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Lynch, Kathleen
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Lynch, Kathleen
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Lynch, Kathleen
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- PublicationNew managerialism as an organisational form of neoliberalismThis chapter demonstrates why new managerialism is not a neutral management strategy but rather a political project, borne out of a radical change in the spirit of neoliberal capitalism (Boltanski & Chiapello, 2005). It shows how it operates as an ideological configuration of ideas and practices that is instituting new orthodoxies in the running of public education in Ireland, aligning it more closely with the organisational logic and practices of the private market system. Although united by its ideological re-configuration towards market-place logic, managerialism is realized differently across countries; it is shaped by the historical antecedents and the specifics of nation-state politics. Drawing on three empirical studies undertaken by the authors on the impact of managerialism across primary, secondary, further and higher education (Grummell, 2014; Lynch, Grummell & Devine, 2015; Lolich & Lynch, 2016) the chapter explores the cultural and political specifics of managerialism across the education sectors in Ireland. It also explores the resistance to market norms, the counter-hegemonic actions of educational mediators within the machinery of the state and across the community (Lynch, 1990; Fitzsimons, 2017a).
982 - PublicationChallenging the Common Room Rules in the 1980sThis chapter tells the story of how the UCD Common Rules were changed in the late 1980s to allow all UCD staff members to join, regardless of their occupation. As membership had been confined to academics and senior administrative staff, this was a significant achievement. After much debate and many meetings from 1985-87, the decision to democratise the Common Room was made at an AGM on March 12th 1987. The meeting was attended by 100 members of whom 77 voted to make to open up the Common Room.
153 - PublicationGender and education (and employment): gendered imperatives and their implications for women and men : lessons from research for policy makersAn independent report submitted to the European Commission by the NESSE networks of experts
1538 - PublicationAffective Equality and Social JusticeThe nurturing that produces love, care, and solidarity constitutes a discrete social system of affective relations. Because the relational realities of nurturing and caring constitute a distinct form of social practice, the affective system is a site of political import, separate from, though intersecting with economic, political, and cultural systems. This chapter claims that affective relations are not social derivatives in matters of social justice. Rather, they are productive, materialist relations that constitute people collectively, both positively and negatively, in mental, emotional, corporeal, and social terms. The chapter highlights the merits of Fraser’s three-dimensional theory of justice (2008) but also its limitations regarding the sociological and political realities of the affective domain of social life.
39 - PublicationNew managerialism in education: the organisational form of neoliberalismNew managerialism represents the organisational arm of neoliberalism. It is the mode of governance designed to realize the neoliberal project through the institutionalising of market principles in the governance of organisations. In the public sector (and increasingly in civil society bodies) it involves prioritisation of private (for-profit) sector values of efficiency and productivity in the regulation of public bodies, on the assumption that the former is superior to the latter (Lynch, Grummell and Devine 2012).
643 - PublicationEquality : frameworks for change(2001-01-30)
; ; Report prepared for the National Economic and Social Forum for the plenary meeting on January 30th 2001923 - PublicationNeo-liberalism and marketisation : the implications for higher educationThe massification of education in European countries over the last 100 years has produced cultures and societies that have benefited greatly from state investment in education. However, to maintain this level of social and economic development that derives from high quality education requires continual Sate investment. With the rise of the new-right, neo-liberal agenda, there is an attempt to offload the cost of education, and indeed other public services such as housing, transport, care services etc., on to the individual. There is an increasing attempt to privatise public services, including education, so that citizens will have to buy them at market value rather than have them provided by the State. This development is recognised by scholars across a range of fields, including those working within bodies such as the World Bank (Angus, 2004; Bullen et al., 2004; Dill, 2003; Lynch and Moran, 2006; Steier, 2003; Stevenson, 1999). Europe is no exception to this trend of neo-liberalisation. Recent OECD reports, including one on Higher Education in Ireland, (2004), concentrate strongly on the role of education in servicing the economy to the neglect of its social and developmental responsibilities. The view that education is simply another market commodity has become normalised in policy and public discourses. Schools run purely as businesses are a growing phenomenon within and without Europe, and there is an increasing expectation in several countries that schools will supplement their income from private sources, even though they are within the State sector. In this paper, I present both a critique of the neo-liberal model of marketised education and a challenge to academics to work as public intellectuals both individually and with civil society organisations to develop a counter-hegemonic discourse to neo-liberalism for higher education.
5397 - PublicationPrecarity, gender and care in the neoliberal academyThis article examines the rise in precarious academic employment in Ireland as an outcome of the higher education restructuring following OECD (Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development), government initiatives and post‐crisis austerity. Presenting the narratives of academic women at different career stages, we claim that a focus on care sheds new light on the debate on precarity. A more complete understanding of precarity should take account not only of the contractual security but also affective relational security in the lives of employees. The intersectionality of paid work and care work lives was a dominant theme in our interviews among academic women. In a globalized academic market, premised on the care‐free masculinized ideals of competitive performance, 24/7 work and geographical mobility, women who opt out of these norms, suffer labour‐led contractual precarity and are over‐represented in part‐time and fixed‐term positions. Women who comply with these organizational commands need to peripheralize their relational lives and experience care‐led affective precarity.
766Scopus© Citations 131 - PublicationMarkets, schools and the convertibility of economic capital : the complex dynamics of class choiceWhile economic capital is not synonymous with cultural, social or symbolic capital in either its constitutional or organisational form, it nevertheless remains the more flexible and convertible form of capital. The convertibility of economic capital has particular resonance within ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland. The State’s reluctance to fully endorse an internal market between schools has resulted in middle class parents using their private wealth to create an educational market outside State control in the private sector to help secure the class futures of their children. Using data from recent studies of second-level education in Republic of Ireland, and data compiled on the newly emerging ‘grind’ schools (businesses selling educational programmes on a purely commercial basis outside the control of the Department of Education and Science), we outline how the availability of economic capital allows well-off middle class parents to choose fee-paying schooling, or to opt out of the formal school sector entirely to employ market solutions to their class ambitions. The data also show that schools are not passive actors in the class game; they actively collude in the class project to their own survival advantage.Focusing too much on the dynamics of parental choice between schools leads to a neglect of the markets in education being created outside of the school system: the ‘choice’ that exists is no longer simply between schools, but also between schools and private businesses. Focus on parental choice also forecloses debate about the central roles that schools themselves play in perpetuating class inequality.
2012Scopus© Citations 84 - PublicationCrafting the Elastic Self? Gender and Identities in Senior Appointments in Irish EducationThis article considers the impact of new managerial reform on the recruitment and retention of women into senior management posts across the Irish education sector. In Ireland as elsewhere, the rhetoric of gender equality permeates new managerial reforms. Yet our data suggest that an emphasis on performativity and an intense commitment to paid work consolidates masculinist management cultures disguised through the ideology of choice. This works to the detriment of women, especially those with caring responsibilities. Drawing on studies of 23 top-level educational appointments in primary, secondary and higher education, we show how the relentless crafting of an elastic self is required for both those who remain in management positions in education and those who seek them.
Scopus© Citations 58 307