Education, Labor, and Resistance: University Youth in Turkey Through the Lens of Glenn Rikowski

The long-standing discontent in Turkish universities reached a breaking point with the detention of Ekrem Imamoglu. Students are not only defending a political figure, but also raising their collective voice against the direction of society, the role of education, and the uncertainties of their future. Students are no longer mere recipients of knowledge; they are becoming questioning, active, and resisting subjects. This transformation invites us to revisit Glenn Rikowski’s critical educational theory and Marx’s analysis of labor power.

University students protest at the main gate of Istanbul University on March 19, 2025, in response to the university’s decision to revoke the diploma of the Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor.

Education and the Production of Labor Power: A Capitalist Relation

According to Rikowski, education in capitalist societies is not confined to the transfer of knowledge—it is a space where labor power is produced and reproduced (Rikowski, 2002). Schools, universities, and training programs don’t merely equip individuals; they condition them to be disciplined, competitive, and productive for the market. In this sense, the student becomes potential labor power.

As Marx emphasized in Capital, capital’s need for living labor requires its constant reproduction (Marx, 1867/1990). Education fulfills this function: it shapes labor power necessary for the reproduction of capital. Thus, education becomes not a public right, but an ideological and practical component of the relations of production.

Commodifying Education: Knowledge as a Market Product

Looking at the Turkish education system, we see many developments aligning with Rikowski’s theses: the proliferation of private schools, exam-centered curricula, the rise of private tutoring and publishing industries—all of which indicate a clear commodification of education. This not only weakens equality of opportunity but also transforms knowledge into something measurable and commercialized.

Rikowski (2005) refers to this process as the subsumption of education under the logic of capital. Students become consumers, schools become service providers, and knowledge turns into a product. In this system, critical thinking is devalued, and efficiency becomes the main objective.

Resistance Culture and the New University Youth

However, the recent wave of student resistance in Turkey may represent a rupture in the ideological continuity of this system. Students today are not only expressing demands—they are imagining alternative futures: more egalitarian, free, critical, and participatory models of education. This spirit resonates with Rikowski’s idea of viewing education as a potential site of resistance.

According to Rikowski, education is not merely a mechanism that serves capital; it is also a possible space for social transformation (Rikowski, 2002). Students, teachers, and families can converge around anti-capitalist demands and reshape the educational system. The recent mobilizations suggest that the structural conditions for such a transformation may now be maturing.

Is Anti-Capitalist Education Possible?

Today’s university youth are moving beyond demands to “reform” the system. The issue is not just a fairer exam system or more dormitories. The core problem lies in the subjugation of education to capitalist production and governance. Therefore, any solution must begin with questioning those very relations.

As Marx famously wrote:

“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas.”(Marx & Engels, 1845/1998, p. 67)

Students who challenge these dominant ideas may be initiating not only a political but also a pedagogical revolution.

Conclusion: Education is Not a Space, But a Struggle

University students in Turkey are increasingly becoming the kind of critical, reflective, and transformative subjects described by Glenn Rikowski. This transformation reminds us once again that education is not merely a space of learning—it is a site of struggle for labor, equality, and freedom.

If this struggle moves beyond demands for political rights and directly targets the capitalist relations embedded in education, a new culture of critical pedagogy could begin to flourish in Turkey.

References

Marx, K. (1990). Capital: Volume I (B. Fowkes, Trans.). London: Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1867)

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1998). The German Ideology. New York: Prometheus Books. (Original work published 1845)

Rikowski, G. (2002). Education, Capital and the Transhuman. Information for Social Change, 14, 1–16.

Rikowski, G. (2005). The Production of Labour Power in the Global Economy: The Neglected Role of Education. In M. Cole (Ed.), Education and the Politics of Human Resistance (pp. 149–162). London: Routledge.