Academic Brands
The first comprehensive analysis of the emergence of academic brands, this book explores how the modern university is being transformed in an increasingly global economy of higher education where luxury is replacing access. More than just a sign of corporatization and privatization, academic brands provide a unique window on the university's concerns and struggles with conveying 'excellence' and reputation in a competitive landscape organized by rankings, while also capitalizing on its brand to generate revenue when state support dwindles. This multidisciplinary volume addresses topics including the uniqueness of academic brands, their role in the global brand economy of distinction, and their vulnerability to problematic social and political associations. By focusing on brands, the volume analyzes the tensions between the university's traditional commitment to public interest values – education, research, and the production of knowledge – and its increasingly managerial culture framed by corporate, private values. Available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
- Connects university brands to consumer culture, the economy, and the media
- Offers new evidence and insights to higher education administrators and policy makers
- Available as Open Access on Cambridge Core
Reviews & endorsements
'This one-of-a-kind collection integrates scholarship on trademarks, marketing, and communication with analyses of the so-called neoliberal university to examine the social, cultural, and political contexts of higher education in relation to the rise of the brand economy. Wide in scope and non-technical in presentation, it offers some lessons for higher education leaders and many insights for critical scholars. … Highly recommended.' M. J. Garrison, Choice
Product details
July 2022Hardback
9781108841375
280 pages
235 × 157 × 17 mm
0.5kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Prologue: Mario Biagioli and Madhavi Sunder
- Part I. Are Academic Brands Distinctive:
- 1. Distinctive Excellence Mario Biagioli
- 2. One of a kind like you: The university as a personalized generic Celia Lury
- 3. The public higher education brand Deven Desai
- Part II. Local and Global Dimensions:
- 4. Academic brands and online education Paul Berman
- 5. University brands as Geographical indications Jeremy Sheff
- 6. Elite universities as luxury brands Haochen Sun
- Part III. Conflicted Interests, Haunting Associations:
- 7. Academic branding and cognitive dissonance Mark Bartholomew
- 8. A captive audience: Corporate propaganda on the American college campus Joshua Hunt
- 9. When brands go bad: The rise and fall, and Re-Rise and Re-Fall, of Isaac royall, Jr. Janet Halley
- Epilogue: The Aesthetic university Madhavi Sunder.