About this episode

Greg La Blanc interviews Peter Fleming about the impact of critical theory on business education and the effects of neoliberalism on universities.

Peter Fleming is a professor of management at the University of Technology Sydney, and also the author of several books. His recent works are Dark Academia: How Universities Die, Sugar Daddy Capitalism: The Dark Side of the New Economy, and The Death of Homo Economicus: Work, Debt and the Myth of Endless Accumulation. Greg and Peter discuss doing critical theory inside business schools and how neoliberalism and managerialism have reshaped universities. They also discuss the professionalization of higher education toward “employability,” driven by scarce public funding and human capital theory, which monetized expectations and intensified pressure, insecurity, and unhappiness. Peter suggests even executives face external constituent pressures. He explains his critique of Homo economicus as an extreme Cold War governance template that failed and contributed to “deaths of despair,” and he emphasizes rebuilding institutions by focusing on the labor problem and workplace conditions. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

People in this episode

Host: Greg La Blanc

Guest: Peter Fleming

Topics covered

• critical theory
• business education
• neoliberalism
• managerialism
• higher education
• labor problem
• workplace conditions

Keywords

• critical theory
• business education
• neoliberalism
• managerialism
• higher education
• Homo economicus
• labor problem
• workplace conditions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Technology Sydney

Books & works: Dark Academia: How Universities Die, Sugar Daddy Capitalism: The Dark Side of the New Economy, The Death of Homo Economicus: Work, Debt and the Myth of Endless Accumulation

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