University expansion and the knowledge society

Abstract

For centuries, the processes of social differentiation associated with Modernity have often been thought to intensify the need for site-specific forms of role training and knowledge production, threatening the university's survival either through fragmentation or through failure to adapt. Other lines of argument emphasize the extent to which the Modern system creates and relies on an integrated knowledge system, but most of the literature stresses functional differentiation and putative threats to the university. And yet over this period the university has flourished. In our view, this seeming paradox is explained by the fact that modern society rests as much on universalistic cosmological bases as it does on differentiation. The university expands over recent centuries because -as it has from its religious origins -it casts cultural and human materials in universalistic terms. Our view helps explain empirical phenomena that confound standard accounts: the university's extraordinary expansion and global diffusion, its curricular and structural isomorphism, and its relatively unified structure. All of this holds increasingly true after World War II, as national state societies made up of citizens are increasingly embedded in a world society constituted of empowered individuals. The redefinition of society in global and individual terms reduces nationally bounded models of nature and culture, extends the pool of university beneficiaries and investigators, and empowers the human persons who are understood to root it all. The changes intensify universalization and the university's rate of worldwide growth. For the university's knowledge and "knowers," and for the pedagogy that joins them together, the implications are many. The emerging societal context intensifies longstanding processes of cultural rationalization and ontological elaboration, yielding great expansions in what can and should be known, and in who can and should know. These changes in turn alter the menu of approved techniques for joining knowledge and knower as one. The "knowledge society" that results is distinguished by the extraordinary degree to which the university is linked to society. But it is also distinguished by the degree to Theor Soc (2007) 36:287-311 which society is organized around the university's abstracted and universalized understandings of the world and its degree-certified graduates.In this article, we examine the contemporary development of the university around the world. Over recent decades, higher education has amassed a large and rapidly increasing population of young persons thought eligible for study, the great majority of whom attend university-level institutions rather than more limited or specialized schools. Now approximately 20% of the relevant age cohort is enrolled in higher education worldwide (Altbach 1998;Schofer and Meyer 2005; UNESCO 2005). Not only are more people involved in tertiary schooling but also more kinds of people are understood to be appropriate candidates (some once stigmatized, as with females o...

Who likes math where? Gender differences in eighth-graders’ attitudes around the world

“…According to Inglehart and others, diminishing concern about material security leads to the rise and diffusion of highly individualistic cultural value systems focusing on quality of life rather than satisfaction of basic human needs. Educational and occupational choices represent more than practical economic investments in these contexts; they are also acts of self-realisation that help define an individual's sense of self (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & Tipton, 2008;Frank & Meyer, 2007;Inglehart & Welzel, 2005;Meyer & Jepperson, 2000;Mullen, 2013).…”

“…23. Berkovitch and Bradley (1999); Bradley and Charles (2004); Charles and Bradley (2002); Charles and Grusky (2004); Frank and Meyer (2007); Wotipka and Ramirez (2008). 24.…”

Tensões e contradições do conceito de organização aplicado à universidade: o caso da criação da USP-Leste

“…A partir de uma perspectiva crítica dessa teoria organizacional é possível afirmar que o processo de mudança da universidade só pode ser compreendido se consideramos os complexos arranjos gerados por sua difusão, em diferentes contextos nacionais e institucionais, vistos como dimensões enraizadas histó-rica e culturalmente MEYER, 2007;MEIER, 2006;.…”

Üniversite ve sosyal çevresi: Niğde Üniversitesi ve Niğde

“…Bu okullardan üç tanesi (bir yüksekokul ve iki meslek yüksekokulu) Bor İlçesi'nde, bir tanesi ise (bir meslek yüksekokulu) Ulukışla İlçesi'nde yer almaktadır. (Frank and Meyer, 2007). Avrupadaki üniversite-şehir ilişkilerinin tarihçesine bakıldığında, görülen genel eğilim şöyledir (Brockliss, 2000): 1200-1800'lü yıllar arasında üniversitenin şehrin içinde yer aldığı fakat ona ait değildi.…”