Neoliberal education policy deliberately dismantled the art-school mixing of working-class culture and theory

Evidence

But a video that Jeremy shot on Thursday suggests a possible convergence between post-nuum musics and politics. It is my belief that the UK music culture of the next decade will emerge from the stew of sound and affect in the kettles these past few weeks. Paul Mason dismissed the idea that the demo was exclusively populated by “Lacan-reading hipsters from Spitalfields” — but of course (we) Lacan-reading hipsters were also there, alongside the “bainlieue-style youth from Croydon, Peckam, the council estates of Islington”. In other words, this brought together working-class culture and bohemia in something like the same way that art schools — so crucial to UK pop-art culture since the Fifties — used to. But — with very good reasons from its own point of view — neoliberal policy has been hostile to this proletarianbohemian cultural circuit. While Further Education and the new universities have precisely tried to make theory such as Lacan available to the working class — while also trying to engage with everything vibrant coming out of working-class culture — the policy has been to re-cement rigid class and cultural distinctions: philosophy for the bourgeoisie; “vocational” courses for the masses. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1541

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Connects to the politics of culture and creative infrastructure discussions in prior writing.
• SEED: The death of art-school social mixing as policy — a strong essay angle on how educational reform pre-shapes cultural production.
• XREF: connects to: Tory policy dismantling of welfare and art schools killed working-class popular modernism — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1368; Neoliberalism makes universities detached from pressing social problems — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 184; Neoliberal erasure of class discourse captures struggles for bourgeois liberalism — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1374

Broader Connections

• Tory policy dismantling of welfare and art schools killed working-class popular modernism #exemplifies (0.95) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1368
• Neoliberal erasure of class discourse captures struggles for bourgeois liberalism #expands (0.78) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1374
• Neoliberalism makes universities detached from pressing social problems #expands (0.72) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 184