The main challenge for higher education in 2017 is to discern how to educate citizens in a world in which the political philosophy of liberalism, the cornerstone of modern universities, is increasingly challenged by populist and nationalist movements.
Universities are a relatively recent invention in the 200,000 or so years in which humans, in forms we would recognize today, inhabit the planet. The oldest universities such as Bologna and Oxford date back ten centuries and along with other medieval universities were first established to transmit religious dogma and support a world order in which most people would endure a stagnant life of misery in hopes of eventual salvation in the afterlife. Those were indeed times in which societies were ruled by very small elites, nobles and religious leaders, whose legitimacy was predicated on claimed links to divinity or prophets. The Italian Renaissance, borne out of the extraordinary convergence of talent from multiple disciplines and areas of human creativity which the House of Medici sponsored in Florence in the fourteenth and fifteenth century, would begin a process of examination of the powerful ideology of the Middle Ages which condemned most humans to a life of servitude to nobles and preachers. Products of the Italian Renaissance were the Renaissance and Humanism which would, over the following two centuries, lay the foundation for an extraordinarily powerful alternative set of ideas. The ideas that ordinary people had rights, and the capacity to improve themselves and their communities. These ideas are central to liberalism the political philosophy founded by John Locke which gave preeminence to the ideas of liberty and equality, and which is the foundation of the freedoms on which democratic societies are founded: freedom of speech, of press, of religion, free markets, civil rights, democracy, secular government, gender equality and international cooperation.
Three products of liberalism are democracy, public education and the modern university. All of them based on great hopes in human reason, assisted by science, to interpret and transform the world. All of them designed on the premise that the aspiration of salvation should be replaced by the aspiration to improve the world. At its core, the liberal project is cosmopolitan, a global project of humanity advancing together towards a world of greater freedom and justice. Each of these creations of the enlightenment is interdependent with the two others: democracy enables public education, and depends on high quality public education for all, modern universities support effective government and enlighten the public to hold governments accountable to people and to the facts, modern universities depend on good public education, and can in turn contribute to the improvement of education.
Globally, access to public education expanded significantly with the consolidation of nation states and the expansion of liberalism in the 1800s, and again after World War II as a result of the creation of a global architecture to promote the values of freedom and equality, liberal ideas, around the world, reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the United Nations system and other global institutions to advance such rights.
Under liberalism it was assumed that public education could serve democratic political and economic goals with limited trade offs between them. Additional goals such as advancing human rights and modernization were also seen as convergent with political and economic goals. For this reason, most governments advancing education as part of liberalism saw limited trade offs between the goals of education.
The challenges to liberalism from communism and fascism brought alternative goals for public education, challenging the notion that individuals could be free to choose which education to pursue, and emphasizing political and economic goals, as well as downplaying human rights and modernization goals.
The modern research university, chartered by Wilhelm Humboldt in Berlin in 1810, was a product of the liberal project designed to advance truth, through scientific research, the development of rational and critical thought, through education, and the enlightenment of the larger public, through extension. Most universities built since have embraced, to varying degrees, these three goals.
Since the fall of the Berlin wall, the main political challenge to these liberal views came from populism. Populism posits that ordinary people are exploited by elites and challenges the notion of representative democracy with direct participation by the masses. Since direct participation by large numbers in complex societies is impractical, too often populism results in autocratic rule by a leader, who claims to be communicating directly with the masses, unobstructed from intermediary institutions such as political parties, elected representatives to Congress, organizations of civil society, the judiciary or the Press. This notion of direct links between the autocrat and the people undermines the normal division of power and the checks and balances on which democratic government depends. Historically, some political scientists have argued that such autocratic rule of populist leaders can easily give rise to fascism.
Modern populists exploit the following ideas. The first that globalization, and liberal policies, do not benefit all, and that there are important groups of the population who are left behind, and without hope of seeing their conditions improve. They attribute this to elites that are not accountable to those groups, to a model of development that fails to envision a role for these groups which are left behind, and to a state that is captured by administrators and interest groups who advance their own interests at the expense of those of the people. Populists exploit also cultural divides among the population, deep differences in values and worldviews. In the recent presidential election in the United States, these divisions are between the political establishment, which since World War II followed the views of the Hamiltonians and Wilsonians with the older views of the Jeffersonians and Jacksonians. Hamiltonians embraced the cosmopolitan liberal project so that the United States would play a global leadership role in creating a global liberal order to contain the Soviet Union and advance US interests. Wilsonians also advanced a global liberal order in terms of values that would reduce global conflict and violence. They promoted human rights, democratic governance and the rule of law. Jeffersonians believe that minimizing the global role of the United States would reduce costs and risks to the country. Jacksonian populist nationalists, in contrast, believe that advancement in the conditions of American citizens would best pursued delinking from cosmopolitan enlightenment ideals and from the global liberal order.
Populism is therefore a serious challenge to the idea of a universal project to advance freedom, equality and human rights. It is a challenge to the project of globalization and perhaps also a challenge to the idea of representative democracy, with checks and balances that limit the freedoms of rulers. They are also a challenge to the institutions which were invented to advance the liberal project, public schools and the modern university.
What could the challenge from populism mean for public schools and universities?
It would be congruent with populist ideas to seek more power for local groups to define the goals of education, and less role for government and for inter-governmental institutions. Replacing global and national politics with local politics of course does not mean more consensus, as competing ideas exist in local communities as well about the goals of education. Local control may in fact mean more conflict, perhaps with less rules of arbitration. Given that the divisions between cosmopolitans and populists exist in local communities, how will these differences will be resolved? Will the rule of law and expertise continue to play a role? We should expect less trust in and recognition of the authority of governments, experts and elites, including scientists and academics. It is also predictable that we will see a renewed emphasis on identity politics and culture wars in education.
Universities, in so far as they exist to cultivate reason, advance truth and enlighten the public are at odds with the populist worldview. Science and expertise are a problem for populist autocracies that do not value reasoned deliberation or informed understanding of facts as essential to solving controversies.
There are some risks we can expect to emerge from a world of emboldened populism.
The first is a risk to the idea of human rights. If nationalism is the new organizing force, the notion of in group and outgroup is defined by citizenship, not by membership in humanity. Because one of the consequences of globalization has been migration, non citizens will be the first target for exclusion. If cultural wars define the politics of education we should expect to see battles over the rights of cultural and ethnic minorities and contention over who belongs in America or in other nations were populism is emboldened.
A second risk concerns global challenges. The prospects for collective action diminish as the world moves towards national populism, and the goals of education move away from preparing students to understand global interconnectedness and globalization.
A third risk is a breakdown of the institutions that were created to protect freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and basic freedoms, and a breakdown of public education itself. The risk to these institutions of democracy is the risk that populism might evolve into fascism.
The risk of disorder. Lack of trust in institutions, elites and governments, will make the challenge of resolving conflict greater.
Can the institutions created to advance a liberal world order, such as public education and universities, save it?
Since modern universities were created because of the global liberal project to advance freedom and equality, as that project is challenged by populism Universities should renew their civic mission, embracing a new focus on education for democratic citizenship, including global citizenship. This means advancing human rights education, educating about shared global challenges, educating for engaged citizenship, contribute to build the civic sphere, renew their attention to the development of the dispositions and values of their students, as much as their skills and knowledge, boldly provide opportunities to access higher education to students from the most marginalized groups in society, double down on the extension mission to educate the public, and undertake unprecedented efforts to partner with K-12 schools and help improve them.
While these goals are within the reach of what Universities could do, they are not, at present, embraced as priorities by most universities. Whether universities step up in saving the liberal order which gave them life will depend on whether higher education leaders and faculty understand the grave risk facing the project of the Enlightenment itself.
Go here to see the original:
Can Universities Save the Enlightenment from Populism? - Huffington Post
- "NBC Nightly News" - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Writer Rhiannon - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman, prologue - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Antihumanism, Metahumanism ... - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Thoughts on Posthumanism | Larval Subjects . - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Transhumanism | Posthumanism | Future For All - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Posthuman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Posthumanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Posthumanism - February 15th, 2015 [February 15th, 2015]
- Predictions: Who should, will win at 87th Academy Awards - February 21st, 2015 [February 21st, 2015]
- Waking up and smelling the roasted coffee - February 26th, 2015 [February 26th, 2015]
- US-Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy killed - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- Atheist blogger killed in Bangladesh - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- Leonard Nimoy Showed Us What It Truly Means To Be Human - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- U.S. blogger hacked to death - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- The Joy of the Gospel Fills the Heart and Life - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- WorldViews: Why an American blogger was hacked to death in Bangladesh - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- Opinion: Roy died for speaking his mind - February 27th, 2015 [February 27th, 2015]
- Terrorists murder American blogger - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- 'Nobody came to save him,' witness says - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- American religion critic killed, wife wounded in Bangladesh - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- U.S. writer hacked to death in Bangladesh - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- 53 & Grateful - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- 'Apocalyptic ideology' to blame? - February 28th, 2015 [February 28th, 2015]
- Killed blogger defied Bangladesh threats - March 2nd, 2015 [March 2nd, 2015]
- Avijit Roy received death threats prior to visit - March 2nd, 2015 [March 2nd, 2015]
- American writer hacked to death in Bangladesh - March 2nd, 2015 [March 2nd, 2015]
- Time to face facts over extremism - March 2nd, 2015 [March 2nd, 2015]
- feed - Video - March 5th, 2015 [March 5th, 2015]
- As it happened: Chat with Kalpana Sharma, Subhalakshmi Nandi - March 8th, 2015 [March 8th, 2015]
- In the Memory Ward - March 9th, 2015 [March 9th, 2015]
- U.S. blogger critical of Muslim extremists fatally stabbed in Bangladesh - March 9th, 2015 [March 9th, 2015]
- U.S. atheist blogger killed in stabbing attack in Bangladesh - March 9th, 2015 [March 9th, 2015]
- Tabling of hudud bill threatening to tear PR apart - March 16th, 2015 [March 16th, 2015]
- "The Winter Boy" by Sally Wiener Grotta Nominated for the Prestigious Locus Award - March 18th, 2015 [March 18th, 2015]
- REVIEW: The scars of war - Magazine - DAWN.COM - March 22nd, 2015 [March 22nd, 2015]
- Indonesians treated to Sufi, Punjabi folk music - March 25th, 2015 [March 25th, 2015]
- Blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh - Newspaper - DAWN.COM - March 31st, 2015 [March 31st, 2015]
- Louise Palanker: Why Are Boys Ignorant About Feminism, the Need to Text, Sister Fights - April 5th, 2015 [April 5th, 2015]
- Text of Narendra Modis address to UNESCO - April 11th, 2015 [April 11th, 2015]
- PM@UNESCO: Our world is a better place because of UN - April 11th, 2015 [April 11th, 2015]
- Walking for a cause - April 11th, 2015 [April 11th, 2015]
- Thomas Jeffersons torturous afterlife: How Ronald Reagan and the Tea Party try to steal his legacy - April 13th, 2015 [April 13th, 2015]
- Heidegger, Martin - May 16th, 2015 [May 16th, 2015]
- Lhyperhumanisme contre le posthumanisme : article - Revue ... - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Posthumanismus Wikipedia - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Home : Rice University Department of English - January 20th, 2017 [January 20th, 2017]
- Trump's Wall Will Fail in the Era of Post-Humanism - Inverse - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- The Fairly Traded Coffee Party - Patheos (blog) - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- James Ibori inspired David Cameron's comment of Nigeria being 'fantastically corrupt' CACOL - Daily Post Nigeria - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Oscar-Nominated Shorts: Unsung but Worth Your Time - New York Times - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Thinging the Real: On Bill Brown's Other Things - lareviewofbooks - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- The Sanders-Cruz Debate Humane Health Care Or Free Market Fundamentalism? - Huffington Post - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- The Tate dives into the art of David Hockney - The Economist (blog) - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Japanese manga artist Jiro passes away - The Kathmandu Post - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Announcing My New Book - Patheos (blog) - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Calls for contributions to books and special issues of ... - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Open letter to Shehla Rashid, from former AMU Students Union leader - DailyO - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Interview with Scott Blair - Conatus News - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Freedom & Islam 'not compatible,' says far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders - RT - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Humans in Dark Times - New York Times - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- American society headed toward a breaking point - Jerusalem Post Israel News - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Talk utilizes postmodern approaches to explore images of the medieval body - NIU Today - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Sophia Al Maria: EVERYTHING MUST GO at The Third Line - Arte Fuse - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- 'Moonlight,' 'La La Land' and What an Epic Oscars Fail Really Says - New York Times - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Manifestly Haraway - Brooklyn Rail - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Lecturer for Cindy Wool seminar supports 'slow medicine' - Jewish Post - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Post-Truth Trump And Why Humanism Is The Answer To Anti-Facts - Huffington Post - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Acknowledgment is Not Enough: Coming to Terms With Lovecraft's Horrors - lareviewofbooks - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Making Humanism Happen in Nigeria: A labour of Love - Conatus News - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- The Newfound Lionization Of George W. Bush Shows How Far We've Fallen - Huffington Post - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Grapevine: Shimon Peres Day in the Big Apple - Jerusalem Post Israel News - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- The Victim Of Populism Is Democracy - Huffington Post - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- In a robot showdown, humanity may happily surrender - Washington Post - March 10th, 2017 [March 10th, 2017]
- Noted secularist Zuckerman to speak here Monday - Ashland Daily Tidings - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- 'Can we all get along?' Apparently not - Miami Herald (blog) - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Book World: In a robot showdown, humanity may happily surrender - Prince George Citizen - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- What if the problem is simply liberals and conservatives just don't like each other? - Fort Worth Star Telegram - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- Godless flocks grow, attract like-minded - NWAOnline - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Happily God-less clergy say this time, it really is their year; Washington Post uncritically says, 'Amen' - GetReligion (blog) - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]