[csaa-forum] Deakin Anthropology Seminar Series #3: Cris Shore, ‘Symbiotic or Parasitic? Universities, Academic Capitalism and the Global Knowledge Economy’

[Tim Neale]

Announcing the latest seminar in the Deakin Anthropology Seminar Series
2017, presented by Cris Shore, of the University of Auckland (see below for
a description of Cris’ research). The seminar will be followed by drinks at
The Edge, 6/8 Eastern Beach Rd, Geelong.



Date: Thursday 27th April
Time: 4:00-5:30pm
Location: Deakin Waterfront AD1.122 (Also: Burwood C2.05; Melbourne
Corporate Center, enquire at desk; VMP 39384)



TITLE: Symbiotic or Parasitic? Universities, Academic Capitalism and the
Global Knowledge Economy



ABSTRACT: The health of social anthropology as a discipline has long been
connected to its position as a university-based subject. However, changes
in the political economy of higher education, including cuts in public
spending, rising student fees, the privileging of STEM subjects over the
arts and humanities, and the proliferation of new regimes of audit and
accountability, pose challenges for social sciences as well as the
university itself. In countries such as Britain, Australia and New Zealand,
academics are being urged to be more entrepreneurial, to focus on ‘impact’,
and to engage proactively with business and finance in order to create a
more commercially-oriented ‘innovation ecosystem’. The idea of forging a
‘triple helix’ of university-industry-government relations has become part
of the new common sense that now drives government policies for higher
education. But how positive is this supposed symbiosis between universities
and external financial interests? What are the costs and benefits of this
collaboration? And what are the implications for the future of the public
university?



BIOGRAPHY: Cris Shore is Professor of Anthropology at the University of
Auckland. His main research interests lie in the interface between
anthropology and politics, particularly the Anthropology of Policy, Europe,
and the ethnography of organisations. He was founding editor of the journal
Anthropology in Action and is a founder member (and co-President) of the
Association for the Anthropology of Policy, a Section of the American
Anthropological Association. His published work covers a range of issues of
anthropological, theoretical and public policy interest including the
European Union, the State, elites, corruption, ‘audit culture’ and higher
education reform. He currently leads two projects: an EU Centres Network
study of the effects of austerity in the Eurozone, and a Royal Society of
New Zealand-funded project on ‘The Crown and Constitutional Reform in New
Zealand and Other Commonwealth Countries’. His most recent book, co-edited
with Susan Wright, is Death of the Public University? Uncertain Futures for
Universities in the Knowledge Economy (Oxford: Berghahn Press, 2017).



To sign up to the seminar series newsletter go here:
http://eepurl.com/cBm9nb



Best,

Tim.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.cdu.edu.au/pipermail/csaa-forum/attachments/20170403/50831424/attachment.html