It is no longer clear what role the University plays in society.
The structure of the contemporary University is changing rapidly,
and we have yet to understand what precisely these changes will
mean. Is a new age dawning for the University, the renaissance of
higher education under way? Or is the University in the twilight of
its social function, the demise of higher education fast
approaching?
We can answer such questions only if we look carefully at the
different roles the University has played historically and then
imagine how it might be possible to live, and to think, amid the
ruins of the University. Tracing the roots of the modern American
University in German philosophy and in the work of British thinkers
such as Newman and Arnold, Bill Readings argues that historically
the integrity of the modern University has been linked to the
nation-state, which it has served by promoting and protecting the
idea of a national culture. But now the nation-state is in decline,
and national culture no longer needs to be either promoted or
protected. Increasingly, universities are turning into
transnational corporations, and the idea of culture is being
replaced by the discourse of "excellence." On the surface, this
does not seem particularly pernicious.
The author cautions, however, that we should not embrace this
techno-bureaucratic appeal too quickly. The new University of
Excellence is a corporation driven by market forces, and, as such,
is more interested in profit margins than in thought. Readings
urges us to imagine how to think, without concession to corporate
excellence or recourse to romantic nostalgia within an institution
in ruins. The result is a passionate appeal for anew community of
thinkers.
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