Gary Saunders – författare

Mike Neary was a renowned critical educator, Professor of Sociology at the University of Lincoln, and a founding member of the Social Science Centre, Lincoln. He died in January 2023, and in the months prior to his death, the editors of this book met with Mike and, with his guidance, worked with him on a collection of his writings. Mike was once asked why he wrote and he responded, «I write for the future» This book gathers some of his key writings to keep alive the critical legacy which Mike’s life and work embodied. It contains a body of work written by Mike on his own, with his close collaborators, as well as contributions written about him. The work gathered here in this book attests to Mike’s lifelong critical engagement with the work of Karl Marx, and as his work shows, this is an engagement on terms which are uniquely his own, reflecting Mike’s unique vision, his deep egalitarianism, his personal warmth, and his critical intellect.

Using an Open Marxist theoretical framework, this book provides a critique of the neoliberal reforms made to higher education since the late 1970s and the impact this has had on the sector. Rather than arguing for a return to the idea of the public university, the book argues that public and private models of higher education are both forms of capitalist accumulation and have historically perpetuated forms of oppression, exploitation and discrimination; thus, a more radical solution that addresses both the current crisis of higher education and the contradictory and exploitative nature of late capitalism is required. This book critically examines the autonomous learning spaces that emerged out of the UK student protests (2009-2010) and documents what can be learned from them to prefigure the idea of the university for a post-capitalist society.

Using an Open Marxist theoretical framework, this book provides a critique of the neoliberal reforms made to higher education since the late 1970s and the impact this has had on the sector. Rather than arguing for a return to the idea of the public university, the book argues that public and private models of higher education are both forms of capitalist accumulation and have historically perpetuated forms of oppression, exploitation and discrimination; thus, a more radical solution that addresses both the current crisis of higher education and the contradictory and exploitative nature of late capitalism is required. This book critically examines the autonomous learning spaces that emerged out of the UK student protests (2009-2010) and documents what can be learned from them to prefigure the idea of the university for a post-capitalist society.