Exploitation, Regulation and Ideology in Online Education: Towards a Theory of Exploitation through Reproduction in Informational Capitalism

Abstract

This article intends to tackle, through a sociological and economic approach, the capitalist exploitation through reproduction of academics producing content for online courses in the productive processes of postsecondary formal and nonformal education provided for-profit in academic, corporate or leisure environments. The theoretical approach relies on four concepts: exploitation, regulation, ideology, and education. The empirical approach is based, whenever possible, on comparisons between the UK (and other OECD countries) and Argentina (and other Latin American countries). Secondary sources include stats from governments agencies and company reports, whereas primary sources are twin short surveys (in English and Spanish) answered by 129 academics.