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This chapter is an attempt to rectify one of the main shortfalls of the constitutive approach of communication (CCO): the absence of neoliberal capitalism in its conception of both communication and organizations. Any theory of the social must at least consider the current social order at hand, which we refer to as neoliberal capitalism. Building on the theoretical premise that communication is a relational practice by which various beings relate to each other through other beings, we will question the character of this relation by stating that, fundamentally, this relation is formed and informed by capitalism. This chapter aims at theorizing a critical approach to CCO in several ways: first by showing that CCO scholars’ interpretation of pragmatism occludes a critical dimension in their analyses; second, by engaging with critical theorizing and its connection points to CCO; and, third, to show how the lack of a critical understanding of neoliberal capitalism is hampering the critical potentialities of CCO.

This chapter highlights the centrality of employability in UK universities and traces how this has come to be the case by looking at the discourse of higher education policies. It contains two vignettes that come from UK and Sweden, which draws upon to cement the analysis as part of a global phenomenon. The chapter provides a historical overview of how employability became central to universities, referring to the example of the UK. It also considers business and management schools as a special case, which provides an opportunity for a special form of engagement and potential platform to challenge the pervasiveness of this discourse. The chapter also highlights academics' idle complicity in furthering the employability agenda by failing to engage critically and imaginatively with this neo-liberal requirement. The Robbins Report identified four key objectives of higher education, one of which was connecting education with the world of work through the development of 'key skills' that students would need in labour market.

This chapter highlights the centrality of employability in UK universities and traces how this has come to be the case by looking at the discourse of higher education policies. It contains two vignettes that come from UK and Sweden, which draws upon to cement the analysis as part of a global phenomenon. The chapter provides a historical overview of how employability became central to universities, referring to the example of the UK. It also considers business and management schools as a special case, which provides an opportunity for a special form of engagement and potential platform to challenge the pervasiveness of this discourse. The chapter also highlights academics' idle complicity in furthering the employability agenda by failing to engage critically and imaginatively with this neo-liberal requirement. The Robbins Report identified four key objectives of higher education, one of which was connecting education with the world of work through the development of 'key skills' that students would need in labour market.