The Democratic Intellect Reconsidered
于Understanding Knowledge CreationSearch for other papers by James Moir in
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This chapter revisits the notion of the democratic intellect in light of the current nature of knowledge production in the academy. The role of the intellectual has become that of a specialist knowledge-worker bound up with income generation. Gone is the notion of the intellectual being someone who shares their knowledge with the wider public. It has been suggested that the intellectual as a professional academic is much more in the business of excluding rather than including others in the activities of ‘intellectual work.’ As van Andel shows rational one-dimensional knowledge production from above has become the dominant epistemological modus operandi.1 This has been exacerbated by the current economic situation in which universities have come to increasingly operate within a market-like structure vying with each other in terms of how they can maximize their commercial interests. This has also extended to considering the higher education as an investment in intellectual capital for the knowledge economy rather than for living in the knowledge society. These developments are discussed in terms of the role of knowledge production within the knowledge society and it is suggested how this needs to be reconnected with the democratic ideal of shared knowledge for the public good.