Knowledge and the Cosmopolitical Functions of the Modern University

Trevor Norris (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto)

Email: tnorris@oise.utoronto.ca

 

ABSTRACT:

This presentation will focus on competing conceptualizations of the knowledge society, specifically focusing on the modern university as the primary site for the construction and validation of particular forms of knowledge. The discourse of the knowledge and information societies generally refers to a specific type of knowledge: that which is primarily economically and technologically relevant, and can most readily be translated into commercial application. As a result of this thoroughgoing instrumentalization of human knowledge, the modern subject is experiencing a narrowing of possible ranges and forms of experience and understanding. However, I will reveal the political, cultural and epistemological presuppositions behind this discourse, and attempt to expand this notion of knowledge beyond such narrow and instrumental confines so as to suggest possible ways in which the university can fulfill its mandate of facilitating the formation of a cosmopolitan and global civil society.