In this contribution, we would like to call for an open discussion on the status of critical anthropology within neoliberal academia.
Paper long abstract:
In the past decade, Polish university has undergone two major reforms aimed at reshaping various aspects of academic life. The new law not only forced structural adjustments but also set in motion a process of reformulating the very idea of a university. These changes can be explained in terms of neoliberalisation, as a process of transforming the university into an institution driven and dominated by discourses of efficiency. To achieve this goal, various tools developed to measure academic and teaching performance, and assess research quality and institutional effectiveness were introduced. This situation has provoked resistance in the anthropological community, which has primarily expressed its dissatisfaction with various "rituals of verification". There have also been many critical statements and analyses devoted to the issue of neoliberalisation.
In this contribution, we would like to call for an open discussion on the status of critical anthropology in neoliberal academia. Following Stephen Tyler statement: “Critique cannot dis-criminate between itself and the crimes it seeks to certify and proscribe” (Tyler 1991: 91) we propose to reflect on how critical anthropologists (re)produce the regimes of entrepreneurship, power relations, and mechanisms of subjugation that they criticize. We would like to argue that critical anthropology must inevitably recognize its own internal aporia, which can be illustrated by the metaphor of a "blind spot." This metaphor is meant to indicate a cognitive tendency that can be described as a tendency to invoke its own epistemological objectivity and axiological neutrality while ignoring the fact of entanglement with the object of anthropological criticism. To illustrate our arguments, we would like to refer to our own academic experience.
Accepted Contribution:
Contribution description:
Paper long abstract:
In the past decade, Polish university has undergone two major reforms aimed at reshaping various aspects of academic life. The new law not only forced structural adjustments but also set in motion a process of reformulating the very idea of a university. These changes can be explained in terms of neoliberalisation, as a process of transforming the university into an institution driven and dominated by discourses of efficiency. To achieve this goal, various tools developed to measure academic and teaching performance, and assess research quality and institutional effectiveness were introduced. This situation has provoked resistance in the anthropological community, which has primarily expressed its dissatisfaction with various "rituals of verification". There have also been many critical statements and analyses devoted to the issue of neoliberalisation.
In this contribution, we would like to call for an open discussion on the status of critical anthropology in neoliberal academia. Following Stephen Tyler statement: “Critique cannot dis-criminate between itself and the crimes it seeks to certify and proscribe” (Tyler 1991: 91) we propose to reflect on how critical anthropologists (re)produce the regimes of entrepreneurship, power relations, and mechanisms of subjugation that they criticize. We would like to argue that critical anthropology must inevitably recognize its own internal aporia, which can be illustrated by the metaphor of a "blind spot." This metaphor is meant to indicate a cognitive tendency that can be described as a tendency to invoke its own epistemological objectivity and axiological neutrality while ignoring the fact of entanglement with the object of anthropological criticism. To illustrate our arguments, we would like to refer to our own academic experience.
Anthropology and the university
Session 1