The Digital University

“In The Digital University, Michael Adrian Peters and Petar Jandrić offer an insightful overview of the impacts of digital media in the work of the university, as well as a visionary manifesto articulating ‘What is to be done.’ This book is essential reading for any scholar concerned about the fate of academic life in these strangely dreadful yet nevertheless promising times.”—William Cope, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, United States
“The Digital University is both a necessary and path-breaking book. It not only redefines within the current technological revolution diverse ways in which knowledge is produced, but also the spaces in which it takes place. In doing so, it provides both a much needed manifesto regarding how the digital revolution within the university is changing the relationship of individuals to themselves, others, and the larger world. The Digital University is an indispensable book for understanding how the university is changing in the age of digital reason, but also how matters of human rights, the mission of education in the twenty-first century, and the political economy of knowledge, present new challenges and call for a new theoretical, political and educational discourse. This book is a must read for anyone concerned about the interface of technology, knowledge, and the future of democracy itself.”—Henry Giroux, McMaster University, Canada
“This is an extraordinarily important book by two extraordinary educators and with an ensemble cast of intellectuals and visionaries. I found the book difficult to put down. The Digital University raises crucial questions for our time: Are we programmed to remain complacent, trapped in the feedback loop of the social machine, where closure is nonexistent, or can we ride bareback the ontologico-technical shift that is arcing throughout cyberspace, further and further from the here-and-now without trigging a non-digital nuclear apocalypse? Can we really harness the mighty powers of multidirectional and interactive practices so that they will lead us to a safe zone of recursive self-improvement, freeing us of oppressive hierarchies and the single technical system of ‘algorithmic capitalism’? Will we use technology to revitalize the intellectual commons and in doing so create a counter-public sphere or will we simply re-capitulate old hierarchies in the name of a new participatory, networked democracy? The Digital University is an experiment in-the-making and a book that must be engaged by educators everywhere.”—Peter McLaren, Chapman University, United States
“Michael Adrian Peters and Petar Jandrić present a highly accessible and inclusive breadth of vision in The Digital University. As such, there is scope to more than simply turn our heads one-by-one, from within our personal digital versions, of Plato’s Cave. This volume has power to challenge our assumptions collectively. We are reminded that any university that merely applies information systems without understanding their nature, their history, or their projected futures, remains a prisoner of the age. Exploring what it really means to be human in the digital context is fundamental if we are to avoid maintaining a public ‘structured ignorance’ that simply encourages the global fast capitalism of higher education. It is the responsibility of all of us in universities to see through, and resist, hegemonic discourses and strategies that are simply reproduced in the digital. A Digital University Manifesto sheds light on what universities should represent to further critical emancipation. I recommend that policy makers, students and educators read it and reflect on the core academic practices which define the modern university.”—Sarah Hayes, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom
“Those seeking a comprehensive, creative account of higher educational life in the age of digital reason will find much to whet their appetites in this book. The Digital University offers a distinctive, engaging portrait of an institution undergoing profound change. Among the many topics considered in this insightful volume are cybernetic capitalism, informational democracy, academic publishing, collective writing, the MOOC phenomenon, and the eco-university. Provocative in the questions it raises, dialogical and inclusive in its scholarly style, and rigorous in its academic foundations, this is a book that will appeal to a wide range of international readers.”—Peter Roberts, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
“The Digital University is an important book that delivers insights and reflections far exceeding what the title promises. The book explores the profound changes in academia, emerging not only from the digital, but equally from the complex social and political forces struggling to shape the university and ‘reason in the digital epoch’. The book stands out through the breadth of issues it scrutinizes, for example, education in the digital age, the eco-university, open access, collective writing, cybernetic capitalism, as well as the depth and thoughtfulness with which it accomplishes this undertaking. The book is provocative and critical, but rather than painting a bleak, dystopian future, the book urges us to take arms against a sea of trouble, and strive for developing an open university characterized by radical openness and creative labour. It is a timely, significant book that calls for both reflection and action.”—Thomas Ryberg, Aalborg University, Denmark