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Fortress Precariat

Part 2 Project 2015
Andrew Hills
University of Plymouth | UK
Based primarily in the city of Katowice, southwest Poland, The University of Silesia is one of the largest higher education institutions in Europe and has outlined plans for a 300mil¬lion zloty (£60m) investment program. Unfortunately despite misgivings from both students and staff the plans produce the prospect of another homogeneous ed¬ucational institution, whose sole role is producing ‘improved human capital’ for the ruthless neoliberal labour market.

Poland recently surpassed Spain as the European leader in fixed term (temporary) con-tracts. Making ends meet through a seemingly endless round of unstable, poor paying, and low satisfaction ‘junk jobs’ is becoming an increasingly common experience for a generation of educated young poles. Theorist Guy Standing has termed those who suffer this reality ‘The Precariat’.

‘Fortress precariat’ serves as polemic against the current plans and aims to highlight the potential of the University and its precariat graduates to deliver a progressive political revolution.

To achieve this the project exploits the campuses ‘legal’ protection from unauthorised authoritarian intervention and capitalises on the universities position as a powerful economic and political institution, whilst simultaneously delivering a series of infrastructures designed to effectively support each stage of the precariat revolution.

Andrew Hills

Tutor(s)

2015
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