Publicness and intellectual work: rethinking academic freedom in the age of impact

Abstract

Murphy problematises academic work in the age of academic impact and emphasises the important nexus of theory and practice in constituting and defending academic freedom. Murphy draws on Weber's ideas of academic freedom as an opportunity to problematise the politics of academic freedom; however, he also acknowledges that in today's universities it is essential to consider how the impact agenda itself affects the capacity to relate theory to practice. The chapter argues that the current debate can gain a great deal from a reappraisal of Weber's ideas and the way in which his conception of academic freedom was a pragmatic solution to what was essentially a political problem. To propose a workable defence for academic freedom, Murphy also draws on Fraser's weak-strong publics distinction to make a case for an institutionalised version of academic freedom.