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Knowledge and Power

Knowledge and Power. The New Politics of Higher Education Hans N. Weiler Stanford University. THESIS: The contemporary discourse on knowledge suffers from a triple deficit. It lacks critical reflection on the fundamental changes in the notion of “knowledge” in the 20 th century.

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Knowledge and Power

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  1. Knowledge and Power The New Politics of Higher Education Hans N. Weiler Stanford University UYK Istanbul 2011

  2. THESIS: The contemporary discourse on knowledge suffers from a triple deficit • It lacks critical reflection on the fundamental changes in the notion of “knowledge” in the 20th century. • It does not recognize the intensely political nature of the production of knowledge. • It does not deal with the necessary changes in higher education. UYK Istanbul 2011

  3. Towards a new concept of knowledge and higher education • Recognizing the profound changes in the conception of knowledge (Part 1) • Understanding the significance of the politics of knowledge through the discourses of development, gender, and democracy (Part 2) • Pointing out the implications for the future of higher education (Part 3) UYK Istanbul 2011

  4. Ashis Nandy and the politics of knowledge “The old, clichéd saying, ‚knowledge is power,’ has acquired a new potency in recent years. For nearly a century it was fashionable to study how interests and material forces of history shaped knowledge. The world that has come into being in the aftermath of World War II seems to have reversed the relationship… UYK Istanbul 2011

  5. …It has forced us to recognize that dominance is now exercised less and less through familiar organized interests, such as class relations, colonialism, military-industrial complexes, multinational corporations, and the nation-states. Dominance is now exercised mainly through categories, embedded in systems of knowledge. … Universities have come to share this new power, for they specialize in handling categories.” (Ashis Nandy 2000, 115-116) UYK Istanbul 2011

  6. 1.1 Challenging the tradition of a “unified science” 1.2 New ways of knowing Part 1 – The changing concept of knowledge UYK Istanbul 2011

  7. 1.1 The “unity of science” and its erosion (1) • Questioning the notion of a homogeneous and uniform concept of knowledge • Sources and manifestations of change • Towards a more differentiated and contingent conception of knowledge • The casualties of change: Objectivity, certainty, prediction, quantification UYK Istanbul 2011

  8. 1.1 The “unity of science” and its erosion (2) • General vs. specific and nomothetic vs. ideographic statements • Explanation vs. understanding • Cognitive, normative, and aesthetic knowledge UYK Istanbul 2011

  9. 1.2 New ways of knowing • Epistemology and the opening of the institutional structures of knowledge production • The rehabilitation of “suppressed forms of knowledge” • A “third culture” between scientific and literary analysis of social reality UYK Istanbul 2011

  10. Part 2 – The politics of knowledge 2.1 Hierarchies in the production and dissemination of knowledge 2.2 Knowledge and power: A relationship of reciprocal legitimation 2.3 The transnational knowledge system and the international division of labor 2.4 The political economy of the commercialization of knowledge 2.5 The politics of knowledge: 3 discourses UYK Istanbul 2011

  11. 2.1 Hierarchies in the world of knowledge • Hierarchies of knowledge: “Higher” and “lesser” forms of knowledge • Hierarchies of knowledge institutions: national and international • Hierarchies within institutions: Knowledge and status • Challenges to established knowledge hierarchies UYK Istanbul 2011

  12. 2.2 Knowledge and power • Knowledge is in need of legitimation, too • Knowledge and power: A relationship of reciprocal legitimation • Literary images of expertise: Ethan the historian (Stefan Heym) UYK Istanbul 2011

  13. The ‘expertization’ of public affairs “As more and more areas of life are ‘scientized’ and taken out of the reach of participatory politics to be handed over to experts, the universities as the final depository of expertise have become a major global political actor of our times. In addition to their other tasks, they legitimize the ‘expertization’ of public affairs and the reign of the professionals.” (Ashis Nandy 2000, p. 116) UYK Istanbul 2011

  14. 2.3 The transnational knowledge system • Global disparities and the international division of labor in knowledge production • International orthodoxies of knowledge and their institutional supporters • Towards a new international knowledge order: “re-drawing the map of world culture” (Böhme and Scherpe 1996) UYK Istanbul 2011

  15. 2.4 The political economy of the commercialization of knowledge • The changing economy of knowledge production • The growing knowledge dependency of economic activity • New alliances between knowledge and commerce: The story of Silicon Valley • The international dimension: GATS UYK Istanbul 2011

  16. 2.5 The politics of knowledge: Three discourses • Development: The role of knowledge in redefining “development” • Gender: The politics and the epistemology of feminism • Democracy: Democratizing knowledge production and the governance of science UYK Istanbul 2011

  17. Part 3 – The politics of knowledge and the future of higher education 3.1 The politics of knowledge in teaching and research: A new agenda for cultural studies 3.2 Disciplines and the structures of academic power: Resistance to change 3.3 Higher education and the changing role of the state: Autonomy and ambivalence UYK Istanbul 2011

  18. Part 3 – The politics of knowledge and the structures of higher education (cont.) 3.4 The politics of knowledge and the assessment of academic quality: Orthodoxy and renewal; accountability and transparency 3.5 Transnational knowledge and national universities: Critically monitoring the process of globalization UYK Istanbul 2011

  19. Ceterum censeo … “It is high time that Western societies change from being cultures of lecturing to being cultures of learning” (Lepenies 1997, 40) UYK Istanbul 2011

  20. Email weiler@stanford.eduWebsitehttp://www.stanford.edu/people/weiler UYK Istanbul 2011

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