Knowledge, Democracy and Higher Education

Abstract

In the previous chapter I have focused on the role of Higher Education in the promotion of citizenship, particularly through the lens of European citizenship. In this chapter I look once more at Higher Education, but now in more general terms, asking the question how Higher Education as a specific institution in society might contribute to democratisation and democratic citizenship. I am interested, in other words, in how we might understand the civic role and responsibility of Higher Education. Whereas in many countries around the world there is a strong emphasis on the potential contribution of Higher Education to the so-called knowledge economy, I introduce the idea of the ‘knowledge democracy’ in order to highlight the potential contribution of Higher Education to the democratisation of knowledge in society.KeywordsModern ScienceKnowledge SocietyModern CultureHigh Education SectorEveryday KnowledgeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.