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Using Canadian university fossil-fuel divestment activism as a focal case, it analyzes how austerity-privacy obscures critics’ agendas while also showing how divestment can democratize university life.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/austerity-privacy-fossil-fuel-divestment-activism-at-canadian-universities/594697/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/austerity-privacy-fossil-fuel-divestment-activism-at-canadian-universities/594697.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Ben ","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What does the essay mean by “austerity-privacy” in Canadian universities?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It refers to a new form of privacy generated through neoliberal reforms carried out under austerity agendas. This privacy enables universities to withdraw from critical public discourses.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does austerity relate to privatisation and public engagement in the introduction?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The essay argues that austerity has contributed to increasing privatisation across levels of formal education, and that privacy has played an enabling role for that shift. As a result, public engagement becomes decoupled from postsecondary education.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why is the divestment movement used in the essay?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Divestment in Canadian universities illustrates how austerity-privacy obfuscates critics of neoliberal agendas. 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One frequent and highly criticised change has been the increasing privatisation that has occurred as part of the agenda. This has occurred in most levels of formal education. One related, but under-investigated, aspect of austerity has been the feature of privacy that has worked to enable the increasing privatisation. In this essay, we attempt to unpack how what we refer to as austerity-privacy has enabled formal education – specifically Canadian universities – to withdraw from critical public discourses. While not unrelated to privatisation, we argue that austerity-privacy was a necessary step for postsecondary education institutions to speed their neoliberal march. To illustrate this phenomenon, we examine the divestment movement in Canadian universities to illustrate the ways in which austerity-privacy obfuscates critics of neoliberal agendas. Conversely, we also examine the ways in which divestment can democratise the economy of university life.  \nKeywords: fossil fuel divestment, austerity, Canadian universities, university finances, student activism  \nIntroduction: The decoupling of public engagement from Canadian postsecondary education  \nA test of social power, for human agents, has been the ability to maintain control of public discourse about their bodies. What does this mean? Take note of how many laws, or proposed laws, aim to regulate you. Do comments to you – even if they are good natured, light-hearted, or meant as a compliment – revolve around your body, dress, or appearance? At a more direct level, how insulated by  \npower are you from having spontaneous comments (again, even if they are excused as compliments) made publicly? When you participate in public venues, can you maintain the privilege of not being a subject or object of public discourse? As agents have varying levels of power considering race, class, or gender, some people can exist in the public sphere and not be scrutinised as much as others. An example of this, specifically referring to race in Canadian universities, is highlighted by the narratives that Anthony Stewart (2009) provides describing how somebodies are subjected to involvement in public discourse.  \n36 Austerity-privacy & fossil fuel divestment activism Robert McGray & Jonathan Turcotte-Summers vol. 59, no. 2, 2017  \nA U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nTo put quite simply, the more, and varied, forms of power that you can leverage, the greater privacy you can expect about your body in the public sphere. These are subtle and powerful tests. In a stratified and privileged world, the amount of privacy varies greatly by the capitals of which we can leverage. For those of us who embody social power, it is difficult to understand the effects. So far, we have only made reference to human actors.We would like to ask, however, if the ability to enact and create privacy through social power is limited to humans? That is to ask: can institutions generate, expect, or leverage privacy – an intentional or unintended withdrawal of their beings from public discourse? Are some institutions under greater surveillance or scrutiny than others? If so, what is it that enables the privilege of not being subjected to public discourse? In an attempt to engage in critical discussion on postsecondary education, we posit that some institutions have developed certain privacies from discourse. Specifically, in this essay we contend that the social power to withhold your body from the subject of public discourse – privacy – is not limited to human actors. Instead, it should be considered as a process that has generated the spaces of postsecondary education. While it is not a synonymous process, institutio","cbCaipAekK2zxF9c","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipAekK2zxF9c","pdf",288974,14,"English","# Introduction: The decoupling of public engagement from Canadian postsecondary education\n## Austerity as privatisation and the under-investigated role of privacy\n## Privacy as withdrawal from public discourse in institutional life\n## Neoliberal reforms and the reciprocal production of “austerity-privacy”\n## Divestment activism as a case for obscured critique and democratization","[{\"question\":\"What does the essay mean by “austerity-privacy” in Canadian universities?\",\"answer\":\"It refers to a new form of privacy generated through neoliberal reforms carried out under austerity agendas. This privacy enables universities to withdraw from critical public discourses.\"},{\"question\":\"How does austerity relate to privatisation and public engagement in the introduction?\",\"answer\":\"The essay argues that austerity has contributed to increasing privatisation across levels of formal education, and that privacy has played an enabling role for that shift. As a result, public engagement becomes decoupled from postsecondary education.\"},{\"question\":\"Why is the divestment movement used in the essay?\",\"answer\":\"Divestment in Canadian universities illustrates how austerity-privacy obfuscates critics of neoliberal agendas. The essay also examines how divestment can democratize the economy of university life.\"}]","Austerity-privacy & fossil fuel divestment activism at Canadian universities | PDF",1792079660,35]