Management Education in a Public University in the Economic Periphery: Reflections in Action on UBC in Interior British Columbia

Significant changes in university organisation over recent years have often ignored important challenges concerning the consequences for social and economic development. This paper explores different ways of organising universities. It examines a particular question: what should management education in a public university in the economic periphery entail? The paper relies on the literature on both economic organization and universities, and considers the case of the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Management. It is partly based on the author’s reflections in action. The paper discusses the drawbacks of equating management education with the activities of typical business schools. The relevance of business schools, and the downsides of their tendency to serve and promote large, for-profit corporations as the drivers of a particular variant of free market economy, are both explored. Equating management and business fails to account for much of the diverse reality of organizing, managing and leading social and economic activity in practice, and constrains what might be imagined. It also fails the public interest. The paper draws on Deweyan analysis and advocates a journey of inquiry into what management education in a public university in the economic periphery should entail. It suggests a public interest forum in which diverse citizens, employees, entrepreneurs, leaders, managers, and consumers learn to inquire freely and openly about the future of management education. The paper thereby addresses how to begin planning and shaping the consequences of territory-sensitive university education more generally.