Market metaphors, neo‐liberalism and the construction of academic landscapes in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

New Zealand's far‐reaching experiment with neo‐liberal economic and social policies has become a model for many right‐leaning economic commentators—and some governments—throughout the ‘developed’ world. We are highly critical of such sentiments, noting that the ‘New Zealand experiment’ has been anything but good for New Zealand itself. Our argument focuses upon the way that neo‐liberal rhetorics of ‘competitiveness’ have reconstituted the landscape of academia in New Zealand. We suggest that such competition metaphors, which construct universities as ‘knowledge businesses’ and students as ‘consumers’, provide a wholly inappropriate model for university education. Instead, we suggest a reconstituted notion of ‘collegiality’ might provide the basis for a more inclusive construction of university education.

Keywords:

• Aotearoa/New Zealand
• economic rationality
• landscape
• metaphor
• neo‐liberalism
• tertiary education policy