Note: This article was submitted to CIES Perspectives on January 3, 2019. Although verbally accepted for the Winter 2019 issue, it ultimately did not appear in the double issue (Fall 2018/Winter 2019) that was published on March 1. It remains unknown why the editors of the CIES newsletter did not publish my piece. I have decided to post my piece here in hopes of starting (or continuing, for many members) a conversation about the privatization of CIES.
The CIES 2019 conference in San Francisco is less than two months away. As members begin finalizing their presentations, registering for the conference, and booking flights and accommodation, the leadership of our Society is trying to generate new sources of revenue.
Take the recently published Partnership Prospectus:Want to sponsor the conference keynote address by Jeffrey Sachs, which will be held not in the hotel but in the legendary 892-seat Herbst Theater? Sponsorship will cost over $10,000. If that’s too much, how about a PowerZone charging station where conferees can plug-in between sessions? That goes for $5,000. For only $3,000, you can have your logo emblazoned on a “highly-visible, on-site” TV screen where Twitter posts using the appropriate hashtag automatically scroll. This is supposedly for those who forget to visit the PowerZone but don’t want to miss a single Tweet. Sponsorship of a Running Route Map goes for $1,000 while a single exhibit table runs the bargain rate of $800. Want to purchase something not on the list? Rest assured: custom sponsorship packages are available.
You may be wondering to whom these questions are addressed. The answer is not CIES members but Sustaining Partners, a new category inside the Society to denote external organizations and institutions that want to sponsor anything – even things one likely did not know existed or were needed at an academic conference (Running Route Maps?) – associated with CIES 2019.
Welcome to the dystopian future of CIES, where the search for profit trumps academic association.
Regular readers of CIES Perspectivesmay be thinking that this is not far from the fictitious tongue-in-cheek vision Fran Vavrus outlinedback in the Spring 2016 issue. They would be correct. Vavrus saw the corporate branding of CIES as changing the culture of our Society (which it certainly does and has), and the Partnership Prospectuscontinues this trend under the guise of making“our event more sustainable.”
The reasons why Sustaining Partners are needed, however, remain unknown given that the CIES conference is already run at a profit. Could it be that the CIES leadership wants to generate more money to fund new or better programmatic activities? Or could it be that the increasing costs for the Comparative Education Reviewand intermediary services (outsourced accounting, legal, and management services) have created a need to generate new revenue streams?
Whatever the case, the search for new revenue is beginning to create noticeable inequality. For instance, the cost of attending the conference this year is more expensive than years previous. Whereas early bird registration for members is $235 (on top of the $80 to become a member), it was only $190 in 2012. This year also features “add-on options,” which include pre-conference workshops ($45), program books ($20), and even – yes – the very lecture Sachs will give ($20). In 2012, only a workshop cost of $5 existed. Add these to the costs for accommodation ($259/night) and transportation to San Francisco, and one is likely to spend $2,000 to $3,000 simply to attend the conference. These costs are burdensome by almost any standard (or university conference budget), but overwhelmingly disadvantage attendees who are poor, precariously-employed, or students from fully participating.
The keynote lecture by Sachs – the main highlight in the Partnership Prospectus –is a notable form of structural inequality. Held at a venue separate from the conference hotel, it will hold fewer than one-third of likely conference participants. There is no better way to create a tangible form of discrimination than by limiting the number of seats in the room!
By embracing rampant corporatization and privatization, CIES is on track to creating an exclusive society where only wealthy members can enjoy the full benefits of membership. Turning everything into private property to be bought at the highest price at a conference that already runs at a profit continues to prioritize the bottom line of the Society over the knowledge exchange of its members. As members prepare for CIES 2019, there are questions beyond the Partnership Prospectusthat we must ask ourselves: Do we want to participate in a conference that furthers inequality? Why is a society that is already profitable intent on pursuing neoliberal practices? And what are the political opportunities within CIES to create changes to this state of affairs?