“Reinventing” Higher Education: Symbolism, Sloganeering, and Subjectivity in the Lone Star State

Authors

Staci M. Zavattaro
Terence Garrett, University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

Higher education is part and parcel of a market spectacle (Debord 1967/1994; Garrett and Sementelli 2012) that follows some prescriptions of reinventing government (Osborne and Gaebler 1993), essentially charging these institutions with inefficient operations and minimal customer service standards. Following the “reinventing government” qua business model, any semblance of public service (Denhardt and Denhardt 2007) – now including public colleges and universities – that ignores “customers” is under attack. While governance values shifted with these business-based movements (Box, et al 2001), higher education values, too, have moved universities from producing academic capital to economic capital (Naidoo and Jamieson 2005).

Comments

Original published version available here.

Recommended Citation

Zavattaro, Staci, and Terence Garrett. “‘Reinventing’ Higher Education: Symbolism, Sloganeering, and Subjectivity in the Lone Star State.” Public Voices, vol. 13, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 100–19.

Publication Title

Public Voices