Combating privatisations: An exploration of a de-growth paradigm in and of higher education. Mapping challenges, alliances and (im) possibilities

Private finance initiatives (PFIs), Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and World Trade Organisation agreements, have allowed for more "private authority" (Cutler, 2008). In institutions that were once considered to be vital state functions, including higher education, there is a turn into more or less for profit service industries (Robertson & Dale, 2014, p.220). Contesting the institutionalised primacy given to the economy by Western theories of development and suggesting a decoupling policy, de-growth theory constructs an open-ended but still sufficiently radical proposal of social transformation (D' Alisa, Demaria et al, 2014). Degrowth is "a project of decolonising the imaginary from growth" (Kallis & March, 2015, p.361). Having as a starting point the above antagonistic discourses, the overall purpose of this research is to juxtapose these discourses and their effects on the political economy of the University, by looking at macro and micro level transformations in the university that intend to alter the later into a more sustainable and socially embedded institution.