Universities at risk : how politics, special interests and corporatization threaten academic integrity

LC71.3 U56 2008

Turk, James L. 1943-

I. Corporate sponsorship and the loss of integrity — 1. Principles and interest: is the academy an accomplice in a corporate-caused pandemic? / Joanna E. Cohen — 2. University as a corporate handmaiden: Who’re ya gonna trust? / Arthur Schafer — 3. When sponsored research fails the admissions test: a normative framework / Sheldon Krimsky — II. Questioning powerful interests- when bad things happen to good scholars — 4. Collegialty lost / Brenda L. Gallie — 5. Academic stalking and brand fascism / David Healey — 6. Academic freedom at the First Nations University of Canada / Blair Stonechild — III. Infiltrating the academy- the struggle for credibility — 7. Intelligent design and SSHRC: an embarrassment for science in Canada / Brian Alters — 8. Conservative think tanks and the academy: credibility by stealth? / Donald Gutstein — 9. Power and knowledge: the precariousness of free inquiry / Shadia B. Drury — IV. Outside politics inside the university — 10. Tempers of the times: the politicization of Middle Eastern studies / Marcus Harvey — 11. The right’s war on academe and the politics of truth / Kevin Mattson — V. The dangers of a production-driven research culture — 12. Production in the humanities / Mary Burgan — VI. Perils of running a university in the corporate way — 13. Unravelling the fabric of academe: the managerialist university and its implications for the integrity of academic work / Rosemary Deem — 14. From the monkish scribe to the digital age: the university both continuous and transformed / Michael W. Higgins — 15. Restructuring academic work / James L. Turk — VII. Conclusion — 16. Academic integrity and the public interest / Jon H. Thompson. Canadian Association of University Teachers series Includes bibliographical references (p. [358]-408) and index. 416 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

“In Universities at Risk, a group of leading scholars in education, ethics, politics and medicine, among other areas, probe the forces that are threatening the integrity of post-secondary education, from both within and without.

This book delves into the subject of corporate sponsorship, exploring the influences of powerful industries — tobacco and pharmaceutical companies, for example. The book also discusses the struggle for credibility and threat to free inquiry when special interest groups, right-wing think tanks, and discredited popular movements (such as intelligent design) infiltrate academia. Chapters on the middle eastern studies and First Nations universities look at external politics that inhibit intellectual freedom. The more insidious trends toward corporatization and “managerializing” the university also come under scrutiny.

This timely book concludes with a discussion about why preserving academic integrity — despite the clamorous voices of the forces threatening it –is so vital to public interest.”

Contributors include:
Brian Alters
Gary Bauslaugh
Mary Burgan
Joanna Cohen
Rosemary Deem
Shadia Drury
Brenda Gallie
Donald Gutstein
Marcus Harvey
David Healy
Michael Higgins
Sheldon Krimsky
Kevin Mattson
Arthur Schafer
Blair Stonechild
Jon Thompson
Pat Walden