"The Dictatorship of the Marketplace," and Academia
by P. L. Thomas
The second annual Critical Theories in the 21st Century conference did not unfold like the scripted plot arc traditional literature instruction teaches students about Shakespearean plays. If it had, the day would have peaked during the lunchtime performance of Hip Hop Psychology, and from there, the ideas would have worked themselves out into a nice and tidy denouement.
The second annual Critical Theories in the 21st Century conference did not unfold like the scripted plot arc traditional literature instruction teaches students about Shakespearean plays. If it had, the day would have peaked during the lunchtime performance of Hip Hop Psychology, and from there, the ideas would have worked themselves out into a nice and tidy denouement.
Instead, the day ended on the same confrontational and high note as the possibilities examined during the lunch performance that asked us all to consider and re-consider what voices matter; what media, modes, and genres of expression matter; and who determines the answers to each with Peter McLaren's talk: "The End of Education: The Case Against Capitalist Schooling."
McLaren challenged critical educators and scholars to imagine and re-imagine what a post-capitalist world would be—to make that ideal real and to do so beyond the walls of academia.
In the question and answer session after McLaren's talk, a central tenet in critical