In the past decades, the major reforms experienced in universities have profoundly changed their learning environment, their people, and the goals of higher education in general. Nowadays, these institutions have to be all-accessible and keep up with university ranks worldwide, as well as advance higher knowledge while also generating money. How one can reach these goals still remains mysterious to me. This new corporate vision that perverted higher education is exactly what Felicity Wood examines in her stunning new publication, Universities and the Occult Rituals of the Corporate World: Higher Education and Metaphorical Parallels With Myth and Magic. In this book, Wood observes that nowadays universities seek to imitate the corporate world, but as they are doing so, they have become sites of the occult and alien academic landscapes where aspects of the supernatural, rituals, and mythmaking cohabit.
Universities have long been associated with magic and mysticism. For example, they have their chosen novices (students) who will be introduced to the esoteric wisdom (higher knowledge). Universities also have their own hierarchy including high priests (deans, professors), brotherhood or sisterhood (departments, fraternities, and so on), their own time-honored rituals (graduation ceremonies, annual opening ceremonies, conferences, etc.), and various other events presenting ritualistic features, as in final examinations. However, as Wood suggests, it is also because of these traditional esoteric aspects that universities have sought another less elitist, less conservative, and less “outdated” model. As globalization intensifies, it has been suggested that universities offer the contemporary society what it needs and serve its interests (chapter 2). In universities’ mission statements, this is called “community engagement,” or “corporate social responsibility” in business jargon. Notwithstanding, this new orientation also requires that scholars comply with the status quo rather than challenging it (15–17). With such profound restructuring to bring in economic and institutional security, it comes as no surprise that universities’ discourse and values have been haltered in the process.
Universities adopting a business-oriented paradigm is not a new phenomenon. Although Wood examines specifically the cases of the market-oriented restructuring of South African institutions of higher education, she notes that neoliberal economic agendas have become increasingly influential from the 1980s on, and that it has been present in institutions across the world. Indeed, the reader familiar with academia will most likely experience a feeling of déjà vu in the author’s examples of universities’ rituals and occult magic. These way too familiar examples provided in the book prove that Wood’s research and argument are most relevant for scholars internationally.
Central to the author’s argument is the faith in “the magic of the market” (chapter 1), an enchanted space where prosperity and success can be found, and without which the concept of the corporate university would not be possible. The magic of the market is supposed to transform universities into more productive, economically viable, and accountable institutions, providing them with a near-magic efficacity (21). As in the supernatural or the occult, the magic of the market is a belief based on unseen elements and it is not grounded in empirical facts, making it elusive, intangible, and rooted in mystification and mythmaking processes.
One such myth generated to support the restructured universities that Wood observes is the confidence in the knowledge economy or the converting of knowledge into a marketable commodity, which acquires near-magical qualities. Wood then rightly discusses the fable based on the notion that commercial enterprise and institutions of higher education are essentially one and the same. All of these are expressed through the lens of the “real world,” a fabulatory construct of the human imagination within which corporate universities are said to be located (chapter 3). The author also demonstrates how restructured universities have developed new managerial governance and rituals to instill compliance from the members of its community, to create competition between them, and to generate an ever-present climate of fear, thus generating the power relations and the control mechanisms that are essential for the surivival of the corporate institution ethos (chapters 4 to 8, and 10). This all-controlling system, Wood argues, reduces human beings to wealth-generating commodities, thus making them exploitable and controlled (chapter 9). She uses the figure of the (academic) zombie (performing endless bureaucratic rituals) to support her point:
“More broadly, there are certain parallels between the zombie and the corporate body of the university, labouring to further the interests of the market forces controlling it. Zombies are not in a position to object to their situation, since they exist only to carry out the commands of their owners. Meanwhile, the managerial ethos encourages consensus and obedience. In its most extreme form, it exacts unquestioning submissiveness from employees who become spellbound with panic at the spectre of retrenchment, or disciplinary action that could ultimately provide grounds for dismissal.” (155)
This is perhaps the best example of African folklore Wood provides. Throughout her discussion, the author offers parallels between the corporate sphere and African contemporary folklore. As she argues, many specific aspects of African traditional culture share similarities with capitalist and market-oriented worldviews. While these examples are interesting, a non-familiar public might find it daunting to read. Furthermore, even if these examples are meant to illustrate Wood’s argument, I find the figures of the zombie and the mamlambo are really the more useful ones. The others she provides can be distracting and seem unnecessary to her work, as she already offers an impressive and precise analysis of contemporary restructured universities’ magic and rituals.
Universities and the Occult Rituals of the Corporate World presents a rare and original insight into the academic world and institutions of higher education. Overall, Wood’s research and use of different sources are impressive and her approach to folklore in universities is deeply original. In the end, she was able to produce a well-balanced work that is a pleasurable yet deeply unsettling read. It is certainly a book that will resonate with many readers’ experience.
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[Review length: 972 words • Review posted on February 13, 2020]