Lynch, K and Ivancheva, M orcid.org/0000-0003-4066-4074 (2016) Academic freedom and the commercialisation of universities: a critical ethical analysis. Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, 15 (1). pp. 71-85. ISSN 1863-5415
Abstract
This paper explores the cultural and organisational dimensions of academic life that lay the foundations for academic freedom. We briefly review the relationship between university autonomy and academic freedom, the relationship between ethics and freedom and the impact of increased commercialisation on scholarly independence, particularly how the increasing casualization of employment limits the freedom of academics to teach critically and publish freely. We examine the geopolitics of knowledge and how the hegemony of Western thinking frames dominant epistemologies and imposes constraints on academic freedom. We also explore the ways in which Cartesian rationalism underpins contemporary understanding of what constitutes valid knowledge, and how this can and does act as a constraint in what we come to know and study, not least in terms of values but also in terms of how caring (affective) relations impact research and teaching. Our paper highlights the silenced doxa in the organisation of the academy, including the impact of care-lessness on women and primary care givers in particular. We examine the social class biases in how higher education is organised, and how class exclusions are themselves constraints on being an academic or a student in a university. Finally, the paper illustrates the importance of distinguishing between the institutional autonomy of the university, the personal and professional freedoms of individual academics, and each of these from subject autonomy, namely the freedom of scholars to create and maintain new disciplinary fields, especially fields of scholarship that are critical and challenging of prevailing academic orthodoxies.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The authors 2015. Open Access under Creative Commons by Attribution Licence. Use, distribution and reproduction are un - restricted. Authors and original publication must be credited |
Keywords: | Academic freedom; Autonomy; Care-lessness; Tenure; Casualization; Neoliberalism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Education (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 22 Feb 2017 13:08 |
Last Modified: | 22 Feb 2017 13:08 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00160 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Inter Research |
Identification Number: | 10.3354/esep00160 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:112368 |