Shaping for Mediocrity
Universities and the Cancellation of Critical Thinking
Published on 14. May 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
978-1-915672-32-2 (ISBN)
Description
An insider account of the struggle for the soul of the university.
In 2021, as part of a programme called Shaping for Excellence, bosses at the University of Leicester made redundant numerous scholars in what was simultaneously an attack on academic freedom and trade union organisation.
The authors of Shaping for Mediocrity not only had front-row seats in the campaign against these mass redundancies, they were in the ring - both as targeted employees and as trade union officers and negotiators.
Shaping for Mediocrity tells the inside story of these attacks and the campaign against them. It situates this story within a longer history of struggle to make the university a place where critical thinking is possible, showing how events in Leicester are both reflective of higher education in the UK following four decades of neoliberal "reform" and a particularly egregious instance of the increasingly authoritarian management of public institutions such as universities.
Who makes the university and how? And what is the university for? These questions run through Shaping for Mediocrity. The book provides lessons for anyone who believes that workers have a right to organise, that employees must be allowed to question their employers, and that the university must be a critical institution.
In 2021, as part of a programme called Shaping for Excellence, bosses at the University of Leicester made redundant numerous scholars in what was simultaneously an attack on academic freedom and trade union organisation.
The authors of Shaping for Mediocrity not only had front-row seats in the campaign against these mass redundancies, they were in the ring - both as targeted employees and as trade union officers and negotiators.
Shaping for Mediocrity tells the inside story of these attacks and the campaign against them. It situates this story within a longer history of struggle to make the university a place where critical thinking is possible, showing how events in Leicester are both reflective of higher education in the UK following four decades of neoliberal "reform" and a particularly egregious instance of the increasingly authoritarian management of public institutions such as universities.
Who makes the university and how? And what is the university for? These questions run through Shaping for Mediocrity. The book provides lessons for anyone who believes that workers have a right to organise, that employees must be allowed to question their employers, and that the university must be a critical institution.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Watkins Media Limited
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 130 mm
Weight
369 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-915672-32-2 (9781915672322)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Until 2021, the authors were all employed by the University of Leicester, where several were prominent local union organizers. Gibson Burrell is Honorary Professor of Organization Theory at the Universities of Manchester, Lancaster and York. Ronald Hartz is Vertretungsprofessor for Work, Human Resource Management and Organization at the University of Duisburg-Essen. David Harvie is a deprofessionalised intellectual and co-founder of the Institute for Commoning. Geoff Lightfoot was so dismayed by the behaviour of the management at the University of Leicester that he left academia. He now works for Citizens Advice. Simon Lilley is Professor of Organisational Studies and Management at the University of Lincoln.