ABSTRACT

Vulnerability theory stresses the role of an active state that is responsive to our common human needs: health, safety, sustenance, shelter, education, and fulfilling work. This article studies institutions of higher education in the US and UK through the lens of vulnerability theory, examining the role of the state to serve the public interest through its colleges and universities. The history of higher education in the US and UK, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, reveals advances in the development of institutions with a public mission committed to broad student access, strong faculty employment rights, and the public domain of research and knowledge. Since the 1980s, however, the imposition of state neoliberal policy has undermined the public mission of higher education through cuts in public funding, rising tuition and student debt, contingent faculty employment, and commercialization of academic research. Such changes have weakened the institutional structure of higher education, leaving universities ill-equipped to resist the most recent political and ideological attacks on intellectuals and progressive social movements that are nurtured in higher education institutions. At the same time, organising by faculty and student unions and professional organisations presents the potential for collective action as a form of resilience, resistance, and social change

摘要

脆弱性理论强调了一种主动状态的作用，这种主动状态可以响应我们的人类共同需求：健康，安全，寄托，住所，教育和完成工作。本文通过脆弱性理论的角度研究了美国和英国的高等教育机构，考察了国家通过其大学为公共利益服务的作用。美国和英国的高等教育历史，特别是在1950年代和1960年代，揭示了机构发展的进步，其公共使命是致力于扩大学生获取机会，强大的教师就业权以及研究和知识的公共领域。但是，自1980年代以来，国家新自由主义政策的实施通过削减公共资金，增加学费和增加学生债务，破坏了高等教育的公共使命，临时教师的聘用，以及学术研究的商业化。这些变化削弱了高等教育的体制结构，使大学设备不足，无法抵抗最近在高等教育机构中培养的对知识分子的政治和意识形态攻击以及进步的社会运动。同时，由教职员工，学生会和专业组织组织的活动，将集体行动的潜力表现为韧性，抵抗力和社会变革的一种形式 使得大学缺乏足够的能力来抵抗最近在高等教育机构中培养出来的对知识分子的政治和意识形态攻击以及不断发展的社会运动。同时，由教职员工，学生会和专业组织组织的活动，将集体行动作为一种抵御力，抵抗力和社会变革的一种形式展现出来 使得大学缺乏足够的能力来抵抗最近在高等教育机构中培养出来的对知识分子的政治和意识形态攻击以及不断发展的社会运动。同时，由教职员工，学生会和专业组织组织的活动，将集体行动的潜力表现为韧性，抵抗力和社会变革的一种形式