Neoliberalism wants science dissolved into market activity

Evidence

The second salient implication is that, from the neoliberal vantage point, “science” does not need special protection from the ignorant, be they the partisan government bureaucrat, the craven intellectual for hire, the lumpen MBA, the Bible-thumping fundamentalist, the global-cooling enthusiast, or the feckless student. In an ideal state, special institutions dedicated to the protection and pursuit of knowledge can more or less be dispensed with as superfluous; universities in particular must be weaned away from the state and put on a commercial footing, dissolving their distinctive identities as “ivory towers.” Science should essentially dissolve into other market activities, with even its “public” face held accountable to considerations of efficiency, profitability, and subservience to personal ratification. “Competition” is said to ensure the proliferation of multiple concepts and theories with the blessing of the private sector. The only thing that keeps us from enjoying this ideal state is the mistaken impression that science serves higher causes, or that it is even possible to speak truth to power, or that one can rationally plan social goals and their attainment. Despairing of extirpation of these doctrines from within the university in his lifetime, Hayek and his confederates formed the Mont Pèlerin Society and then forged a linked concentric shell of think tanks to proselytize for the neoliberal idea that knowledge must be rendered subordinate to the market. Little did he suspect just how successful his crusade would be after his death. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 231

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s knowledge of the MPS network and think-tank infrastructure from earlier chapters on the thought collective. — connects to: Neoliberals pushed to make regulatory science itself market-governed. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 157; Neoliberal governance reshapes scholarship to serve economic usefulness — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 626; Neoliberal freedom-of-inquiry rhetoric was aimed at promoting their own market views within academia — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 122 (+4 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing whether Hayek’s own writings explicitly called for dissolving universities into commercial footing, or whether MPS offshoots went further than he would.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals pushed to make regulatory science itself market-governed. #corroborates (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 157
• Neoliberal governance reshapes scholarship to serve economic usefulness #corroborates (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 626
• Neoliberal freedom-of-inquiry rhetoric was aimed at promoting their own market views within academia #qualifies (0.72) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 122