Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The University in Ruins by Bill Readings ISBN: 0-674-92953-5 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.35 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Canon Debate
Comment: Another aspect of the University scene that Readings explores is the importance of the canon debates in this present time that Yeats foresaw: "The centre cannot hold: Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." In the internecine struggles to control the cultural center of the universities, each separate group that (ironically) gains its status from its marginalized distance from the pre-1960's white-euro-male literary canon tries to define the country's culture through its own canon. The irony is that there is nothing left to control since the University--along with the country--no longer has any interest in the content of any culture. Whatever shiftingpatterns may emerge are simply commercial products of the free market of ideas. Hence the "Americanization" of the University.
Rating: 4
Summary: So what?
Comment: Bill Readings makes an interesting analysis about the modern university, the "university of excellence", which focus more on administration than other areas. However, the book doesn't talk about the role of searching the truth in the University. That was so related to the first universities of the history that I think there is still a lot of space to discuss and talk. I think the problem of the university goes beyond the administrative procedures. What is the goal of researching
Rating: 4
Summary: Faculty will read this book and say, "Ah, yes!"
Comment: Readings describes why he feels that universities are in ruins and what faculty might do about it. He traces the history of the university from Kant to the present time and argues that it has gone through three phases or forms: the University of Ideas (Kant), the University of Culture (Humboldt), and now the University of Excellence (based on measuring quality). His argument is that the U has now become a business, and "excellence" is now being defined in business, rather than in intellectual, terms. Perhaps the most important point that he makes in the book is that he feels excellence has no intellectual reference point.
His conclusion is that there is no turning back. If faculty do nothing, then the option is for them to mourn or to be scorned...unless they make the attempt to look for "open spaces" where they can focus their work on Thinking (he uses an uppercase T on purpose). He especially encourages Thinking that spans disciplines. He also argues that scholars need to be aware that, in the University of Exellence, accounting systems prevail. In pursuing these open spaces, scholars must still be able to provide what he calls "techo-bureaucrats" with the numbers that they need to run their accounting systems.
Sadly, Readings believes that the University has lost its soul and, today, is no longer the pivotal cultural institution that it once was. To the contrary, he suggests that it is now a business that is being evaluated as a business and is in competition with other businesses.
This book will not be an "easy read" for many. Readings' meanders: making a point here and drawing a conclusion there. Some administrators might not finish reading it for that reason. Having said that, anyone who is interested in the present status and future direction of higher education should read this book. It is a sobering and important piece of work.
Frank Fear,
Michigan State University
 |
Title: Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University by Sheila Slaughter, Larry L. Leslie ISBN: 0801862582 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
 |
Title: The Knowledge Factory : Dismantling the Corporate University and Creating True Higher Learning by Stanley Aronowitz ISBN: 0807031232 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Idea of a University by John Henry Newman, Frank M. Turner, Martha McMackin Garland, Sara Castro-Klaren, George P. Landow, George M. Marsden ISBN: 0300064055 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
 |
Title: Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education by David F. Noble ISBN: 1583670610 Publisher: Monthly Review Press Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
 |
Title: Pasteurs Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation by Donald E. Stokes ISBN: 0815781776 Publisher: The Brookings Institution Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
