Defining Values for Research and Technology
The University's Changing Role
Jay P Kesan editor William T Greenough editor Philip J McConnaughay editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Rowman & Littlefield
Published:16th Nov '06
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£46.00(9780742550261)
Since the end of the Cold War, federal funding for research at American universities has sharply decreased, leaving administrators searching for a new benefactor. At the same time, changes in federal policy permitting universities to patent, license, and profit from their discoveries combined with the emergence of new fields that thinned the lines between 'basic' and 'applied' research to make universities an attractive partner to private industry. This reorientation from public to private funding has created new challenges for the academy. In thirteen insightful and wide-ranging essays, Defining Values for Research and Technology examines the modern research university in the throes of transition. Contributors discuss the tensions of research versus education, public funding versus corporatization, and the academic freedom of open discussion versus the secrecy needed to ensure financial gain. Will universities and their professors pursue industrial imperatives at the expense of traditional academic values, or will they harness the energy of industry to advance a mission of research for the public good? Defining Values for Research and Technology, while acknowledging potential dangers, argues that university-industry partnerships have the potential to both benefit industrial expansion and enrich academic life. In doing so, it raises important points about the connections between 'pure' science and industrialized technology more generally, and the role that policy plays in science. Both those interested in the evolution of the academy and scholars of the history and sociology of science will find something worthwhile within its pages.
A highly readable and equally troubling collection of essays addressing momentous questions about the future of academia: Can research universities afford not to 'follow the money' from public to private sources, and can society afford the long term results if the mission of universities becomes increasingly commercial, political, and shortsighted? There are no easy answers, but the contributors to this volume present both facts and varied opinions that are worth reading by anyone who wonders where the great discoveries of the future are going to come from. -- Harry Lewis, Harvard University, author of Excellence without a Soul
Like it or not, universities have become the centerpiece of economic development strategies throughout this country and most of the world. At the same time, the pressure for institutions to manage conflicts and to ensure access to publicly funded research discoveries and tools has increased enormously. In their introduction and by their collection of topics, authors, and content, the editors of Defining Values for Research and Technology clearly understand the delicate search for an appropriate balance between these competing pressures. This is an excellent and thoughtful work, and I recommend it highly. -- Mark Crowell, Associate Vice Chancellor for Economic Development and Technology Transfer, UNC-CH
Whether you believe that research universities are creating a knowledge-intensive, equitable and sustainable world, or fear they are succumbing to the temptations, corruption, and greed of their sponsors and patrons—or both—you must read these thought-provoking essays. They will energize your search for how universities can save themselves from their own success. -- Lewis M. Branscomb, Adjunct Professor, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California San Diego and emeritus profes
For those who are passionate or even mildly curious about the genius and character of the contemporary research university and the values that underlie it, this volume is a priceless find. It is at once thoughtful, lovingly critical, and at many points absolutely eloquent. -- Stanley Ikenberry, former president, University of Illinois
ISBN: 9780742550254
Dimensions: 239mm x 161mm x 24mm
Weight: 508g
288 pages