
End of Academic Freedom
The Coming Obliteration of the Core Purpose of the University
Information Age Publishing
Published on 20. March 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
234 pages
978-1-62396-658-4 (ISBN)
Description
This book is premised upon the assumption that the core purpose of universities is to create, preserve, transmit, validate, and find new applications for knowledge. It is written in the perspective of critical university studies, in which university governance processes should take ideas and discourse about ideas seriously, far more seriously than they are often taken within many of to day's universities, since doing so is the key to achieving this purpose. Specifically, we assert that the best way for universities to take ideas seriously, and so to best achieve their purpose, is to consciously recognize and conserve the entire range of available ideas. Though the current emphasis upon factors such as student headcounts, increased efficiency and job creation are undoubtedly important, far more is at stake in universities than only these factors.
From this premise, we deduce insights and arguments about academic freedom, as well as factors such control and monitoring of the market place of ideas, the structure of information flows within universities, the role of language in university governance, and relationships between administrators, faculty members and students. We identify impediments to achieving the core purpose of universities, including the idea vetting systems of authoritarianism, corporatism, illiberalism, supernaturalism and political correctness. We elucidate how these impediments inhibit successful achievement of the core purpose of the university. In response to these impediments we prescribe relatively autonomous universities characterized by openness, transparency, dissent, and the maintenance of balance between conflicting perspectives, values, and interests.
From this premise, we deduce insights and arguments about academic freedom, as well as factors such control and monitoring of the market place of ideas, the structure of information flows within universities, the role of language in university governance, and relationships between administrators, faculty members and students. We identify impediments to achieving the core purpose of universities, including the idea vetting systems of authoritarianism, corporatism, illiberalism, supernaturalism and political correctness. We elucidate how these impediments inhibit successful achievement of the core purpose of the university. In response to these impediments we prescribe relatively autonomous universities characterized by openness, transparency, dissent, and the maintenance of balance between conflicting perspectives, values, and interests.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Charlotte
United States
Publishing group
Emerald Publishing Inc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
363 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-62396-658-4 (9781623966584)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
William M. Bowen, Cleveland State University, USA
Michael Schwartz, Cleveland State University, USA
Lisa Camp, Case School of Engineering, USA
Michael Schwartz, Cleveland State University, USA
Lisa Camp, Case School of Engineering, USA
Content
Foreword, David F. Forte.
Preface.
Chapter 1. A Brief History of the Purpose of American Higher Education.
Chapter 2. The Core Purpose of the University.
Chapter 3. Understanding Today's Universities: Thought, Language, Behavior.
Chapter 4. The Ins and Outs of Knowledge Formation in University Communities.
Chapter 5. The Vital Function of Ideational Variety in Knowledge Formation.
Chapter 6. Five Great Impediments to Academic Freedom.
Chapter 7. The Great Impediments, Idea Failures, and Their Impacts on Society.
Chapter 8. Surviving the Threats and Emerging as the Storehouse of Ideas.
Chapter 9. A Question of Values: The Promise and Productivity of American Universities.
Notes.
References.
About the Authors.
Preface.
Chapter 1. A Brief History of the Purpose of American Higher Education.
Chapter 2. The Core Purpose of the University.
Chapter 3. Understanding Today's Universities: Thought, Language, Behavior.
Chapter 4. The Ins and Outs of Knowledge Formation in University Communities.
Chapter 5. The Vital Function of Ideational Variety in Knowledge Formation.
Chapter 6. Five Great Impediments to Academic Freedom.
Chapter 7. The Great Impediments, Idea Failures, and Their Impacts on Society.
Chapter 8. Surviving the Threats and Emerging as the Storehouse of Ideas.
Chapter 9. A Question of Values: The Promise and Productivity of American Universities.
Notes.
References.
About the Authors.