Book Description

When anyone wants to affect change in higher education, it is often difficult to get everyone on the same page. What the university is, its role in society, and the diverse values of individual stakeholders and institutions create confusion and chaos. These values exist in competition with one another. Their definition is difficult to determine and consensus about the definition of values or their function is a large challenge in which agreement is elusive. I argue that the values of higher education function economically, and thus each institution will have its own economy of values which dictates norms and regulates change in the institution. Anyone looking to understand how higher education functions, or anyone desiring to affect change in higher education, needs to consider how values exist in systems of exchange, highly dependent on various types of debts, and that change in an institution of higher learning is the function of the exchange of values. This books explores how institutions in higher education exist in their own economy of values internally, at a microeconomic level, but also how the economy of values operates at a macroeconomic level, or trends in higher education itself. The values of higher education function as an economy of values. This exists at the microeconomic level of the institution, and the macroeconomic level of higher education writ large. There is no single definition of values or single set of values that can be said to make up what the values of higher education are. Rather, values function in an economy of exchange, heavily influenced by debts of all kinds. Every university has its own economy of values, in which it has a system of exchange of values; however, every university exists with a series of systems that all have their own economy of values. These economies of values produce larger systems of economies of values and it is impossible to point to individual points of genesis or unanimity. The economy of values functions rhizomatically so empirical analysis does not bear fruit. This book explores the nature and elusiveness of values in higher education, the different lenses in which stakeholders see themselves, the elusiveness of language about higher education, and the lack of consensus of what higher education is. Since there is no consensus about values, a discussion of values cannot be had and in order to have such a discussion, some kind of picture of values would be needed in order to converse. The book uses the competing values framework to analyse language in strategic plans to see what the economy of values is in an institution in order to give the aforementioned picture of values. The economy of values is thus considered through forms of capital (social, cultural, economic), culture, violence, and debt. Stakeholders like faculty, administration, support staff, and students are considered individually in their own chapters. The book concludes with chapters on the microeconomic and macroeconomic function of values in higher education. Theoretically, competing values analysis, semiotics, debt theory, cultural theory, Marxism, non-market economics, macroeconomics, and microeconomics are used to explore the economy of competing values in higher education.