The Marketization of Knowledge by Neoliberalism and its Influence on Higher Education

Abstract

Neoliberalism, through a push to alter the nature of the state and of humanity, has led to a world in which knowledge has also be redefined. The push to marketize everything that is quintessential to neoliberal ideals has directly included the world of higher education. This effect is seen on the different levels of the state and the individuals that occupy it, as well as the institutions of higher education, have all been reshaped to economic models and thought. The direct effects of this are seen through an analysis of how women's studies have been impacted in both higher education and in the world thought the social movements that come about from the studies themselves, as well as a greater analysis of the social sciences and the heightened importance of the study of economics. This is further extrapolated though the impact on democracy that the marketization of higher education has had. Arguments in favor of globalization are presented to fully understand the conversation around neoliberalism, but are rejected. This paper closes with the potentials for reversals of the current system and structure, and what they could mean for the future of higher education. This seeks to fill in observed gaps in the current political science literature, through combining of previously researched information, as a means of expanding the current knowledge of neoliberalism and its impacts on the world. Through an analysis of how the marketization of higher education as become prevalent, this paper argues that knowledge itself has changed fundamentally.