The costs of ‘free listening’: negotiating the moral economy of the university

ABSTRACT

This paper adopts the concept of a moral economy as a lens through which to analyze the neoliberalisation processes that have transformed the field of higher education in recent decades. Specifically, I consider a case study of the commodification of a senior citizen course-auditing program at an Israeli university in the early 2000s. The program, which was initiated in the late 1970s, began as a free public service to the elderly population, yet was later redefined and remodelled as a profitable economic activity. Drawing on extensive archival research, I focus on the debate between the decision’s opponents and its supporters, who represent, respectively, the traditional moral economy of the university on the one hand, and emerging market-oriented values on the other. In particular, I illuminate changes in university managers’ practices and perceptions regarding the public roles and societal obligations of public higher education institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• public service
• commodification
• neoliberalism
• moral economy

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

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Adi Sapir

Adi Sapir is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa. She received her PhD in Organizational Behavior from Tel Aviv University and completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University. Her research focuses on the history and sociology of higher education.