Higher Faculties: A Cross-National Study of University Culture

(Hardback)

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The novels of David Lodge and Robertson Davies offer amusing insights into the bumbling brilliance of university life, but in their quest to entertain they often leave unanswered questions about the interplay between the life of a university and the social setting in which it either thrives or withers. Here, a veteran of universities in Eastern and Western Europe, the United States, and Canada offers a cross-national sociological analysis of the cultural and political aspects of university life. Interviews with over twenty scholarsseveral of them Nobel laureatesprovide detailed accounts that allow the author to construct a thorough typology of university professors as they live in the existing world of modern sciences and humanities. By linking this typology with various types of social systems, the book focuses on interconnections between unique characteristics of those systems and specific models of scholars. Subsequently, through a series of profiles and case studies, the author constructs illuminating portraits of university life and culture in Poland, England, Japan, the United States, and several other countries.Refining some ideas of Max Weber and Florian Znaniecki, this work explores the increasing world-wide influence of the American (U.S.) style of research and teaching. One of this style's main characteristics, professionalization of the academicwith its focus on sciences and humanities as a careerruns counter to the traditional, European, continental, scholarly ethos that was centered around the concept and practice of the scientific school. While not unequivocally detrimental to scholarly endeavor and creativity, the American domination has some strongly destructive consequences. In the contemporary world, it becomes imperative to look for new ways of making scholars more responsible and responsive in their research and teaching practices. As elaborated in Higher Faculties, the basis for defining their responsibilities lies in the framework of the global ethics.

Reviews

"With the academy under fire over its alleged politicization and lack of productivity, Podgorecki's work is particularly pertinent.... [He] presents a paradigm of the ideal scholar, assesses the degree to which national university cultures approach this ideal, and in interviews focuses on particular scholars at Stanford and Berkeley.... Podgorecki's work is provocative, even irritating, but never dull. Of great interest to academicians, students, administrators, and others interested in the future of higher education."-Choice
With the academy under fire over its alleged politicization and lack of productivity, Podgorecki's work is particularly pertinent.... [He] presents a paradigm of the ideal scholar, assesses the degree to which national university cultures approach this ideal, and in interviews focuses on particular scholars at Stanford and Berkeley.... Podgorecki's work is provocative, even irritating, but never dull. Of great interest to academicians, students, administrators, and others interested in the future of higher education.-Choice

Author Bio

ADAM PODGRECKI is Professor of Sociology at Carleton University in Canada. He is author of over a dozen books, including Polish Society (Praeger, 1994) and Social Oppression (Greenwood, 1993).