'One of the clearest and most important studies to be published on education, worldwide, in many decades' Danny Dorling
Does the education system make better people? Why are so many - teachers and students alike - stressed and dissatisfied? Do we need to revive real education?
Ideally, education is about the pursuit of truth, beauty and morality. But in the last few decades, a perilous fixation with human capital - skills, knowledge and aptitudes required for the labour market - has trampled over curricula, schools and universities. Rather than learning how to think critically about the world, from cradle to grave students are trained to be more effective workers, to make more money, and to serve an hegemonic ideology. Teachers and researchers are pressed to serve those goals.
In this concluding book in his series on the commons, Guy Standing shows us how education - intrinsically a common public good - has been enclosed, privatised, financialised and corrupted, turned into an instrument of societal control, not human emancipation, weakening democracy, not strengthening it. Human Capital charts how the education industry largely serves commercial interests, not its teachers and students, and considers how to revive its lost values, to save society for the common good.
| ISBN: | 9780241688182 |
| Publication date: | 29th January 2026 |
| Author: | Guy Standing |
| Publisher: | Pelican an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 224 pages |
| Series: | Pelican Books |
| Genres: |
Moral and social purpose of education Progressive education Left-of-centre democratic ideologies Educational strategies and policy |
'One of the clearest and most important studies to be published on education, worldwide, in many decades' Danny Dorling
Does the education system make better people? Why are so many - teachers and students alike - stressed and dissatisfied? Do we need to revive real education?
Ideally, education is about the pursuit of truth, beauty and morality. But in the last few decades, a perilous fixation with human capital - skills, knowledge and aptitudes required for the labour market - has trampled over curricula, schools and universities. Rather than learning how to think critically about the world, from cradle to grave students are trained to be more effective workers, to make more money, and to serve an hegemonic ideology. Teachers and researchers are pressed to serve those goals.
In this concluding book in his series on the commons, Guy Standing shows us how education - intrinsically a common public good - has been enclosed, privatised, financialised and corrupted, turned into an instrument of societal control, not human emancipation, weakening democracy, not strengthening it. Human Capital charts how the education industry largely serves commercial interests, not its teachers and students, and considers how to revive its lost values, to save society for the common good.
Human Capital features in the following genres: Moral and social purpose of education, Progressive education, Left-of-centre democratic ideologies, Educational strategies and policy
Human Capital is available in Paperback
Human Capital was written by Guy Standing and published by Pelican an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
Human Capital has 224 pages
Yes it is part of Pelican Books series
£11.69