Content providers, distance learning, and the neoliberal university: Degrading resistance to the “most humiliating job in academic career”

In a context where higher education is permeated by neoliberal practices and ideas, distance learning emerges as the most prominent model, reshaping relations between Higher Education Institutions, including business schools, and workers. Previous research on neoliberal universities has examined how workers resist control mechanisms imposed by Higher Education Institutions, but has mainly focused on workplace strategies in face-to-face education, overlooking distance learning. To address this gap, we investigate the Brazilian context of distance learning, focusing on the content provider, a position at the bottom of the model’s hierarchy. We conducted qualitative research to explore how work conditions in distance learning impact content providers’ resistance strategies. Drawing on grounded theory, we identified work conditions shaped by unilateral contracts with abusive clauses, which, combined with isolating environments, limit content providers’ ability to resist. This study contributes to the literature on neoliberal universities by introducing the concept of degrading resistance, highlighting how control mechanisms in distance learning operate through private, unilateral contracts with abusive clauses. These mechanisms, coupled with precarious work conditions, hinder collective forms of resistance and lead content providers to adopt degrading resistance as a last resort, disengaging from work and delivering low-quality content merely to meet deadlines and avoid penalties.