Challenging neoliberalism through Gandhian trusteeship

Abstract

This paper begins from a position of critique of the dominant neo-liberal, human capital framing of education policy today. However, unlike most critiques of this kind, the paper argues that schooling's role in the preparation of workers and consumers is nonetheless important. Education does, of necessity, have economic purposes. To this end, the paper challenges the hegemony of neo-liberalism and lays bare some of its flawed basic assumptions. Instead, the paper argues for a Gandhian account of economics, which priortises need over greed as a way to think about a progressive grounding of education in economic purposes.

Keywords:

• alternative economics of education
• Gandhian economics
• neo-liberal economics