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Handbook on Academic Freedom

9781788975902 Edward Elgar Publishing

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

Publication Date: 2022 ISBN: 978 1 78897 590 2 Extent: 416 pp

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Critical Acclaim

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Identifying academic freedom as a major casualty of rapid and extensive reforms to the governance and practices of academic institutions worldwide, this timely Handbook considers the meaning of academic freedom, the threats it faces, and its relation to rights of critical expression, public accountability and the democratic health of open societies.

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.

Critical Acclaim

‘The Handbook on Academic Freedom 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.’
– Julian Petley, Brunel University London, UK

‘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.’
– Simon Marginson, University of Oxford, UK

Contributors

Contributors: Tahir Abbas, Eva Aladro Vico, Ron Barnett, Lorenzo Cini, Nesta Devine, Mike Finn, Susanne Gannon, Ayla Göl, Dennis Hayes, Savo Heleta, Liz Jackson, Christian Krijnen, Thierry M. Luescher, Bruce Macfarlane, Mark Murphy, Cary Nelson, Anye-Nkwenti Nyamnjoh, Mark Olssen, Jayne Osgood, Goran Puaca, Rille Raaper, Henry (Hank) Reichman, Kathryn Scantlebury, Georgina Tuari Stewart, Carol A. Taylor, Richard Watermeyer, Anja Zalta

Contents

Contents:

Introduction to the Handbook on Academic Freedom 1
Richard Watermeyer

PART I HISTORIES AND CONCEPTUALISATIONS
1 Academic freedom in the modern British university:
a historical perspective 18
Mike Finn
2 Publicness and intellectual work: rethinking academic freedom
in the age of impact 37
Mark Murphy
3 Academic freedom as radical freedom 52
Christian Krijnen
4 A symbiotic relationship between academic freedom and
liberal democracy: the case of higher education in Turkey 70
Ayla Göl

PART II NEOLIBERALISM/MANAGERIALISM
5 Knowledge, meaning and work: threats to academic freedom
in the world of research 90
Eva Aladro Vico
6 Institutional autonomy, managerialism and the conditions for
academic freedom in Swedish higher education 105
Goran Puaca
7 Academic freedom, institutional autonomy and democracy: the
incursions of neoliberalism 125
Mark Olssen
8 Reframing the freedom to teach 146
Bruce Macfarlane

PART III CHALLENGING UNEQUAL STRUCTURES
9 A nation reimagined: the suppression of academic freedom in Turkey 160
Tahir Abbas and Anja Zalta
10 Whiteness masquerading as academic freedom 177
Georgina Tuari Stewart
11 Eurocentrism, racism and academic freedom in South Africa 190
Savo Heleta

PART IV PERSONAL/POLITICAL REFLECTIONS
12 Toxic times for feminist academic freedom? 206
Carol A. Taylor, Susanne Gannon, Kathryn Scantlebury and Jayne Osgood
13 Academic freedom as experience, relation and capability:
a view from Hong Kong 225
Liz Jackson
14 Academic freedom begins at home 242
Nesta Devine

PART V STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC FREEDOM
15 Student freedom in contemporary universities: England and
Italy compared 252
Lorenzo Cini
16 Academic freedom, students and the decolonial turn in South Africa 269
Anye-Nkwenti Nyamnjoh and Thierry M. Luescher
17 Freedom, fragmentation and student politics: tracing the
effects of consumerism in English students’ unions 288
Rille Raaper

PART VI NEW CONFIGURATIONS
18 The end of academic freedom: two displacements and new ends for it 305
Ronald Barnett
19 Academic freedom and the Israeli‒Palestinian conflict 319
Cary Nelson
20 Academic freedom and extramural expression in the US 336
Henry Reichman

PART VII A CALL TO ARMS
21 Campaigning for academic freedom 356
Dennis Hayes

Index