THE NEOLIBERAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE CAPITALIST EPISTEM

Abstract

We are increasingly aware of the logicofcom modificationof public universities and education in general. This neoliberal transformation of higher education is essentially based on competition between public and private institutions, but also between public institutions. It operates at all levels, regionally, nationally and internationally. It has multiple effects, notably on the “governance” of universities and even on the conduct of students and teachers. This transformation is global, and concerns structures, modes of regulation and practices at the same time. For a long time, little understood the or etically, because it wascarried out through partial reforms and mutations, it responds to a coherent paradigm, which can only be understood by reconstructing its genesis and coherence. This article aims to define and expose the major articulations of the capitalist episteme, that is, the original conception of knowledge and truth that accompanies the development of capitalism, from utilitarianism to the ideology of the brain-machine, including theories of knowledge-information and human capital. Without understanding this paradigm, it will be difficult to oppose it with na alternative paradigma that is more egalitarian and more respectful of truth values.