Abstract

Since the 17th century, life in general—and in particular with respect to the management/administration of higher education institutions (HEIs)—has been dominated by neoliberal tendencies. Stated another way, neoliberalism is the tendency to view everything in capitalist terms and to see all institutions as businesses, including those that in principle have no connections with trade and industry. Due to this orientation, colleges and universities have become corporatized and the people working in them (administrators, professors, and students) have been reduced to homo economicus. This inclination has been widely criticized by those who perceive that they have been dehumanized by such conditions. This article examines the possible infusion of values associated with the age-old paideia ideal and of the sub-Saharan African ubuntu philosophy, despite them having shortcomings of their own, into the neoliberal approach as a possible means of finding greater balance and humanization in the midst of increased institutional pressures and complexities. The paideia ideal attaches greater value to the well-roundedness of the human being than does neoliberalism, and the ubuntu philosophy could contribute toward toning down the current neoliberal individualism in higher education institutions. Although some of the features and values of neoliberalism should be retained in HEI life and management, they ideally could be made less forceful by an infusion of the values associated with philosophies such as paideia and ubuntu.

摘要

自 17 世纪以来，整个生活——特别是在高等教育机构 (HEIs) 的管理/行政方面——一直被新自由主义倾向所主导。换句话说，新自由主义倾向于以资本主义的方式看待一切，并将所有机构视为企业，包括那些原则上与贸易和工业没有联系的机构。由于这种定位，学院和大学已经公司化，在其中工作的人（管理人员、教授和学生）已经沦为经济人。这种倾向受到了那些认为自己因这种情况而失去人性的人的广泛批评。本文探讨了与古老的payeia相关的价值的可能注入理想和撒哈拉以南非洲的ubuntu哲学，尽管它们有自己的缺点，但将新自由主义方法作为在日益增加的制度压力和复杂性中寻找更大平衡和人性化的一种可能手段。与新自由主义相比，payeia理想更重视人类的全面发展，而ubuntu哲学有助于淡化高等教育机构中当前的新自由主义个人主义。尽管新自由主义的一些特征和价值观应该在高等教育机构的生活和管理中得到保留，但理想情况下，它们可以通过注入与哲学相关的价值观（如payeia和Ubuntu的。