Human Capital: The Tragedy of the Education Commons

Human Capital

$21.99
Sale price  $21.99 Regular price 
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Human Capital: The Tragedy of the Education Commons

Human Capital

$21.99
Sale price  $21.99 Regular price 
Unit price $21.99 each
'One of the clearest and most important studies to be published on education, worldwide, in many decades' Danny Dorling

Does the education system make better people? Why are so many - teachers and students alike - stressed and dissatisfied? Do we need to revive real education?

Ideally, education is about the pursuit of truth, beauty and morality. But in the last few decades, a perilous fixation with human capital - skills, knowledge and aptitudes required for the labour market - has trampled over curricula, schools and universities. Rather than learning how to think critically about the world, from cradle to grave students are trained to be more effective workers, to make more money, and to serve an hegemonic ideology. Teachers and researchers are pressed to serve those goals.

In this concluding book in his series on the commons, Guy Standing shows us how education - intrinsically a common public good - has been enclosed, privatised, financialised and corrupted, turned into an instrument of societal control, not human emancipation, weakening democracy, not strengthening it. Human Capital charts how the education industry largely serves commercial interests, not its teachers and students, and considers how to revive its lost values, to save society for the common good.

Book Details

ISBN
9780241688182
Binding
Paperback
Authors
Guy Standing
Publisher
Pelican Publishing Company
Published Date
February 24, 2026
Language
English
Pages
224
Physical Info
1.19 in H x 7.1 in L x 4.42 in W (0.7 lb)

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