ABSTRACT

This paper explores how, in what ways, and with what outcomes, deep structural transformations have reconstituted higher education in England, and are deeply implicated in the rise of authoritarian populism. We focus particularly on the ways in which our understandings and lived experiences of class, social mobility, meritocracy, social inequality, and social justice have been transformed. We explore three transformations in higher education that have created fertile conditions for the rise of authoritarian populism: (i) the individualizing of the self and neoliberal ethics; (ii) the erasure of collective class politics and the creation of a new class identity based on consumption; (iii) the creation of a neoliberal meritocratic social order. We argue that cleavage theory which links level of education to contemporary populism is too dichotomous (educated cosmopolitan versus low-education nationalist). Such accounts overlook the extent to which three decades of neoliberalism and the creation of a market society has produced new social inequalities that are paradoxically normalised whilst fuelling a politics of resentment [Cohen, Jean L. 2019. “Populism and the Politics of Resentment.” Jus Cogens 1 (1): 5–39.].

摘要

本文探讨了深刻的结构转型如何、以何种方式、以何种结果重构了英格兰的高等教育，并与威权民粹主义的兴起密切相关。我们特别关注我们对阶级、社会流动性、精英管理、社会不平等和社会正义的理解和生活经历的转变方式。我们探讨了高等教育中为威权民粹主义的兴起创造了肥沃条件的三个转变：（i）自我的个性化和新自由主义伦理；(ii) 消除集体阶级政治，建立基于消费的新阶级身份；(iii) 建立新自由主义精英社会秩序。我们认为，将教育水平与当代民粹主义联系起来的分裂理论过于二元化（受过教育的世界主义者与受过低教育的民族主义者）。这样的描述忽略了新自由主义的三个十年和市场社会的建立在多大程度上产生了新的社会不平等，这些不平等在助长怨恨政治的同时自相矛盾地正常化[Cohen, Jean L. 2019。“民粹主义和怨恨政治。”绝对法1 (1): 5–39.]。