Серия "The Clark Kerr Lectures On the Role of Higher Education in Society"

This book is an expanded version of the Clark Kerr Lectures of 2012, delivered by Neil Smelser at the University of California at Berkeley in January and February of that year. The initial exposition is of a theory of change—labeled <i>structural accretion</i>—that has characterized the history of American higher education, mainly (but not exclusively) of universities. The essence of the theory is that institutions of higher education progressively add functions, structures, and...

In <i>Searching for Utopia</i>, Hanna Holborn Gray reflects on the nature of the university from the perspective of today’s research institutions. In particular, she examines the ideas of former University of California president Clark Kerr as expressed in <i>The Uses of the University</i>, written during the tumultuous 1960s. She contrasts Kerr’s vision of the research-driven «multiveristy» with the traditional liberal educational philosophy espoused by Kerr’s...