The Emergent Knowledge Society And The Future Of Higher Education

The nature of higher education is by no means fixed: it has evolved over time; different models of higher education co-exist alongside each other at present; and, worldwide, there are demands for higher education to change to better help support economic growth and to better fit chagning social and economic circumstances. This book examines, from an Asian perspective, the debates about how higher education should change. It considers questions of funding, and of who will attend universities, and the fundamental question of what universities are for, especially as the three key funcations of universities - knowledge creation through research, knowledge dissemination through teaching and service, and knowledge conservation through libraries, the disciplinary structuring of knowledge and in other ways - are increasingly being carried out much more widely outside universities in the new "knowledge society". Throughout, the book discusses the extent to which the countries of East Asia are developing new models of higher education, thereby better preparing themselves for the "new "knowledge society", rather than simply following old Western models.

This book reflects on the post-war Western university and its discourses charting the crisis of the concept of the modern university.

Springer is proud to announce that 'Universities in the Knowledge Society' has received the ASHE-CIHE award for Significant Research on International Higher Education. Congratulations to Timo Aarrevaara, Martin Finkelstein, Glen A. Jones, Jisun Jung and all contributors! This book explores the complex, multi-faceted relationships between national research and innovation systems and higher education. The transition towards knowledge societies/economies is repositioning the role of the university and transforming the academic profession. The volume provides a foundational introduction to the concepts of knowledge society and knowledge economy, and these concepts ground the detailed case studies of eighteen systems, located across five continents. Each case study was written by a leading expert in that jurisdiction, and provides a critical analysis of the research and development infrastructure, the role of universities, and the implications for the academic profession. The book describes how nations in various geographic regions and at various stages of economic maturity are restructuring their university systems to adapt to the new imperatives, and provides a cross-case analysis identifying common themes and distinctive features. In telling the story of higher education’s on-going global metamorphosis, the contributing authors place current developments in the context of the university’s historic evolution, survey the changing metrics that national governments are adopting to measure university performance, and describe a new international project, the Academic Profession in the Knowledge-based Society [APiKS] that involved a common survey of academics in more than twenty countries to take the pulse of developments “on the ground” while documenting the challenges confronting knowledge workers in the new economy.

How will higher education and research evolve in the future to produce the high-level knowledge and skilled human capital which underpin sustainable societies? This book explores challenges for the post-knowledge society and economy where major socio-economic change is occurring in tandem with advances in digital technologies. It brings together international authors to discuss scenarios against a background of transformation, including the fourth wave of globalization, demographic shifts, socio-economic inequality, and climate change. Policy-makers, institutional leaders, the academy, students, employers and society at large will find this book topical and thoughtful.

"For far too long, we have waited for a book that recorded the ideas of the modern university. Now, in Gerard Delanty's new book, we have it. Delanty has faithfully set out the views of the key thinkers and, in the process, has emerged with an idea of the university that is his. We are in his debt." Professor Ronald Barnett, University of London "Gerard Delanty is one of the most productive and thought-provoking social theorists currently writing in the UK. He brings to his work a sophisticated and impressively cosmopolitan vision. Here he turns his attention to higher education, bringing incisive analysis and a surprising optimism as regards the future of the university. This is a book which will stimulate all thinking people - especially those trying to come to terms with mass higher education and its tribulations." Professor Frank Webster, University of Birmingham "For too long social theory, the sociology of knowledge and studies in higher education have mutually ignored each other. Gerard Delanty, founding editor of the European Journal of Social Theory, was just the right person to bring them into dialogue. Indeed, 'dialogue' and 'communication' are his watchwords for revamping the institutional mission of the university." Professor Steve Fuller, University of Warwick Drawing from current debates in social theory about the changing nature of knowledge, this book offers the most comprehensive sociological theory of the university that has yet appeared. The famous philosophical conceptions of the university from the Enlightenment to postmodern thought are discussed along with the major writings in modern social theory on the university, such as those of Weber, Parsons, Habermas, Gadamer, Lyotard and Bourdieu. In this far reaching contribution to the sociology of knowledge, Delanty views the university as a key institution of modernity and as the site where knowledge, culture and society interconnect. He assesses the question of the crisis of the university with respect to issues such as globalization, the information age, the nation state, academic capitalism, cultural politics and changing relationships between research and teaching. Arguing against the notion of the demise of the university, his argument is that in the knowledge society of today a new identity for the university is emerging based on communication and new conceptions of citizenship. It will be essential reading for those interested in changing relationships between modernity, knowledge, higher education and the future of the university.

Asia is rapidly developing a wide variety of regional organizations and interactive patterns, reflecting in large part its increasing role in the global economic and political engagements. Higher Education constitutes a distinct sphere of activity within this overall pattern of regionalization.

Since the dawn of the digital era, the transfer of knowledge has shifted from analog to digital, local to global, and individual to social. Complex networked communities are a fundamental part of these new information-based societies. Emerging Pedagogies in the Networked Knowledge Society: Practices Integrating Social Media and Globalization examines the production, dissemination, and consumption of knowledge within networked communities in the wider global context of pervasive Web 2.0 and social media services. This book will offer insight for business stakeholders, researchers, scholars, and administrators by highlighting the important concepts and ideas of information- and knowledge-based economies.

This book examines four theses regarding Asian higher education and development: interplay between cultural traditions, economic development, globalization, and the evolution of the 'hybrid' university. Top scholars evaluate these hypotheses and determine the elements shaping the history and present circumstances of Asia-Pacific higher education.