The academic production regime and the laboring of graduates in the knowledge economy: political economy perspective

• Main Authors: Zeng, Siang, 曾翔
• Other Authors: Liu, Mei Chun
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/2f2xjd

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 勞工研究所 === 100 === This dissertation tried to examine the interconnection between the transformation of higher education and capitalism from political economy perspective. Based on the critique on capitalism by Marx, the inspection on fictitious commodity by Polanyi and the account of commoditization of knowledge of Jessop, this dissertation argues that, in the so-called knowledge economy, knowledge presents as the form of commodity and capital, and subsequently subsumes the knowledge worker into the exploited relation of production under capitalism. Besides, knowledge is also the key to create “long wave”, and more importantly, the competency of capital, which allows capital to gain surplus profits in the competition. With the development of knowledge economy, university has been transformed as “Academic Production Regime”. The graduates are also been subsumed into the Academic Production Regime. They are unique in this regime because they are “produced commodity of labor power, and also the labor power to produce commodity”. I bring up the concept of “learning by laboring” to examine, “Do the graduates produce surplus value?” and “Do the graduates endure the press from market?” With the case of Taiwan University Union, I asserted that the mixture of laboring and learning, academic subcontracting, and grant of student aid obscured the exploitation to graduates. Graduates now endure the press from market and be ignored by the protection of labor laws. I investigated the controversy of applying graduates employees to labor law, and argue that every labor should be protected by labor law. Finally, I contended that we shall confront the conflict between graduates, faculty and the university, and uniting to against the spread of capitalism