EDUCATION IS WAR: THE CONSTITUTION OF POSTINDUSTRIAL LEARNING Cliff Falk M.A., University of British Columbia, 1994 B.A., Simon Fraser University, 1987 B.A., University of Manitoba, 1975 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of. Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Education © Cliff Falk 2003 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY April 2003 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Clifford Falk Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: Education is War: The Constitution of Postindustrial Leaming Examining Committee Chair: Rina Zazkis Roland Case, Professor Senio_.r SupeJ:VfS9r Peter Grimmett, Professor Member Heesoon Bai, Assistant Professor Member Eugenie Samier, Faculty of Education Internal/External Examiner Geoffrey Winthrop-Young, Associate Professor Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies, University of British Columbia Buchanan Tower 227, Vancouver BC V6T 121 External Examiner Date Approved -~-f'_d_1--_~_,_1to_o_, ___ ii PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/ProjecVExtended Essay Education is War: The Constitution of Postindustrial Learning Author: (Signature) Mr. Clifford Falk ~ /)(Name) 1-; 1-1 /)/1 'O -? ((Date) iii ABSTRACT The central thesis of this dissertation is that war and militarism have been formative in the development of Western education from its inception in Classical Greece until the present. The secondary thesis is that the formative influence of warfare on education and on society more generally was neglected by the AngloAmerican academy during the twentieth century. This is not to suggest that twentieth century AngloAmerican scholarship and research was not war related. Rather, it is to suggest that the theoretical and critical study of the formative role of warfare was neglected in inverse proportion to the academic effort devoted to war during that century. The author posits that this critical and theoretical avoidance was a function of the confluence of material conditions, the Cold War for instance, with the academic perception of society as generally peaceful, a perception largely based in the influence of Marx and Spencer. This neglect is compared to the formative role assigned to warfare in the early twentieth century German academy, to war as a theme central to twentieth century American literature, and to the focus on war in French poststructural theory. Chapter 1 is comprised of a brief history of the academic construction of warfare in the twentieth century. The author proffers some reasons for the war aporias that he locates in the AngloAmerican academy. The second chapter outlines method. Chapters 3 and 4 are devoted to a theoretical analysis of the development of mass media, the state, mass schooling, mass warfare and education. The author posits that war was totally blended into quotidian existence between ~ 1870 and the end of the twentieth century. The influence of military considerations on the development of the research university is explicated by iv tracing the development of organic chemistry, propaganda, computers, and instructional technology and educational psychology. In Chapter 5, the author argues that these industrial processes were superseded after World War II, the change evident in the production of "postindustrial learning." He concludes by asking if education as warfare is a permanent condition. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to acknowledge my lifelong access to the Canadian university. I took such access for granted when I first attended university. Since then, however, I have come to understand how unusual it is for a state to provide relatively open access to high quality university education. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Secondly, I would like to acknowledge the good offices of Dr. Roland Case, Professor, Curriculum and Social Studies, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University. Foremost and finally, gratitude does not begin to capture the positive sentiments I hold regarding the role Bonnie Lillies played in this production. This dissertation is as much a function of her love, support and tolerance as it is of the statist expansion of higher education in Canada that coincided with the Cold War (1945-1990). vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval .............................................................................................. ii Abstract .............................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................ v Table of Contents ................................................................................. vi Dedication ......................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: WAR SATURATED SOCIUS ........................................... 1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 Statement of Purpose ........................................................................ 1 Redefining Education ......................................................................... 3 Education and War ................................................................................ 6 Anglophonic War Aporias ................................................................. 11 Historicizing the Aporia .................................................................... 22 Aporias Contradicted ............................................................................ 28 Knowledge Accessibility ................................................................... 33 Education as Credulity ..................................................................... 36 Thesis Outline ..................................................................................... 38 Chapter Notes ..................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER 2: OFFENSIVE POSITIONING ........................................ SO Introduction ........................................................................................ 50 Mise-en-scene ................................................................................ 51 Mise-en-abyme ............................................................................... 53 Working Method .................................................................................. 56 Dialectical Thinking ......................................................................... 59 The Ideological Moment ................................................................... 63 Chapter Notes ..................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER 3: WAR MACHINE .......................................................... 73 Introduction ........................................................................................ 73 Franco-Prussian War ............................................................................ 73 Total War ........................................................................................... 80 Entropy ......................................................................................... 82 The Origination of the Military Industrial Complex ............................... 86 Permanent Warfare ......................................................................... 89 War Machine Inverted ... ..,. ..................................................................... 99 Postrealist Fabrications .................................................................. 101 War Machine Conversion ................................................................ 110 Chapter Notes ................................................................................... 118 vii CHAPTER 4: TEACHING MACHINE (ASSEMBLAGE) ...................... 129 Introduction ...................................................................................... 129 Tele-graphic Warfare ......................................................................... 129 Electro-mechanization of Subjectivity ................................................... 137 Industrialization ................................................................................ 143 Militarization ..................................................................................... 146 Nationalization .................................................................................. 153 Capitalization .................................................................................... 162 Chapter Notes ................................................................................... 175 CHAPTER 5: POSTINDUSTRIAL LEARNING ................................. 186 Introduction .....................................................................................