The Social Production of Knowledge in a Neoliberal Age
The Social Production of Knowledge in a Neoliberal Age

Author: Justin Cruickshank

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-04-04

Total Pages: 415

ISBN-13: 1538161419

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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

Author: Jordan Pascoe

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-05-09

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 1538171848

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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

Author: Łukasz Sułkowski

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-03-02

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1000875946

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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

Author: David Apgar

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-08-19

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 1666958255

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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

Author: Ivan Marquez

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-11-15

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1666968765

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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

Author: Moti Mizrahi

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-04-04

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1538163349

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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

Author: Tanya Fitzgerald

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-07-31

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 3031368010

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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

Author: Richard Hudson-Miles

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-08-19

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 1040109950

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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.

Fields of Knowledge
Fields of Knowledge

Author: Scott Frickel

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2014-07-14

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1783506679

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This issue of Political Power and Social Theory explores the changes in science associated with the rise of neoliberalism since the 1970s. The collected papers together chart an important theoretical agenda for future research in the study of sciencesociety relations in the contemporary era.

The Social Sciences in a Global Age
The Social Sciences in a Global Age

Author: Dipankar Sinha

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2020-11-25

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 1000224252

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The book focuses on the status and role of the social sciences in the current millennium. Drawing inspiration from a range of theorists, it critically examines the key debates on the social science stream and focuses on its ir/relevance in our times in the background of changing state-market dialectics. It specifically scrutinises knowledge politics of the global times to reveal how the neoliberal project aligns and fuses steep economic ‘conditionalities’ with professional cultural parameters of higher academia to constrain autonomy and weaken radical expressions in social science pedagogy and research. Asserting that the humanistic core of social sciences has the potential to resist acts of reducing knowledge to a monochromatic form, the book argues that the social science stream can challenge and resist such hegemonic ambitions. It also identifies and analyses the contradictions, dilemmas, predicaments and false steps of social scientists, and avoids a reductive approach based on the ‘west versus non-west’ binary. The volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of the social sciences in general, and of sociology/politics of knowledge, political theory, political sociology and education in particular.