Richard Scullion

Having, being and higher education: the marketisation of the university and the transformation of the student into consumer

In this paper we express concerns that the marketisation of British higher education that has accompanied its expansion has resulted in some sections becoming pedagogically limited. We draw from Fromms humanist philosophy based on having to argue that the current higher education (HE) market discourse promotes a mode of existence, where students seek to ‘have a degree’ rather than ‘be learners’. This connects pedagogic theory to a critique of consumer culture. We argue that a ‘market-led’ university responds to consumer calls by focusing on the content students want at a market rate. It may decrease intellectual complexity if this is not in demand, and increase connections with the workplace if this is desired. Once, under the guidance of the academic, the undergraduate had the potential to be transformed into a scholar, someone who thinks critically, but in our consumer society such ‘transformation’ is denied and ‘confirmation’ of the student as consumer is favoured. We further argue that there is a danger that the new HEs link to business through the expansion of vocational courses in business, marketing and related offerings, inevitably embeds expanded HE in a culture of having. This erodes other possible roles for education because a consumer society is unlikely to support a widened HE sector that may work to undermine its core ideology.

Delusions of grandeur? Marketing’s contribution to “meaningful” Western political consumption

This paper explores the contribution of marketing to Western politics. Moving away from traditional views of marketing located in means‐end relationships, it examines contemporary views of marketing that focus on consumption as a process of signification and representation. This more radical perspective offers contemporary insight into the many manifestations of political consumption, and the meanings the electorate ascribe to them, both individually and socially. This contemporary approach challenges critics’ claims that marketing encourages politics to be shallow. It offers far more in‐depth insight into the electorate and their appreciation, understanding and relationship with politics.

Exploring the Consequences of Negative Political Advertising for Liberal Democracy

ABSTRACT This paper explores existing thinking and research on the use of negative advertising strategies in political campaigning, and in particular examines their potential impact on liberal democracy. We ask what impacts negative forms of political communication may have on our system of government and democratic participation. Though political advertising makes up only a part of political discourse, an analysis of it is necessary given the increasing “marketisation” of political communication, coupled with concerns regarding the so called “democratic deficit.” In order to more truly evaluate its impact, the evidence pertaining to both the positive and detrimental consequences of employing negative ad strategies is examined. What emerges are some very real short-term benefits, some very real concerns over its use, and confusion over its “true” impact. Of particular note is the need for researchers and campaign managers to take a longer-term view of the potentially detrimental consequences of employing negative advertising strategies-to look beyond the short-term gains of winning elections and to consider the longer-term societal consequences of consistently employing advertising strategies characterised by the creation of doubt, fear, anxiety, violation and viciousness. We argue that the “winning” mentality of political ad campaigns needs to be balanced by a more “nurturing” orientation if the tenets of liberal democracy are to remain sustainable.

Her majesty the student: marketised higher education and the narcissistic (dis)satisfactions of the student-consumer

ABSTRACT Intensifying marketisation across higher education (HE) in England continues to generate critical commentary on the potentially devastating consequences of market logic for pedagogy. In this paper, we consider the student-consumer prominent in these debates as a contested yet under-analysed entity. In contrast to the dominance of homo economicus discursively constructed in policy, we offer a psychoanalytically informed interpretation of undergraduate student narratives, in an educational culture in which the student is positioned as sovereign consumer. We report findings drawn from in-depth interviews that sought to investigate students’ experiences of choice within their university experience. Our critical interpretation shows how market ideology in an HE context amplifies the expression of deeper narcissistic desires and aggressive instincts that appear to underpin some of the student ‘satisfaction’ and ‘dissatisfaction’ so crucial to the contemporary marketised HE institution. Our analysis suggests that narcissistic gratifications and frustrations may lie at the root of the damage to pedagogy inflicted by unreflective neoliberal agendas.

Perceptions of negative political advertising: meaningful or menacing? An empirical study of the 1997 British General Election Campaign

The electorate are increasingly volatile in terms of their voting behaviour, and this presents valuable opportunities for the marketing discipline to offer the world of politics new insights and strategies. This paper suggests that those with little brand loyalty, who ultimately determine the outcome of general elections, perceive and use political advertising, particularly the genre commonly described as ‘negative’, in very different ways to the ‘politically active’. It argues for a more sophisticated approach to segmentation of political audiences based on prior involvement levels. It also offers support for the continued use of some forms of negative advertising with a number of important caveats.

Young People's Attitudes Towards British Political Advertising: Nurturing or Impeding Voter Engagement?

SUMMARY This article presents findings from a national survey of ‘potential’ first time voters at the 2001 British General Election–specifically their attitudes towards the print advertising used by the main political parties during this election. In analysing the data, the authors were particularly interested in examining the claim that political advertising contributes to a sense of malaise–most acutely apparent among young people. While we found high levels of claimed advertising awareness, this was coupled with largely unfavourable attitudes towards most of the print advertising used in the election. Despite these judgements, most young people considered the advertising to be at least as persuasive as its commercial cousins. Not surprisingly the evidence provides a mixed picture in terms of the role political advertising plays in the political dispositions of young people. As a familiar discourse advertising offers the political classes an entry point to establish a dialogue with young sections of the electorate. However, for many young people, political advertising appears to help reinforce their predilection about politics being something one naturally distrusts.

The impact of commercially promoted vocational degrees on the student experience

Exploratory focus group research with undergraduate students reveals a series of related tensions that students experience about vocational marketing and communication degrees that have been promoted to them primarily on the basis of job prospects and university location. We summarise these tensions in six themes: short versus long‐term goals; academic/social life balance; time to study/work; importance of theory versus practical skills; intrinsic motivations to study versus assessment orientation; and the differing requirements of a tutor. We argue that the often intuitive choices that students make as a result of these tensions may result in their failing to engage with much of what constitutes a degree, especially scholarly activity. Although these tensions may be common to all students, we question whether some approaches to promoting vocational degrees, and the curriculum priorities sometimes given to these types of degree may influence the resolution of tensions in ways that do not encourage effective learning. Does the presence of practical aspects in the curriculum encourage or excuse the rejection of theory that is not immediately applicable to practice? Does the marketing of universities as “fun”, and of degrees leading directly to employment, undermine intrinsic motivations to engage with study? We conclude by suggesting the need for reflection and responsibility in the higher education sectors promotional activities and in the teaching of vocational degrees.

The Value of Party Election Broadcasts for Electoral Engagement: A Content Analysis of the 2001 British General Election Campaign

Within the UK, party election broadcasts (PEBs) and party political broadcasts (PPBs) continue to be the only means through which parties can communicate directly with the electorate through TV and radio – as such, they are an important part of the political communication process. In 2003 the Electoral Commission made strong recommendations for the continuation of PEBs rather than opt for paid-for ad spots. The Commission called on all interested parties to ensure future PEBs fulfilled their potential as a mechanism to engage the electorate. It is in this context that this paper presents the results of a content analysis of all 14 British PEBs aired during the 2001 British General Election by the three main political parties: Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat. We also compare our findings with previous research on the PEBs used in the 1992 and 1997 British General Elections. While similarities emerge in terms of demonstrating a dominance of issues over image, the tone of the PEBs indicates that advertising in the 2001 General Election was far less negative than in those of 1992 and 1997. In conclusion we offer some pertinent thoughts on why British political parties currently use their allotted PEB airtime in ways that do not necessarily exploit their electoral engagement potential, and how both audience viewing and engagement of the electorate might be enhanced with judicious use of PEBs in the future.

The Emergence of the “Accidental Citizen”: Implications for Political Marketing

The central argument developed in this paper is premised on the belief that, in the life experiences of individuals, we find a messy interface between politics and consumption, where, often unintentionally, we take on citizenly roles and have civic experiences in market spaces as consumers. Flowing from this is the emergence of what the author calls the “accidental citizen,” where consumer actions increasingly contain political qualities and, just as importantly, these experiences are acknowledged and reflected on as such. The paper presents an argument that rejects the dominant discourse that contrasts notions of consumer and citizen. This position of contrast is the established position taken in the political science literature that considers citizenship predominantly in terms of legalistically based relations between individuals and the state (Offe, 1999), and, given that political marketing developed as an addendum to this body of work, the view of consumer contrasting with citizen underpins much political marketing thinking too. The paper, based on more holistic interpretations of the core notions of citizen and consumer, provides examples that illustrate a merging of consumption and politics in the everyday lives of individuals, positing that the accidental citizen can act as a catalyst for further political action, and as such, is an important concept with widespread consequences for the discipline of political marketing.

Normalisation of and resistance to consumer behaviour in higher education

Five years ago in the conclusion to an edited book we challenged the stakeholders of higher education (HE) to be more reflective of the potential consequences (intended or not) of the processes outlined in The marketisation of higher education and the student consumer (Molesworth, Scuillion, & Nixon, 2011). In introducing this Journal of Marketing for Higher Education special edition on HE and consumer behaviour, we ponder what the papers submitted – and most particularly the six selected to appear here – tell us about the current state of such reflections. What appears most prominently is a schism. We witness both acceptance and normalisation, but also rejection and resistance. The normalisation of marketisation means that a consumerist discourse is increasingly ‘taken-for-granted’ in many of the practices and routines of a university, and in the language used by managers, tutors and students. From this position marketing theory is ‘naturally’ developed to better inform such a situation. Researchers then ask questions about HE marketing effectiveness, and about student-consumer attitudes in order to make claims about enhanced recruitment, student experience and satisfaction. Indeed in our own institutions there are daily reproductions of such normality in requests for information for various external systems of measurement, in concerns about and celebrations of students numbers, in warnings about any dissatisfactions in our customers, in talk of journal outputs as a proxy of research, and in increasing requests made in the name of the student experience (which range from answering their emails the same day to facilitating frequent satisfaction surveys). In practice of course many of the tutors we see around us – especially those not directly involved with either marketing research or pedagogic research – may adopt various coping strategies, accepting but also bracketing out, downplaying, or avoiding those aspects of marketisation that they dislike. Here resistance sometimes emerges as overt challenge to policy and to managerialist processes, where the very idea of students as consumers offends a tutor’s belief in their role and/or the purpose of HE. Marketisation may be ubiquitous but a metaphorical line is created: ‘not in my classroom, not at the expense of my scholarly subject’. However, others and perhaps the majority of those new to the system, accept – however reluctantly – that their university needs to attract students or jobs are at risk. Like it or not the student as a consumer must be acknowledged in teaching performance assessments, league tables, promotional positioning and, increasingly in various online forums and promotions. We also note a final group of tutors who may actively embrace student-consumer behaviour by focusing on the positive outcomes attributed to marketing actions – from widening participation to impressive new facilities. Indeed a senior academic involved in pedagogic research at one of our institutions confided that they felt the student was not nearly enough of a consumer, implying that if they were they might get a much better educational experience. A question that arises then is: what is the role of marketing scholarship in negotiating the tensions in the various positions, and the subsequent practices within a marketised HE sector? This task is undertaken in the specific papers in this special edition. We start with a paper from Melodi Guilbaut that calls for HE to reconcile its future to the process of marketisation. Indeed Guilbaut argues that contemporary notions of customer co-creation mean we should