Another University is Possible: Towards an Idea of Meridian University

Abstract

Abstract: Worldwide university politics take for granted the primacy of Global- Northern paradigm. In the last decades, Higher Education policies have been shaped by global devices of neoliberal governance, such as the Competitiveness Global Index elaborated by the World Economic Forum. We examine the ever encroaching HE evaluation policies and illustrate how, in the framework of the current “Evaluative State”, university has been rebuilt according to the priorities of the “neoliberal market agenda”. What is at stake is a “new spirit of evaluation” that mirrors the current “new spirit of capitalism”. Opposite to the neutral and disembodied models of “ideal-academic”, which treat knowledge as a Northern, white, gendered, middle class monopoly, we argue that “academic quality” displays embedded/embodied features devoid of universalistic issues. Taking inspiration from Raewyn Connell (2019), we propose “another possible university”, appointed with less strict epistemic instances, to rethink Higher Education in terms of some fresh “breaking” ideas: “Meridian thought” (Cassano, 1996), “slowness” (Berg & Seeber, 2016), “multi-versity” (Braidotti, 2013), “subversity” (De Sousa Santos, 2018), “decolonization” (Mbembe, 2016), “deparochialization of research” (Appadurai, 2013).

Borrelli D., Gavrila M., Stazio M., Spanò E. (2019) "Another University is Possible: Towards an Idea of Meridian University " Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 11(3), 16-39. DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-3-2  
Year of Publication
2019
Journal
Italian Journal of Sociology of Education
Volume
11
Issue Number
3
Start Page
16
Last Page
39
Date Published
10/2019
ISSN Number
2035-4983
Serial Article Number
2
DOI
10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-3-2
Issue
Section
Special Section