The Decline and Renaissance of Universities : Moving From the Big Brother University to the Slow University

Instead of following the __Magna Charta Universitatum__, the declaration of the principles of knowledge signed in 1988 in Bologna, the academic approach pursued in Europe and the other continents over the past 30 years has strictly employed a utilitarian model of higher education. This jeopardizes academic freedom, shared governance and tenure, the three pillars of the long-established model of universities. Scientific conformism and fragmentation, educational bias and authoritarianism are the major drawbacks, together with a poor readiness to meet the emerging challenges in the labor market and technology. In this book, Renzo Rosso presents a new model for countering these developments, e.g. by establishing novel democratic rules for university governance. The __Slow University__ paradigm positions culture and education as essential tools for the long-term survival of humankind. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction (Renzo Rosso)....Pages 1-3 The Resistible Rise of Utilitarian University (Renzo Rosso)....Pages 5-15 The Big Brother University (Renzo Rosso)....Pages 17-59 The Fall of the Utilitarian Model (Renzo Rosso)....Pages 61-78 The Renaissance of Universities (Renzo Rosso)....Pages 79-103 Conclusion (Renzo Rosso)....Pages 105-111 Back Matter ....Pages 113-115