Two Cheers for Higher Education

Two Cheers for Higher Education PDF Author: Steven Brint
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691184895
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
A leading expert challenges the prevailing gloomy outlook on higher education with solid evidence of its successes Crushing student debt, rapidly eroding state funding, faculty embroiled in speech controversies, a higher-education market disrupted by online competition—today’s headlines suggest that universities’ power to advance knowledge and shape American society is rapidly declining. But Steven Brint, a renowned analyst of academic institutions, has tracked numerous trends demonstrating their vitality. After a recent period that witnessed soaring student enrollment and ample research funding, universities, he argues, are in a better position than ever before. Focusing on the years 1980–2015, Brint details the trajectory of American universities, which was influenced by evolving standards of disciplinary professionalism, market-driven partnerships (especially with scientific and technological innovators outside the academy), and the goal of social inclusion. Conflicts arose: academic entrepreneurs, for example, flouted their campus responsibilities, and departments faced backlash over the hiring of scholars with nontraditional research agendas. Nevertheless, educators’ commitments to technological innovation and social diversity prevailed and created a new dynamism. Brint documents these successes along with the challenges that result from rapid change. Today, knowledge-driven industries generate almost half of U.S. GDP, but divisions by educational level split the American political order. Students flock increasingly to fields connected to the power centers of American life and steer away from the liberal arts. And opportunities for economic mobility are expanding even as academic expectations decline. In describing how universities can meet such challenges head on, especially in improving classroom learning, Brint offers not only a clear-eyed perspective on the current state of American higher education but also a pragmatically optimistic vision for the future.

Two Cheers for Higher Education

Two Cheers for Higher Education PDF Author: Steven Brint
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691184895
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 504

Get Book

Book Description
A leading expert challenges the prevailing gloomy outlook on higher education with solid evidence of its successes Crushing student debt, rapidly eroding state funding, faculty embroiled in speech controversies, a higher-education market disrupted by online competition—today’s headlines suggest that universities’ power to advance knowledge and shape American society is rapidly declining. But Steven Brint, a renowned analyst of academic institutions, has tracked numerous trends demonstrating their vitality. After a recent period that witnessed soaring student enrollment and ample research funding, universities, he argues, are in a better position than ever before. Focusing on the years 1980–2015, Brint details the trajectory of American universities, which was influenced by evolving standards of disciplinary professionalism, market-driven partnerships (especially with scientific and technological innovators outside the academy), and the goal of social inclusion. Conflicts arose: academic entrepreneurs, for example, flouted their campus responsibilities, and departments faced backlash over the hiring of scholars with nontraditional research agendas. Nevertheless, educators’ commitments to technological innovation and social diversity prevailed and created a new dynamism. Brint documents these successes along with the challenges that result from rapid change. Today, knowledge-driven industries generate almost half of U.S. GDP, but divisions by educational level split the American political order. Students flock increasingly to fields connected to the power centers of American life and steer away from the liberal arts. And opportunities for economic mobility are expanding even as academic expectations decline. In describing how universities can meet such challenges head on, especially in improving classroom learning, Brint offers not only a clear-eyed perspective on the current state of American higher education but also a pragmatically optimistic vision for the future.

Two Cheers for Higher Education

Two Cheers for Higher Education PDF Author: Steven Brint
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691210284
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
A leading expert challenges the prevailing gloomy outlook on higher education with solid evidence of its successes Crushing student debt, rapidly eroding state funding, faculty embroiled in speech controversies, a higher-education market disrupted by online competition—today’s headlines suggest that universities’ power to advance knowledge and shape American society is rapidly declining. But Steven Brint, a renowned analyst of academic institutions, has tracked numerous trends demonstrating their vitality. After a recent period that witnessed soaring student enrollment and ample research funding, universities, he argues, are in a better position than ever before. Focusing on the years 1980–2015, Brint details the trajectory of American universities, which was influenced by evolving standards of disciplinary professionalism, market-driven partnerships (especially with scientific and technological innovators outside the academy), and the goal of social inclusion. Conflicts arose: academic entrepreneurs, for example, flouted their campus responsibilities, and departments faced backlash over the hiring of scholars with nontraditional research agendas. Nevertheless, educators’ commitments to technological innovation and social diversity prevailed and created a new dynamism. Brint documents these successes along with the challenges that result from rapid change. Today, knowledge-driven industries generate almost half of U.S. GDP, but divisions by educational level split the American political order. Students flock increasingly to fields connected to the power centers of American life and steer away from the liberal arts. And opportunities for economic mobility are expanding even as academic expectations decline. In describing how universities can meet such challenges head on, especially in improving classroom learning, Brint offers not only a clear-eyed perspective on the current state of American higher education but also a pragmatically optimistic vision for the future.

Two Cheers for Anarchism

Two Cheers for Anarchism PDF Author: James C. Scott
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691161038
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
A spirited defense of the anarchist approach to life James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing—one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions. Through a wide-ranging series of memorable anecdotes and examples, the book describes an anarchist sensibility that celebrates the local knowledge, common sense, and creativity of ordinary people. The result is a kind of handbook on constructive anarchism that challenges us to radically reconsider the value of hierarchy in public and private life, from schools and workplaces to retirement homes and government itself. Beginning with what Scott calls "the law of anarchist calisthenics," an argument for law-breaking inspired by an East German pedestrian crossing, each chapter opens with a story that captures an essential anarchist truth. In the course of telling these stories, Scott touches on a wide variety of subjects: public disorder and riots, desertion, poaching, vernacular knowledge, assembly-line production, globalization, the petty bourgeoisie, school testing, playgrounds, and the practice of historical explanation. Far from a dogmatic manifesto, Two Cheers for Anarchism celebrates the anarchist confidence in the inventiveness and judgment of people who are free to exercise their creative and moral capacities.

Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century

Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century PDF Author: Mark Leonard
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007398395
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Those who believe Europe to be weak and ineffectual are wrong. Turning conventional wisdom on its head Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century sets out a vision for a century in which Europe will dominate, not America. This is the book that will make your mind up about Europe.

2 Cheers For Capitalism

2 Cheers For Capitalism PDF Author: Irving Kristol
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business enterprises
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description


Neo-nationalism and Universities

Neo-nationalism and Universities PDF Author: John Aubrey Douglass
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421441861
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"This book offers the first significant examination of the rise of neo-nationalism and its impact on the missions, activities, behaviors, and productivity of leading national universities. This book also presents the first major comparative exploration of the role of national politics and norms in shaping the role of universities in nation-states, and vice versa, and discusses when universities are societal leaders or followers-in promoting a civil society, facilitating talent mobility, in researching challenging social problems, or in reinforcing and supporting an existing social and political order"--

The Politics of Liberal Education

The Politics of Liberal Education PDF Author: Darryl Gless
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822311997
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Controversy over what role “the great books” should play in college curricula and questions about who defines “the literary canon” are at the forefront of debates in higher education. The Politics of Liberal Education enters this discussion with a sophisticated defense of educational reform in response to attacks by academic traditionalists. The authors here—themselves distinguished scholars and educators—share the belief that American schools, colleges, and universities can do a far better job of educating the nation’s increasingly diverse population and that the liberal arts must play a central role in providing students with the resources they need to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world. Within this area of consensus, however, the contributors display a wide range of approaches, illuminating the issues from the perspectives of their particular disciplines—classics, education, English, history, and philosophy, among others—and their individual experiences as teachers. Among the topics they discuss are canon-formation in the ancient world, the idea of a “common culture,” and the educational implications of such social movements as feminism, technological changes including computers and television, and intellectual developments such as “theory.” Readers interested in the controversies over American education will find this volume an informed alternative to sensationalized treatments of these issues. Contributors. Stanley Fish, Phyllis Franklin, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Henry A. Giroux, Darryl J. Gless, Gerald Graff, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, George A. Kennedy, Bruce Kuklick, Richard A. Lanham, Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich, Alexander Nehamas, Mary Louise Pratt, Richard Rorty, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

Wannabe U

Wannabe U PDF Author: Gaye Tuchman
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1459627350
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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Book Description
Based on years of observation at a large state university, Wannabe U tracks the dispiriting consequences of trading in traditional educational values for loyalty to the market. Aping their boardroom idols, the new corporate administrators at such universities wander from job to job and reductively view the students there as future workers in nee...

Unequal Higher Education

Unequal Higher Education PDF Author: Barrett J. Taylor
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813593492
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Unequal Higher Education identifies and explains the sources of stratification that differentiate colleges and universities in the U.S. Taylor and Cantwell map the contours of this system, identifying which higher education institutions occupy which status positions at any given point in time, and explain the factors that support and extend this system of unequal higher education.

Alternative Universities

Alternative Universities PDF Author: David J. Staley
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421427419
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Pairing a critique tempered to our current moment with an explanation of how change and disruption might contribute to a new "golden agefor higher education, Alternative Universities is an audacious and essential read.