Marx's Sausage Factory and Marx's Road: Education and the General Class of Commodities

Marx's Sausage Factory and Marx's Road: Education and the General Class of Commodities

This is a paper I have prepared for the London Historical Materialism 22^nd Annual Conference, SOAS, 6–9 November 2025.

You can now view this paper at Academia:  

https://www.academia.edu/144648586/Marxs_Sausage_Factory_and_Marxs_Road_Education_and_the_General_Class_of_Commodities

 

Abstract

This paper complements the presentation I gave at HM London Conference 2024 where the focus was on labour-power and its social re/production. Labour-power is the unique commodity, the ‘class of one’; the only commodity that has the capacity to generate more value – surplus-value – than what it takes to reproduce itself when it is transformed into labour in capitalist labour processes. For this 2025 presentation, the focus is on the general class of commodities; that is, all commodities excluding labour-power. In particular, educational commodification and value production in educational institutions are explored. Can education be a commodity? Is education productive of value? If education is a commodity why does it matter? These perennial questions regarding educational commodification, questions that bedevil mainstream sociology and liberal thought as much as Marxist educational theory, are at the centre of this presentation. The first section of the paper lays the ground by drawing from Marx’s ideas on the commodity and value production. It also presents some of the hand-wringing statements and nebulous arguments regarding whether education can be a commodity, or not. Section two visits Marx’s metaphor of education as a ‘sausage factory’ in Capital. It indicates how, under certain conditions, what goes on in educational institutions results in commodity and value-production. The third section focuses on ‘Marx’s road’; his discussion on the roles of State, Money and ‘capital as capital’ in the production of value in Notebook V from the Grundrisse. The conclusions from this section are then dragged back to the ‘sausage factory’ to give a fuller account of educational commodification and value production. The Conclusion revisits questions of whether education is, or can be, a commodity, if it produces value, and why such questions are important. This last point draws on the work of Mike Neary.    

Glenn Rikowski, Forest Gate, London, 27^th October 2025

Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski  

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski

Value Vortex Weavings: Karl Marx's Social Time, Labour-Power and Education

 

Mike Neary

This is my chapter in Stammering as Dada: Mike Neary and Critical Education, edited by Stephen Cowden, Gary Saunders and Joss Winn, and published by Peter Lang.

This book is now out and available from the publishers, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, and many other booksellers.

Abstract (for my chapter):

In 1993, Time, Labor and Social Domination: A reinterpretation of Marx’s critical theory, by Moishe Postone was published. In 1996, I purchased a paperback version. After alerting Mike Neary to Postone’s book, for the next eight years, at particular moments, Mike and I discussed salient issues within it: e.g. value, labour, abstract labour, and Postone’s critique of traditional Marxism – but most of all, we discussed Postone’s views on time. The autobiographical Introduction provides the context for the focus on Marx’s socially necessary labour-time. Part 1 explores Mike’s conception of the Value Vortex, referred to in Neary (2020a). Part 2 examines the notion of weaving and its relation to the Value Vortex and social form. This brings into play Mike’s appreciation of the works of Lucretius and Thomas Nail in the last five years of his life. Part 3 reveals Karl Marx’s social time; what appears as capital’s time based on Marx’s concept of socially necessary labour-time (SNLT). Part 4 examines some implications of labour-power production in education as a machine for speeding up social time. The Conclusion draws ideas from the previous sections together and invokes Mike’s commitment to unravelling value and capital’s social time through critique and practice.     

 Summary of the book (from the publishers):

Mike Neary was a renowned critical educator, Professor of Sociology at the University of Lincoln, and a founding member of the Social Science Centre, Lincoln. He died in January 2023, and in the months prior to his death, the editors of this book met with Mike and, with his guidance, worked with him on a collection of his writings. Mike was once asked why he wrote and he responded, “I write for the future” This book gathers some of his key writings to keep alive the critical legacy which Mike’s life and work embodied. It contains a body of work written by Mike on his own, with his close collaborators, as well as contributions written about him. The work gathered here in this book attests to Mike’s lifelong critical engagement with the work of Karl Marx, and as his work shows, this is an engagement on terms which are uniquely his own, reflecting Mike’s unique vision, his deep egalitarianism, his personal warmth, and his critical intellect.

Contents

Series Editors’ Preface – Stammering as Dada: Mike Neary and Critical Education

Jones Erwin and Stephen Cowden

 

Mike Neary interviewed by Stephen Cowden: The Thinginess of Things

Mike Neary and Stephen Cowden

 

An Introduction to the Work of Karl Marx: Science of Revolution and Revolutionary Science

Mike Neary

 

Critical Theory as the Critique of Labour

Mike Neary

 

Pedagogy in Paradise: Higher Learning and the Metamorphosis of a Derelict City – a Rhythmanalysis

Mike Neary

 

 

Student as Producer and the Politics of Abolition: Making a New Form of Dissident Institution?

Mike Neary and Gary Saunders

 

Pedagogy of Hate

Mike Neary

 

The Social Science Centre, Lincoln: The Theory and Practice of a Radical Idea

Mike Neary and Joss Winn

 

Beyond Public and Private: A Framework for Co- operative Higher Education

Mike Neary and Joss Winn

 

Civic University or University of the Earth? A Call for Intellectual Insurgency

Mike Neary

 

We Stammer (To Be Read Aloud)

Mike Neary

 

‘Student as Producer’: A Disruptive Theory for Our Times

Cath Lambert

 

Value Vortex Weavings: Karl Marx’s Social Time, Labour-Power and Education

Glenn Rikowski

 

Afterword: Mike Neary and the Power of Revolutionary Optimism

Antonia Darder and Gordon Asher   

Details

Stammering as Dada: Mike Neary and Critical Education

Edited by Stephen Cowden, Gary Saunders and Joss Winn

Peter Lang (publishers): https://www.peterlang.com/document/1493241

Series: New Disciplinary Perspectives on Education, Volume 9

Pages                          XII, 302

Publication Year        2025

ISBN (PDF)                 9781803741161

ISBN (ePUB)              9781803741178

ISBN (Softcover)       9781803741154

DOI                        10.3726/b20611

Language                   English

Keywords                   Critical Pedagogy, Marxism, Education

For more on Glenn Rikowski's work, see:

Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski

Stammering as Dada: Mike Neary and Critical Education

 STAMMERING AS DADA

MIKE NEARY AND CRITICAL EDUCATION

STAMMERING AS DADA: MIKE NEARY AND CRITICAL EDUCATION

Edited by Stephen Cowden, Joss Winn, and Gary Saunders.

Published by Peter Lang, in the 'New Disciplinary Perspectives on Education' Series, Volume 9.

This book will be available from 11 December 2024.

From the Peter Lang (publishers): https://www.peterlang.com/document/1493241

Available also from Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and !ndigo.

Publisher's Summary:

Mike Neary was a renowned critical educator, Professor of Sociology at the University of Lincoln, and a founding member of the Social Science Centre, Lincoln. He died in January 2023, and in the months prior to his death, the editors of this book met with Mike and, with his guidance, worked with him on a collection of his writings. Mike was once asked why he wrote and he responded, “I write for the future” This book gathers some of his key writings to keep alive the critical legacy which Mike’s life and work embodied. It contains a body of work written by Mike on his own, with his close collaborators, as well as contributions written about him. The work gathered here in this book attests to Mike’s lifelong critical engagement with the work of Karl Marx, and as his work shows, this is an engagement on terms which are uniquely his own, reflecting Mike’s unique vision, his deep egalitarianism, his personal warmth, and his critical intellect.

My chapter is:

"Value Vortex Weavings: Karl Marx's Social Time, Labour-Power and Education".

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski

The Funnelling@ Higher Education and Labour-power Production in the Shadow of Covid-19

 

The Funnelling: Higher Education for Labour-power Production in the Shadow of Covid-19

This paper – recently published in The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies – is now available at ResearchGate and Academia.

Abstract

This article explores how the UK Conservative Government’s Department for Education is taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to restructure higher education in England towards labour-power production. There is nothing new in UK governments seeking to reshape higher education for labour-power development. But under cover of apparent concern for students’ well-being in the pandemic, the consequences for higher education institutions viewed as slacking or heel-dragging regarding their labour-power production drives have never been greater following the publication of Establishment of a Higher Education Restructuring Regime in Response to Covid-19 (DfE, 2020a): market exit and closure. The Great Interruption in labour-power production generated by Covid-19 can pose the question of whether we continue to assent to our labour-power being shaped for capital, or whether we redirect flows of labour-power development in directions of post-capitalist futures. 

Keywords: Covid-19, higher education, labour-power, educational restructuring, Great Interruption

@ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354723043_The_Funnelling_Higher_Education_for_Labour-power_Production_in_the_Shadow_of_Covid-19 and http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski

@ Academia: https://www.academia.edu/53201438/The_Funnelling_Higher_Education_for_Labour_power_Production_in_the_Shadow_of_Covid_19 and http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski

London

18 October 2021

CRISIS

 

CRISIS

I have an article, Crisis, forthcoming in the following book:

Glenn

London, 16^th November 2020

 

Critical Reflections on the Language of Neoliberalism in Education: Dangerous Words and Discourses of Possibility

 

Edited By 

Spyros Themelis

 

ISBN 9780367629564

December 29, 2020 Forthcoming by Routledge

252 Pages

 

Book Description

Recognizing the dominance of neoliberal forces in education, this volume offers a range of critical essays which analyze the language used to underpin these dynamics.

Combining essays from over 20 internationally renowned contributors, this text offers a critical examination of key terms which have become increasingly central to educational discourse. Each essay considers the etymological foundation of each term, the context in which they have evolved, and likewise their changed meaning. In doing so, these essays illustrate the transformative potential of language to express or challenge political, social, and economic ideologies. The text’s musings on the language of education and its implications for the current and future role of education in society make clear its relevance to today’s cultural and political landscape.

This exploratory monograph will be of interest to doctoral students, researchers, and scholars with an interest in the philosophy of education, educational policy and politics, as well as the sociology of education and the impacts of neoliberalism.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Part I. Endangering words

[1]. Crisis

Glenn Rikowski

 

[2]. Neoliberal globalization

Spyros Themelis

 

[3]. Social value

Ewen Speed

 

[4]. Alienation

Inny Accioly

 

[5]. Hegemony

Alpesh Maisuria

 

[6]. Immiseration

Richard Hall

 

[7] Commodity

Joss Winn

 

[8]. Social mobility

Spyros Themelis

 

[9].Social Inclusion

Angela Cator

 

[10]. Markets

Dionysios Gouvias

 

[11].League tables and Targets

Patrick Yarker

 

[12]. Managerialism

Richard Hall

 

[13]. Employability

Tom G. Griffiths and Bill Robertson

 

[14] Ability

Patrick Yarker

 

 

Part II. Words of possibility

 

[15]. Essence

Grant Banfield

 

[16]. Reflexivity

Elisabeth Simburger

 

[17]. Utopia

Tom G. Griffiths and Jo Williams

 

[18]. Hope

Hasan Hüseyin Aksoy

 

[19]. Social movements

Laurence Cox

 

[20]. Revolutionary Pedagogy

Peter McLaren

 

[21]. Alternative education

Richard Hall

 

[22]. Youth

Sandra Gadelha and Claudiana Alencar

 

[23]. Educators

Maria Chalari and Eleftheria Atta

 

[24]. School

José Ernandi Mendes

 

[25]. Post-Critical Education

Juan Ramón Rodríguez Fernández

 

[26]. Educational Commons

Yannis Pechtelidis

 

[27]. Socialism

Dave Hill

　

Conclusion: Stammering

Mike Neary

 

Spyros Themelis is Associate Professor in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia (UEA), UK.

See details at Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Reflections-on-the-Language-of-Neoliberalism-in-Education-Dangerous/Themelis/p/book/9780367629564

Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Critical-Reflections-Language-Neoliberalism-Education/dp/0367629569

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski: 

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

 

 

CRÍTICA, TRABALHO E POLÍTICAS EDUCACIONAIS NO CENÁRIO DO CAPITALISMO MUNDIALIZADO

 

CRÍTICA, TRABALHO E POLÍTICAS EDUCACIONAIS NO CENÁRIO DO CAPITALISMO MUNDIALIZADO

 

 Alisson Slider do Nascimento de Paula

Frederico Jorge Ferreira Costa

Kátia Regina Rodrigues Lima

Karla Raphaella Costa Pereira

(Organizadores)

 

1ª edição

LUTAS ANTICAPITAL

Marília – 2020

 

ISBN 978-65-86620-27-6

 

Agercicleiton Coelho Guerra

Alisson Slider do Nascimento de Paula

Ana Carolina Galvão

Antônia Rozimar Machado e Rocha

Antonio Marcondes dos Santos Pereira

Bruno Gawryszewski

Camila Kipper Putzke

Carina Alves da Silva Darcoleto

Dave Hill

Emmanoel Lima Ferreira

Frederico Jorge Ferreira Costa

Glenn Rikowski

Ivan dos Santos Oliveira

José Carlos Rothen

Karla Raphaella Costa Pereira

Kátia Regina Rodrigues Lima

Marcela Figueira Ferreira

Pauliane Gonçalves Moraes

Simone de Fátima Flach

Vânia Cardoso da Motta

 

 

SUMÁRIO

 

Geografia crítica, pedagogia histórico-crítica e o currículo escolar de geografia .....................................13

Pauliane Gonçalves Moraes

Ana Carolina Galvão

 

A expansão especulativa parasitária do capital na educação: o aprofundamento da tendência à mercoaprendizagem ...................................................43

Alisson Slider do Nascimento de Paula

Kátia Regina Rodrigues Lima

Emmanoel Lima Ferreira

 

Elementos para a compreensão da defesa da escola pública no contexto do capitalismo periférico brasileiro ..................................................................................69

Frederico Jorge Ferreira Costa

 

O complexo da educação nos ensaios de Lukács: Makarenko, Goethe, Lenin e Keller .............................97

Karla Raphaella Costa Pereira

 

Projetos educacionais em disputa e o papel da avaliação enquanto possibilidade de emancipação ...................125

Ivan dos Santos Oliveira

José Carlos Rothen

 

Educação e tragédia do trabalho................................151

Glenn Rikowski

 

Os bons, os maus e os feios: coronavírus, capitalismo e socialismo: uma resposta marxista ...........................185

Dave Hill

 

Relações entre ideologia e fascismo: a destruição dos princípios educacionais no Brasil ..............................213

Carina Alves da Silva Darcoleto

Simone de Fátima Flach

 

O trabalho como o ponto de partida da socialização do ser social e suas determinações constitutivas: uma introdução................................................................239

Antonio Marcondes dos Santos Pereira

 

A universidade pública no atual contexto de contrarre-forma do estado brasileiro: Future-se e o desmonte da ciência a serviço do mercado......................................269

Agercicleiton Coelho Guerra

Antônia Rozimar Machado e Rocha

Marcela Figueira Ferreira

 

Vida e morte da ampliação da jornada escolar nos programas Mais Educação: mais do quê?...................303

Bruno Gawryszewski

Camila Kipper Putzke

Vânia Cardoso da Motta

 

Sobre os autores .......................................................341

 

https://lutasanticapital.com.br/products/critica-trabalho-e-politicas-educacionais-no-cenario-do-capitalismo-mundializado

 

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski at ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski at Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski