The Social Production of Knowledge in a Neoliberal Age

The Social Production of Knowledge in a Neoliberal Age

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  • Author: Justin Cruickshank
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
  • ISBN: 1538161419
  • Category : Political Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 415

Higher education exposes a key paradox of neoliberalism. The project of neoliberalism was said to be that of rolling back the state to liberate individuals, by replacing government bureaucracy with the free market. Rather than have the market serve individuals however, individuals were to serve the market. The marketisation ‘reforms’ in higher education, which sought to reshape knowledge production, with students investing in human capital and academics producing ‘transferable’ research, to make higher education of use to the economy, has resulted in extensive government bureaucracy and oppressive managerialist bureaucracy which is inefficient and expensive. Neoliberalism has always had authoritarian aspects and these are now coming to bear on universities. The state does not want critical and informed graduate citizens, but a hollowed out public sphere defined by consumption, willing servitude to the market and deference to state power. Attempts to reshape universities with bureaucracy are now accompanied by a culture war, attacking the production of critical knowledge. The authors in this book explore these issues and the possibilities for resistance and progressive change.


The Epistemology of Disasters and Social Change

The Epistemology of Disasters and Social Change

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  • Author: Jordan Pascoe
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
  • ISBN: 1538171848
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 407

An earthquake in Mexico City spurs the rise of democracy. A plague in South Africa lays the foundations for apartheid. A terrorist attack on New York City triggers massive shifts in global security. A global pandemic sets the stage for the largest civil rights protests in generations. Beyond their physical impact, disasters assault our certainty and shape a narrow space to alter the structure of what we believe. That change can lead us toward disinformation and authoritarianism, or it can lead us toward greater solidarity and human rights. It all depends on the choices we make as we live through crisis; on how, in fact, we choose to know each other. The Epistemology of Disasters and Social Change draws on social epistemology, disaster sociology, psychology and feminist philosophy to investigate how disasters function as cauldrons of social transformation, for good and ill. We wrestle with how disasters change us, moment by moment, and provide new strategies to help these tragic eventsproduce positive social transformation, leading to a brighter future during this century of crisis.


Managing the Digital University

Managing the Digital University

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  • Author: Łukasz Sułkowski
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • ISBN: 1000875946
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 224

The reflection on university management is based on the question about the shape of universities of the future. Civic, responsible, sustainable, virtual, digital, and many other universities can be mentioned among the concepts present in the literature. All these names describe an important distinctive feature of a university, which will gain more and more importance in the future. However, given the fundamental importance of the radical change taking place, it seems that the most appropriate name, reflecting the essence of the emerging new formation, is "digital university." This is because of the importance of digital transformation, which has been developing for several decades, bringing deep and multidirectional changes in the areas of technology, economy, society, and culture. It is a disruptive civilizational transition and, although stretched over many decades, it is revolutionary in nature, significantly changing our lives in the Anthropocene. The book has three cognitive and pragmatic objectives: to provide a new perspective on the changing academic organization and management; to reflect on higher education management concepts and methods; and to present an overview of university management, governance, and leadership, useful from the perspective of academic managers, and other stakeholders. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis. com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.


Disagreeing despite the Data

Disagreeing despite the Data

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  • Author: David Apgar
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
  • ISBN: 1666958255
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 157

Disagreeing despite the Data: The Destruction of the Factual Commons examines the pressing problem of factual disagreement between social groups, suggesting that the belief segregation underway in the United States may be irreversible. David Apgar draws on the work of twentieth-century philosophers of science and language—especially Popper, Wittgenstein, and Davidson—to identify three requirements for factual agreement to be possible at all: a pervasive habit of checking assumptions, densely connected communities, and projects that straddle those communities. The growing refusal to test assumptions and individual isolation can be remedied by critical thinking and community building. Factual agreement between groups is impossible without shared projects or other meaningful interaction, however, and a large part of American society has insulated itself from the rest. Without shared projects, communities lose the ability to tell whether they agree or not regardless of the words they use. Disagreeing despite the Data looks at the destructive effects of belief segregation with similar roots in several dissimilar developing countries on a path wide enough for richer ones, like the United States, to follow.


Rorty, Public Reason, and Modernity's Crisis of Critique

Rorty, Public Reason, and Modernity's Crisis of Critique

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  • Author: Ivan Marquez
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
  • ISBN: 1666968765
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 169

Starting with Richard Rorty’s critique of reason, this book discusses modernity’s legitimation crisis in political discourse. Rorty, Public Reason, and Modernity's Crisis of Critique explores the contemporary crisis of rational justification and collective will-formation in our current political institutions and the public sphere, arguing that there is an array of untapped rational resources that should be deployed to justify social, political, and economic views, agendas, and programs. It also identifies limits to the powers of public reason to generate rational agreement and collective will-formation. Using a critical analysis of Rorty’s non-foundationalist perspective as a vehicle to study modernity’s project of rational critique, Ivan Marquez highlights both the strengths and promise and the weaknesses and limitations of liberal and democratic societies—especially within pluralistic socio-cultural contexts—and some possible ways to work within this space of possibilities and constraints. Ultimately, this book can be seen as elaborating a political epistemology view that argues for a redefinition of philosophy and defends a type of post-metaphysical culture.


For and Against Scientism

For and Against Scientism

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  • Author: Moti Mizrahi
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
  • ISBN: 1538163349
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 207

The term “scientism” is used in several ways. It is used to denote an epistemological thesis according to which science is the source of our knowledge about the world and ourselves. Relatedly, it is used to denote a methodological thesis according to which the methods of science are superior to the methods of non-scientific fields or areas of inquiry. It is also used to put forward a metaphysical thesis that what exists is what science says exists. In recent decades, the term “scientism” has acquired a derogatory meaning when it is used in defense of non-scientific ways of knowing. In particular, some philosophers level the charge of “scientism” against those (mostly scientists) who are dismissive of philosophy. Other philosophers, however, embrace scientism, or some variant thereof, and object to the pejorative use of the term. This book critically examines arguments for and against different varieties of scientism in order to answer the central question: Does scientism pose an existential threat to academic philosophy? Or should philosophy become more scientific?


Critical Education Policy and Leadership Studies

Critical Education Policy and Leadership Studies

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  • Author: Tanya Fitzgerald
  • Publisher: Springer Nature
  • ISBN: 3031368010
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 188

This edited collection is a Festschrift to Helen M. Gunter, a leading scholar in the field of education policy and leadership. We draw on the concept of the Festschrift as a collection of papers, or chapters, that recognise, honour, and celebrate the work and contributions of an esteemed academic. Gunter’s work has opened up the field of critical education policy and leadership studies and provoked, if not revitalised, scholarly thinking about the origins, structures, patterns and impact of the field. Gunter’s personal commitment to intellectual leadership of the field and public education resonates across all her scholarly works. The core intention of this unique collection is to recognise Gunter’s scholarly contributions as an academic, practitioner and public intellectual. Invited authors have been asked to reflect critically on ways in which Gunter’s work and intellectual support have influenced their own research, teaching and academic engagement. In their reflections, contributors not only speak to the intellectual work of Gunter but suggest how they have taken this work forward and how this has advanced the field of education as well as the production of knowledge.


Co-operative Education, Politics, and Art

Co-operative Education, Politics, and Art

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  • Author: Richard Hudson-Miles
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • ISBN: 1040109950
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 261

This timely and compelling volume furthers understandings of contemporary art education in international contexts and the position of alternative art colleges in relation to the neoliberal academy and arts economy. Defining the concept of ‘co-operative education’ and articulating its centrality and relevance to the so-called alternative or autonomous art schools it examines, the book presents innovative explorations of its central topics such as art educator identities, the non-profitisation of arts studios, and the Anthropocene while drawing these into relation with important contemporary political and academic concerns such as decolonisation, feminism, and neoliberalism. Chapters showcase a range of international viewpoints, dialogues, and empirical research contributions from notable scholars, renowned artists, and experienced educators. This book will be of use to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students in education policy and politics, arts education, and higher education. Members of professional bodies such as art historians, critics, and curators may also find the volume of interest.


The Anthem Companion to Norbert Elias

The Anthem Companion to Norbert Elias

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  • Author: Stephen Mennell
  • Publisher: Anthem Press
  • ISBN: 1839986662
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 236

The book presents an authoritative assessment of Norbert Elias (1897–1990). It recognizes Elias as one of the major contributors to the development of sociological tradition in the past century and charts the continuing relevance of his conception of sociology for contemporary society. Only toward the end of his career as an academic did Elias’s work begin to attract the attention of English-speaking sociologists, historians, and scholars of cultural studies. The book provides an authoritative and broad representation of Elias’s oeuvre and work inspired by it. While Elias is best known for his major study of The Civilizing Process, the reach and subtle depths of Elias’s conception of process sociology has been cemented more recently by the English-language publication of Elias’s collected work of 18 volumes. The baton of process sociology is being passed on to further generations of sociologists. Chapters from leading contributors outline the nature of the sociological practice of Elias and address fundamental questions of historical sociology, democratization, gender, racialization processes, and embodiment. Later chapters highlight the contribution of process sociology for understanding developments in nation, state and global sociology, criminology, art, and education.


Re-Thinking Science

Re-Thinking Science

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  • Author: Helga Nowotny
  • Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
  • ISBN: 0745657079
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 426

Re-Thinking Science presents an account of the dynamic relationship between society and science. Despite the mounting evidence of a much closer, interactive relationship between society and science, current debate still seems to turn on the need to maintain a 'line' to demarcate them. The view persists that there is a one-way communication flow from science to society - with scant attention given to the ways in which society communicates with science. The authors argue that changes in society now make such communications both more likely and more numerous, and that this is transforming science not only in its research practices and the institutions that support it but also deep in its epistemological core. To explain these changes, Nowotny, Scott and Gibbons have developed an open, dynamic framework for re-thinking science. The authors conclude that the line which formerly demarcated society from science is regularly transgressed and that the resulting closer interaction of science and society signals the emergence of a new kind of science: contextualized or context-sensitive science. The co-evolution between society and science requires a more or less complete re-thinking of the basis on which a new social contract between science and society might be constructed. In their discussion the authors present some of the elements that would comprise this new social contract.