‘Perforated Nations’, Universities, and the Zonal Politics of Knowledge Production
- Susan L. Robertson
- Chris Muellerleile
- Jian Wu
- Kris Olds
A common assumption regarding universities is that they can be mapped onto what Slobodian (2023: 2) describes, as a “jigsaw of nations” which in turn make up a coherent global system. Yet as he and others (see Sassen 2006) point out, capitalism has always worked by “punching holes in the territory of the nation state, creating zones of exception” (Slobodan, 2023: 3). In this presentation we explore a range of what we call zonal projects (Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Greater Bay Area, China and USA) and their cultural and economic politics, arguing these are variously shaped by dynamic combinations driven by state and non-state actors aiming to produce new cultural political economies. Our four cases, each different, illustrates a range of bordering processes that include processes of secession and accession, all of which aim to advance a new zonal (geo)politics of knowledge production in part by repositioning the university. Taken together, these cases: (i) highlight the cultural, political, and economic complexities, involved in creating zones of exception, (ii) point to the need to get beyond non-relational binary accounts of inside/outside, zone/nation, (iii) offer a processual account of secession and accession, and (iv) makes visible shifting strategies over time in relation to challenges and changes in the wider geopolitical and cultural spheres. We take time at the end to reflect particularly on HE and the cultural politics of the USA where alt-Right libertarians have taken aim at its state of exception.
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Susan L Robertson is currently Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Manchester and Bye-Fellow at Wolfson College Cambridge. Prior to this she was Professor of Sociology and Head of Faculty at the University of Cambridge. She has written extensively on transformations of the state and capitalism, space, governing, higher education and social justice. She is founding editor of the journal ‘Globalisation, Societies and Education’.
Chris Muellerleile is a Senior Lecturer of Economic and Urban Geography at Swansea University. Chris studies the relationship between markets, states, and money and is currently researching state regulation of cryptocurrencies. Along with co-authors, he is the recent author of Metrics that Matter: What’s Really Important to College Students (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023).
Jian Wu is a lecturer in education at the School of Social Sciences, Keele University in the UK. Drawing on sociological theories and critical methodologies, his work examines how education policies and institutions—situated at the intersection of power, politics, and knowledge—could operate not only as instruments of state or bureaucratic control or forms of hegemony that co-opt both intellectuals and students but also as technologies of governance that shape and normalise the conditions for self-regulation.
Kris Olds, an economic and urban geographer, as well as urban planner, is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research focuses on the transformation of higher education and research vis a vis city-regions, and the securitization of university research. He also serves as Board Chair of Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (a public service nonprofit organization).