The novels of David Lodge and Robertson Davies offer amusing
insights into the bumbling brilliance of university life, but in
their quest to entertain they often leave unanswered questions
about the interplay between the life of a university and the social
setting in which it either thrives or withers. Here, a veteran of
universities in Eastern and Western Europe, the United States, and
Canada offers a cross-national sociological analysis of the
cultural and political aspects of university life. Interviews with
over twenty scholars-several of them Nobel laureates-provide
detailed accounts that allow the author to construct a thorough
typology of university professors as they live in the existing
world of modern sciences and humanities. By linking this typology
with various types of social systems, the book focuses on
interconnections between unique characteristics of those systems
and specific models of scholars. Subsequently, through a series of
profiles and case studies, the author constructs illuminating
portraits of university life and culture in Poland, England, Japan,
the United States, and several other countries.Refining some ideas
of Max Weber and Florian Znaniecki, this work explores the
increasing world-wide influence of the American (U.S.) style of
research and teaching. One of this style's main characteristics,
professionalization of the academic-with its focus on sciences and
humanities as a career-runs counter to the traditional, European,
continental, scholarly ethos that was centered around the concept
and practice of the scientific school. While not unequivocally
detrimental to scholarly endeavor and creativity, the American
domination has some strongly destructive consequences. In the
contemporary world, it becomes imperative to look for new ways of
making scholars more responsible and responsive in their research
and teaching practices. As elaborated in "Higher Faculties," the
basis for defining their responsibilities lies in the framework of
the global ethics.
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