Public universities are in crisis, waning in their role as central institutions within democratic societies. Denunciations are abundant, but analyses of the causes and proposals to re-create public universities are not. Based on extensive experience with Action Research-based organizational change in universities and private sector organizations, Levin and Greenwood analyze the wreckage created by neoliberal academic administrators and policymakers. The authors argue that public universities must be democratically organized to perform their educational and societal functions. The book closes by laying out Action Research processes that can transform public universities back into institutions that promote academic freedom, integrity, and democracy.
Author(s): Morten Levin; Davydd J. Greenwood
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 230
Tags: Education, Higher Education, University, Democracy, Action Research
Contents
Dedication vii
Acknowledgements viii
List of Figures ix
Introduction: Democracy and Public Universities 1
Part I: Public Goods, Bildung, Public Universities, and Democracy 19
Chapter 1. Public Goods, Democracy, and Public Universities 21
Chapter 2. Multiple Models and Meanings of Higher Education 37
Chapter 3. Bildung, Academic Freedom, Academic Integrity, and Democracy 54
Part II: Universities as Work Organizations: Stakeholders, Structures, Systems, Steering, Leadership and Anti-Bildung 77
Chapter 4. The Work Organization of Universities: Structures 79
Chapter 5. The Work Organization of Universities: Systemic Analysis 93
Chapter 6. Processes in the Work Organization of Universities: Socio-Technical Systems Design, Networking for Power, and Neo-Taylorism 111
Chapter 7. Leadership and Steering in Public Universities 135 Part III: The Road Forward: Action Research for Neue-Bildung in Higher Education 151
Chapter 8. Action Research as a Strategy for Organizational Change 153
Chapter 9. Practicing Action Research in Public Universities 168
Conclusion: What Difference Could Action Research in Public Universities Make? 194
Bibliography 199
Index 211
