Steven Brint
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691182667
- eISBN:
- 9780691184890
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691182667.001.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Higher and Further Education
Today's headlines suggest that universities' power to advance knowledge and shape American society is rapidly declining. But this book's author has tracked numerous trends demonstrating their ...
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Today's headlines suggest that universities' power to advance knowledge and shape American society is rapidly declining. But this book's author has tracked numerous trends demonstrating their vitality. After a recent period that witnessed soaring student enrollment and ample research funding, the book argues that universities are in a better position than ever before. Focusing on the years 1980–2015, it details the trajectory of American universities, which was influenced by evolving standards of disciplinary professionalism, market-driven partnerships (especially with scientific and technological innovators outside the academy), and the goal of social inclusion. Conflicts arose: academic entrepreneurs, for example, flouted their campus responsibilities, and departments faced backlash over the hiring of scholars with nontraditional research agendas. Nevertheless, educators' commitments to technological innovation and social diversity prevailed and created a new dynamism. The book documents these successes along with the challenges that result from rapid change. Today, knowledge-driven industries generate almost half of US GDP, but divisions by educational level split the American political order. Students flock increasingly to fields connected to the power centers of American life and steer away from the liberal arts. And opportunities for economic mobility are expanding even as academic expectations decline. In describing how universities can meet such challenges head on, especially in improving classroom learning, the book offers not only a clear-eyed perspective on the current state of American higher education but also a pragmatically optimistic vision for the future.Less
Today's headlines suggest that universities' power to advance knowledge and shape American society is rapidly declining. But this book's author has tracked numerous trends demonstrating their vitality. After a recent period that witnessed soaring student enrollment and ample research funding, the book argues that universities are in a better position than ever before. Focusing on the years 1980–2015, it details the trajectory of American universities, which was influenced by evolving standards of disciplinary professionalism, market-driven partnerships (especially with scientific and technological innovators outside the academy), and the goal of social inclusion. Conflicts arose: academic entrepreneurs, for example, flouted their campus responsibilities, and departments faced backlash over the hiring of scholars with nontraditional research agendas. Nevertheless, educators' commitments to technological innovation and social diversity prevailed and created a new dynamism. The book documents these successes along with the challenges that result from rapid change. Today, knowledge-driven industries generate almost half of US GDP, but divisions by educational level split the American political order. Students flock increasingly to fields connected to the power centers of American life and steer away from the liberal arts. And opportunities for economic mobility are expanding even as academic expectations decline. In describing how universities can meet such challenges head on, especially in improving classroom learning, the book offers not only a clear-eyed perspective on the current state of American higher education but also a pragmatically optimistic vision for the future.
Michael C. Desch
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691181219
- eISBN:
- 9780691184906
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691181219.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
This chapter traces the development of political science after Vietnam, chronicling how the discipline continued to professionalize on the model of the natural sciences. The result was to privilege ...
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This chapter traces the development of political science after Vietnam, chronicling how the discipline continued to professionalize on the model of the natural sciences. The result was to privilege the refinement of method over practical relevance. It was disciplinary professionalism, as much as ideology, which widened the gap between the academic and policy worlds after Vietnam. Thus, a complete explanation for the decline of policy-relevant national security studies must also include the dynamics of academic normal social science combined with the changing international security environment. The chapter then suggests that political science is most useful to policymakers when it takes a problem-driven, rather than method-driven, approach to setting the scholarly agenda for academic security specialists. Important problems—defined in terms not just of internal disciplinary agendas but also the priorities of policymakers and the general public—ought to be the primary focus.Less
This chapter traces the development of political science after Vietnam, chronicling how the discipline continued to professionalize on the model of the natural sciences. The result was to privilege the refinement of method over practical relevance. It was disciplinary professionalism, as much as ideology, which widened the gap between the academic and policy worlds after Vietnam. Thus, a complete explanation for the decline of policy-relevant national security studies must also include the dynamics of academic normal social science combined with the changing international security environment. The chapter then suggests that political science is most useful to policymakers when it takes a problem-driven, rather than method-driven, approach to setting the scholarly agenda for academic security specialists. Important problems—defined in terms not just of internal disciplinary agendas but also the priorities of policymakers and the general public—ought to be the primary focus.
