Handbook on Academic Freedom
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Edited by Richard Watermeyer, School of Education, University of Bristol, Rille Raaper, School of Education, University of Durham and Mark Olssen, Department of Politics, University of Surrey, UK<i>‘The </i>Handbook on Academic Freedom<i> paints an extremely disturbing picture of how, globally, academics’ ability to act as critical public intellectuals has been radically undermined by universities’ shift from a collegial to a managerial mode of governance. However, this is not simply a critique of the myriad ways in which academics’ “performance” is now constantly audited and monitored in a way that limits their freedom to perform their proper function, but also a much-needed call to arms.’</i>
- Julian Petley, Brunel University London, UK,
<i>‘For three decades academic faculty have struggled within a neo liberal performance economy to maintain control over their work and ground it socially amid corporate universities focused on their own status as an end in itself. Now the spread of authoritarian states, the turn to more conflictual geopolitics and the new securitisation of science and technology pose more treacherous challenges. Much depends on whether academic freedom in its different variations across the world can ride out the storm. The book is an indispensable guide to this fundamental and vital issue.’</i>
- Simon Marginson, University of Oxford, UK,
An international cohort of leading scholars discuss the historical conceptualisations of academic freedom and explore the extent of its reconfiguration by neoliberalism and economic globalisation. Chapters examine the threats posed to academic freedom by interventionist government, economic fundamentalism, political conservatism and extremism. The Handbook finds that these threats endanger the intellectual ambitions at the core of academic freedom: contesting established ‘truth’ and holding power to account.
Examining a matter of urgent social and political importance which is crucial to the future of democracy and intellectual autonomy, this Handbook is an invigorating read for students and scholars researching academic freedom, free speech and democratic governance in higher education institutions.