Multiversities, Ideas, and Democracy - Softcover

George Fallis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1442612673 ISBN 13: 9781442612679

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2011

Synopsis

Multiversities are sprawling conglomerates that provide liberal undergraduate, graduate, and professional education. As wellsprings of innovation and ideas, these institutions represent the core of society s research enterprise. This book contends that, in the contemporary world, multiversities need to be conceptualized in a new way, that is, not just as places of teaching and research, but as fundamental institutions of democracy. Building upon the history of the university, George Fallis discusses how the multiversity is a distinctive product of the later twentieth century and has become a centre of intellectual, political, and economic power. He examines five characteristics of our age the constrained welfare state, the information technology revolution, postmodern thought, commercialization, and globalization and in each case explains how the dynamic of multiversity research alters societal circumstances, which leads to change within the institution itself and creates challenges to its survival. Ongoing reappraisal of multiversities is needed, Fallis argues, in order to safeguard them from mission drift. Written from a broad, cross-national perspective, this study establishes how similar ideas are shaping multiversities across the Anglo-American world.

About this title

About the Author

George Fallis is a professor in the Department of Economics and Divison of Social Science and former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at York University.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1442612673
• ISBN 13: 9781442612679
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 475