Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The present article reviews the specialized literature on the theory of academic capitalism. It seek to specify and develop its basic concepts, and uses them to analyze the Chilean case, both from the point of view of the political economy of its national system of Higher Education and the transformations that universities are undergoing in the direction of entrepreneurial behavior and managerialism. METHOD. A bibliometric analysis of the specialized literature on academic capitalism in English, Spanish, and Portuguese is carried out and then a content analysis is performed with the objective of identifying the different understandings of academic capitalism. RESULTS. Two definitions of academic capitalism are identified: one that focuses on changes at the level of the political and economic systems and the other that revolves around transformations at the organizational level. DISCUSSION. Building upon this basis, an analytical framework is proposed for the study of academic capitalism, distinguishing between political economy processes (marketization, privatization, commercialization and financialization) and their organizational effects (university entrepreneurialism and managerialism). Later, this framework is used to study the Higher Education reform carried out in Chile between the years 2014 and 2018, and aimed at reversing or mitigating the advanced degree of privatism of its Higher Education system. The transformations experienced by academic capitalism as a result of this reform are identified, leading to the conclusion that the outcomes of this process are limited and in some cases ambiguous, and might even cause unanticipated effects, contrary to the objective sought. The article concludes with a brief summary and possible future research lines.