Exploitation in higher education: A complex systems and structures account

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-6-2026

Abstract

Exploitation pervades the higher education system. Individuals with more power within higher education tend to be advantaged in their interactions with individuals with less power. Despite thorough documentation, protest, and general condemnation, exploitative practices persist. While some scholars suggest bias and neoliberal policies are to blame for the persistence of exploitation across the higher education system, I argue persist exploitation can only be explained by attending to complex structures and systems. Drawing on insights from game theory and social theorists, this article provides a more complete account of the persistence of exploitation in higher education by focusing on structures—networks of relations between various positions, sustained by norms and practices. I suggest exploitative practices in higher education derive from bargaining interactions across power where individuals adhere to the norms embedded in higher education’s hierarchical structure for fear of potential sanction. In these interactions, individuals with less power face greater repercussions for deviating from the norm, leaving them limited options to resist exploitation. These dynamics are further complicated by the complex and dynamic systems with which higher education is intertwined. The interconnectivity of complex social systems ensures bargaining dynamics within higher education simultaneously affect and are affected by other social systems. This makes resisting exploitation difficult and disproportionately costly for individuals who experience disadvantage in multiple social systems. This article introduces insights from game theory and complexity theory to conversations about injustice in education, arguing that addressing long-standing oppression requires attention to complex structures and systems.

ORCID

0000-0003-3805-3856

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