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Examines how higher education’s physical and intellectual geographies undermine open, democratic ideals, and how even publicly accessible humanities can intensify privatisation and enclosure of knowledge. Argues resistance has often come from students and wider social movements rather than academic leadership, and critiques simplistic “inside vs outside” reform narratives.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@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 & 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the humanities and the enclosure of knowledge:  \nthe worm in the fruit  \nNick Riemer  \nUniversity of Sydney & Université Paris-Diderot  \nIf we want to combat contemporary ‘neoliberal’ attacks on universities, we should start by refusing the way that their pseudo-rationalities already determine so many aspects of the intellectual and institutional regimes that we consider under threat. This paper sketches an analysis of those aspects of the internal practices of academia that reinforce the interests at the origin of the attack on public education, and that make it possible, and indeed expected, for universities’ leaders to oversee the betrayal of their institutions’ very raison d’être. How have the physical and intellectual geographies of academic professionalism prepared the ground for ‘neoliberal’ reforms? How do the varied dispensations of modern higher education work against the ideal of open, democratic universities? How would university education, especially in the humanities, still exacerbate the privatisation and enclosure of knowledge in our societies, even if it remained public and accessible to everybody?  \nKeywords: academia and neoliberalism, sociology of academia, intellectuals, humanities, activism, higher-education reform  \nMy father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, butI will chastise you with scorpions.– 1Kings 14  \nThe Biblical Rehoboam’s promise to his subjects distils the same shocking moral that years of financial discipline have inculcated into Western public universities: pleas for clemency are futile; the next regime will be stricter than the last (see Schrecker, 2010, p.162 and Collectif Acides, 2015, pp. 61–70 for details) . In ancient Judaea, the ensuing backlash led to the stoning of Rehoboam’s emissary and drove the king himself into flight. Universities’ reactions have mostly not been so decisive. In fact, it has often been movements external to university authorities  \nthemselves, in particular students, but also unions and grassroots political actors, who have taken the lead in contesting educational austerity. Recent developments in Australia, where the government’s plans to abolish capson university fees had to be withdrawn as a result of widespread community protests, despite being supported by most vice-chancellors (Riemer 2014), are an especially clear case of how resistance to the neoliberalisation of higher education may have to be mounted against the wishes of the most senior layers of the academic hierarchy.  \nvol. 58, no. 2, 2016 Academics, the humanities and the enclosure of knowledge: the worm in the fruit Nick Riemer 33  \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  \nWhether in Africa, Europe, the Asia-Pacific or the Americas, struggles for public higher education have gained a new lease on life amid the post-2008 convulsions agitating international capitalism. Sometimes, they have even experienced political success. But if the universally accessible higher education demanded by social movements is a necessary condition for progress towards educationally fair and democratic societies, it isn’t a sufficient one. Universities must not just be opened to everyone who wants to study in them; what is taught, and how, need themselves to be critically reimagined (see Granger, 2015).While progressives are busy prising higher education from the neoliberal vice, it is therefore salutary to look more closely at exactly what the institutions are like that we’re trying to save.  \nThe exteriority of the defence of public education to the most powerful academics responsible for it should give pause. University leaders’ enthusiasm in supporting, accelerating, and sometimes even instigating attackson their own institutions has a clear entailment: higher education, and the institutions that provide it, do not‘belon","cbCaijJJ1SxQfxya","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijJJ1SxQfxya","pdf",161883,"English","# Part 2: Impacts of the privatised university\n## Academics, the humanities and the enclosure of knowledge: the worm in the fruit\n## Resistance to neoliberalisation of higher education","[{\"question\":\"What does the paper argue about neoliberal attacks on universities?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that universities’ internal intellectual and institutional practices often reinforce the interests behind attacks on public education, enabling leaders to oversee betrayal of universities’ core purpose.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper explain universities undermining open, democratic ideals?\",\"answer\":\"It links “neoliberal” reforms to the physical and intellectual geographies of academic professionalism, showing how higher education systems work against an ideal of openness and democratic governance.\"},{\"question\":\"Where does the paper say resistance to neoliberalisation has most often come from?\",\"answer\":\"It emphasizes that movements outside university authorities—especially students, unions, and grassroots political actors—have often led contests against educational austerity, including cases in Australia.\"}]","Australia’s Universities Review - Part 2 - Impacts of the Privatised University - Academics, the Humanities and the Enclosure of Knowledge, the Worm in the Fruit - Nick Riemer | PDF",1792079566,23]