How would Ludwig Wittgenstein have performed in the current South African higher education system?

Abstract

The pressure to perform has migrated from the corporate world into academe. Academics across the globe feel this pressure to perform, often expressed as ‘publish or perish’. I reflect on the rising culture of performativity in recent decades and how it has penetrated South African universities. In doing so, I specifically look at the academic life of Ludwig Wittgenstein (regarded by Anglo-American philosophers as the greatest
philosopher of the 20th century) to begin to deconstruct performativity regimes in South Africa and in particular the NRF rating system.