowledge production systems

and organisations monopolised/

dominated by the elite.

• Women/minorities = accessing

some aspects of the knowledge

economy.

• Lack capital (economic, political,

social and symbolic) to redefine

the requirements of the field (Corsun & Costen, 2001).

COULD INVOLVE

• Discovering new conceptual grammars to include equalities, identities and affective domains.

• Considering the collective/ public as well as the private benefits of knowledge/ HE.

• Including more accountability on social inequalities e.g. global league tables.

• Contributing to wealth/ opportunity distribution as well as to wealth creation.

• Undoing gender (Butler, 2004)

10 April 2023

Follow Up?

• Morley, L. (2012) "The Rules of the Game:

Women and the Leaderist Turn in Higher

Education " Gender and Education. 25(1).

• Morley, L. (2013) International Trends in

Women’s Leadership in Higher Education

In, T. Gore, and Stiasny, M (eds) Going

Global. London, Emerald Press.

• Morley, L. (2013) Women and Higher

Education Leadership: Absences and

Aspirations. Stimulus Paper for the

Leadership Foundation for Higher

Education.

CHEER

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer/