When a University manager says "We are listening."
The phrase "We are listening" is a cliche in the neoliberal University. It is a cliche because of its usage as a Public Relations (PR) terminology in the hands of University managers. A carefully crafted press release, looked over by a team of over ten managers at different levels of the University bureaucracy, will turn to listening as a rhetorical trope. In its recurrence, listening becomes an empty signifier, distanced from its powerful and transformative role as a communicative act. As I have argued elsewhere, the neoliberal University is the PR University. PR being used in its performative role as spin. The understanding of PR by management therefore is reduced to its role in crafting press releases, developing a crisis response team, setting up crisis response events, and developing digital interventions to address the rapidly changing digital opinion environment. In a digital climate where the experience of a student or the grievances of a staff member ca