Subversive Entrepreneurs: Business Agency and Commodification of Peruvian Higher Education (1992–2012)

• Author: Juan Dolores,Omar Manky
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X221084662
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Date: 01 May 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X221084662

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 244, Vol. 49 No. 3, May 2022, 162–180

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X221084662

© 2022 Latin American Perspectives

162

Subversive Entrepreneurs

Business Agency and Commodification of Peruvian

Higher Education (1992–2012)

by

Omar Manky and Juan Dolores

Translated by

Mariana Ortega-Breña

Over the past two decades, the sociology of education has addressed the reproduction of

inequalities created by for-profit universities in several countries. Despite their contribu-

tions, these analyses do not always consider the role of and strategies employed by educa-

tional entrepreneurs in social processes. In contrast with approaches that understand the

university business as a mere reflection of neoliberal institutionality and those that celebrate

profit as the vital element in the renewal of higher education in Latin America an analysis

inspired by the literature on social movements and examination of business strategies,

institutions, and negotiations in the commodification of Peruvian higher education provides

an account of the transformations in the structure of opportunities, resources, and framing

processes developed by entrepreneurs during two moments: 1992–2000 and 2001–2012.

En las últimas dos décadas, la sociología de la educación ha abordado la reproducción

de las desigualdades generada en varios países por las universidades con fines de lucro.

Independientemente de sus aportes, estos análisis no siempre consideran el papel y las

estrategias de los emprendedores educativos en los procesos sociales. A diferencia de los

enfoques que entienden la empresa universitaria como un mero reflejo de la instituciona-

lidad neoliberal, al igual que aquellos que celebran el lucro como el elemento vital en la

renovación de la educación superior en América Latina, un análisis basado en la literatura

sobre movimientos sociales de las estrategias empresariales, instituciones, y negociaciones

en la mercantilización de la educación superior peruana da cuenta de las transformaciones

en la estructura de oportunidades, recursos y procesos delimitantes desarrollados por los

empresarios durante dos periodos, 1992–2000 y 2001–2012.

Keywords: Higher education, Peru, Entrepreneurs, Neoliberalism, Economic sociology

Understanding higher education dynamics is a crucial step toward improv-

ing access to this right. In the case of Peru, what has been emphasized is the

negative results of university commodification over the past two decades,

Omar Manky is an assistant professor at the Universidad del Pacífico, Lima, Peru, and Juan

Dolores is a research assistant at that university. They thank the editors and peer reviewers who

made it possible for them to improve this article. They are also grateful to the Research Vice-

Rectorate of the Universidad del Pacífico, which funded the presentation of the study at interna-

tional conferences where they received valuable feedback. Mariana Ortega-Breña is a freelance

translator based in Mexico City.

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research-article2022

Manky and Dolores/COMMODIFICATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN PERU 163

particularly concerning educational quality (Yamada etal., 2013; Cuenca and

Reátegui, 2016). However, knowledge regarding these effects has not been

matched by studies on the organizational dynamics that precede them. Studies

addressing the reproduction of inequalities have not examined the actors in

this process in detail; there is a tendency to address the university sector as a

business but to ignore the educational entrepreneurs that drive that business.

This has prevented us from noticing the particularities of commodification in

different contexts. The Peruvian case, for example, contrasts with the Chilean

one. In the latter case, despite not being legal, commercial practices have

brought terrible results for students (Basso, 2016). Peru also differs from Brazil,

where private educational conglomerates have emerged in a public university

system that has not weakened much (Sguissardi, 2008).

To analyze these specificities, it is necessary to break with two views. The first

one has understood the corporate university as a mere reflection of neoliberal

institutionality (Navarrete, 2017). We need to stop assuming that economic

action is a mechanical product of the selfish nature of the entrepreneur or state

neglect (Manky, 2020). Second, it is essential to move beyond views that cele-

brate profit as a factor that renewed higher education, abandoning the fantasy

of the heroic entrepreneur typical of many management studies (see Ibarra-

Colado, 2006). This article suggests an alternative: to take a cohesive look at

business strategies, institutions, and negotiations by undertaking a sociology of

business action that allows us to evaluate its role in the commodification of

education. As have other actors seeking to change the social game rules radi-

cally, entrepreneurs have to mobilize resources to ensure that both society and

the state acknowledge their legitimacy and accept the desirability of their wager.

To demonstrate the advantages of our approach, our paper compares two

moments in the commodification of Peruvian higher education that have tra-

ditionally been read as part of the same liberalization process: 1992–2000 and

2001–2012. Previous studies have underscored the continuity of the commodi-

fication process in the neoliberal period, suggesting that it began with the legal-

ization of for-profit higher education in 1996 (Lynch, 2004; Burga, 2008). A

detailed analysis allows us to build on these valuable works to address a pro-

cess that began at least four years earlier and has been transformed over time.

After presenting a model for understanding the commodification of the univer-

sity from a sociological perspective on organizations, the article explains the

methodology and results of our research. It then discusses the implications of

our work for future studies of change in education systems.

ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK

The scope for business action during liberalization is often understood from

one of two poles. On the one hand, critical studies see it as the consequence of

state neglect due to internal crises and international pressures. This is the pre-

dominant outlook in discussions regarding labor (Tostes and Villavicencio,

2012) or environmental deregulation (Durand, 2016). On the other hand, stud-

ies in administrative sciences see it as the product of innovative decisions made

by economic actors. This narrative emphasizes a market revolution that, thanks