Abstract
This chapter addresses the metrics-driven university through the lens of Marxist critique. Contemporary university is discussed as metrics-driven due to the increasing role of metrics in coordinating academic endeavor on a global scale. This coordination of activities within the science and higher education sector through measure is at the same time discussed as a precondition for the capitalist structurization of contemporary university. This is because the imposition of capitalist relations within the university is tantamount to the process of leveling and making the heterogenous reality of science and higher education commensurate and ready for valorization. Thus, Marxist critique is introduced in stark contrast with other critical approaches to measure operating within the sector, for which capital’s presence is a blind spot. In particular, two specific positions that to a great degree monopolized the discussion on the measure: the reformist approach, highlighting the need to develop responsible use of metrics; and the rejectionist approach, which focuses on the need to refute quantitative metrics. In contrast to these two approaches, Marxist critique is discussed as an integral perspective that approaches the problem of measure on several interconnected levels. First, it discusses assumptions underpinning the presence of capitalist measure to better understand what image of science and higher education is produced and naturalized. Second, it engages with the critique of the political economy of measure in the sector. Third, Marxian critique follows struggles over measure. Finally, it asks what may lie beyond the capitalist measure. By discussing these levels, Marxian critique of the capitalist imposition of measure on academic labor is introduced as a way out of limitations caused by the deadlock of reformist and rejectionist approaches.
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Acknowledgment
I want to express deep gratitude to editors for their comments and support. Special thanks are due to Krystian Szadkowski for an ongoing critical dialogue that inspired and continue to inspire me in different academic endeavors. All standard caveats apply.
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The author has no financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of this research.
Funding
The work of Jakub Krzeski was financially supported by the National Science Centre in Poland (NCN), Grant number UMO-2019/33/N/HS6/00434
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Krzeski, J. (2023). In-Against-Beyond Metrics-Driven University: A Marxist Critique of the Capitalist Imposition of Measure on Academic Labor. In: Hall, R., Accioly, I., Szadkowski, K. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Marxism and Education. Marxism and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37252-0_9
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