Book dossier

The university in chains

by Henry A. Giroux

The University in Chains argues that both the academy and democracy are in peril, that a fundamental assault has been launched on the academy's unfulfilled legacy of democratic education and its present and future role as a democratic public sphere. But the rigid ideological, economic, and religious chains that are now engulfing higher education so as to eliminate critical thought, noncommodified and nonmilitarized forms of knowledge, intellectual engagement with important social issues, and interdisciplinary social formations represent more than an attack on democracy. Such assaults also suggest an attack on politics itself-that is, on those forms of teaching, exchange, dialogue, and social relations that refuse to "methodically eliminate speaking and acting human beings. "The University in Chains makes a case for reclaiming higher education as a democratic public sphere and counterinstitution, one that enables teachers and students to engage in a culture of questioning, a pedagogy of critical engagement, and a democratic politics of civic responsibility.