Abstract

PINTO BRITO, Lydia María  and  CARTAXO DE CASTRO, Ahiram Brunni. CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES: WHEN KNOWLEDGE BUILT BY HUMANITY IS REPLACED BY BUSINESS KNOWLEDGE. Innovar [online]. 2019, vol.29, n.72, pp.147-162. ISSN 0121-5051.  https://doi.org/10.15446/innovar.v29n72.77939.

This study arises from the following questions: What logic and concepts guide the functioning of a corporate university? What are the main differences between a traditional and a corporate university? Is it the role of universities to train organic intellectuals to make part of the stock of professionals? From these, the objective of this study is to identify the logic and the concepts related to the corporate university. This work develops from the assumption that the corporate university limits the transmission of universal knowledge produced by humanity and that its curriculum only includes elements of mission, vision, values, business, and strategies of a particular company or stakeholder, usually characterized by a monopoly in its area of action, whose focus is primarily the market. This paper consists of a theoretical essay of authors such as Antonio Gramsci, Dermeval Saviani, José Claudinei Lombardi, José Luís Sanfelice, and István Mészáros, who provide critical estimates of content analysis in line with Laurence Bardin, that addresses functionalist administrative theories by Jeanne Meister, the most recognized international author, and Marisa Eboli and Cláudio Castro, two Brazilian authors. General considerations show that corporate universities represent one more attempt by capitalism to forge the excellence of its workforce, which will promote its survival in the future. The essential difference between traditional and corporate universities is that the first focuses on society and the knowledge produced by humanity, while the latter objectifies the market, the profit and the survival of organizations. Finally, by "forming" employees constrained by firm's interests, corporate universities create, consolidate, and disseminate a (false) ideology among its organic intellectuals that legitimates its academic approach and delivers fragile graduates to the labor market who become dependent of a specific business sector.

Keywords : traditional universities; corporate universities; corporate education; organic intellectuals.

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