Resisting neoliberal common sense in higher education: experiences from Latin America

Abstract

To illustrate the way in which neoliberalism and the creation of a common sense are associated, we present in this study a number of institutional and social experiences that have occurred in Latin America during the last 30 years. First, we explore the situation in Argentina, where the relationship between the university and society is being redefined. A new form of knowledge transfer to society, focused especially on social movements, is currently being carried out by different programmes at public universities. Second, the Brazilian experience is characterised by the creation of a number of new universities that are attempting to transform the social role of the traditional model of extension programmes to serve local, regional and international development. We contend that as the traditional university approaches to its 1000th anniversary, it urgently requires a radical transformation. The origins and expansion of neoliberal policies of higher education in Mexico constitute the third case in point, in which we argue that the role of international agencies is a key element in the creation and consolidation of the common sense associated with neoliberalism in higher education policies. The experiences and processes discussed in this article constitute important aspects that show the way in which universities and various actors within them can take part in the struggle to resist the consolidation of neoliberal policies in Latin American higher education.

Keywords:

• higher education
• Latin America
• common sense
• neoliberalism

Notes

1. Daniela Perrota was a collaborator in this chapter on Argentine universities.

2. It should be noted that the military coup in 1966 principally decimated the traditional social actors in the world of work and culture, the student movement and a number of faculty.

3. Among the well-known pillars of the 1918 reform movement, students demanded changes that today are regular features of Argentina’s public universities: university government made up of professors, graduates and students; university autonomy from the state; and the implementation of university extension programmes as a means for community relations.

4. This quote was expressed in a meeting by a Sem-Terra Movement member.