Abstract
The contemporary multicultural and secular university in the United States is experiencing an array of value transitions as well as ideological contradictions. The present dilemmas and challenges confronting the academy appear to emanate from the preoccupation with new schools of explanation and interpretation and from arbitrarily defined appropriate speech. In the social sciences and in the humanities, value neutrality and traditional constructs are viewed as strategies for concealing and promoting anachronistic standards of conduct. Faculty interviewed express concern and skepticism about the direction and future of the American university in a postindustrial and a postmodernistic era. Many perceive the university as not assuming a leading role in constructive social change. This results from its absorption with political symbols and selectively perceived meanings of varied cultural interests. Some faculty sense a major transformation in the way the university and its culture are produced and arranged. The social sciences and humanities have the potential for coping with the current paradoxes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agger, B. 1990 The Decline of Discourse. New York: Falmer Press.
Alcoff, L. 1988 “Cultural feminism vs. poststructuralism: The identity crisis in feminist theory.” Signs 13:405–436.
Anderson, A. J., G. Parks, andE. Titus 1992 “The ‘politically incorrect’ librarian.” Library Journal 117 (February 1):59–61.
Aronowitz, S. andH. A. Giroux 1985 Education Under Siege. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey Press.
Aronowitz, S. andH. A. Giroux 1991 Postmodern Education: Politics, Culture, Culture and Social Criticism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Barrow, C. W. 1990 Universities and the Capitalist State: Corporate Liberalism and the Reconstruction of American Higher Education, 1894–1928. University of Wisconsin Press.
Barton, L. andS. Walker, eds. 1985 Education and Social Change. London: Croom Helm.
Bauman, M. andF. Beckwith, eds. 1993 Are You Politically Correct? Debating America's Cultural Standards. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus.
Berelson, B. andG. A. Steiner 1964 Human Behavior: An Inventory of Scientific Findings. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Berger, B. 1988 “Academic feminism and the ‘left.’” Academic Questions 1(Spring):6–15.
Berman, R., ed. 1992 Debating Political Correctness New York: Dell Publishing.
Bissell, C. T. 1968 The Strength of the University: A Selection from the Addresses of Claude T. Bissell. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Blackman, A., J. Reid, and J. Willwerth 1992 “Campus of the future.” Time (April 13):54–58.
Blackwell, J. E. 1987 Mainstreaming Outsiders: The Production of Black Professionals. 2nd ed. Dix Hills, NY: General Hall.
Bloom, A. 1988 The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Blume, H. 1993 “Examining the universality, and merit, of morality.” The Boston Globe (July 25):B38.
Borthwick, S. 1983 Education and Social Change in China: The Beginnings of the Modern Era. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.
Boucher, L. 1982 Tradition and Change in Swedish Education. New York: Pergamon Press.
Bourdieu, P. andJ. S. Coleman, eds. 1991 Social Theory for a Changing Society. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Bowles, S. andH. Gintis 1976 Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reforms and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: Basic Books.
Brett, P. 1992 “To French scholars, ‘le politiquement correct’ is a symptom of America's social breakdown.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 38(June 17):A37-A39.
Cahn, S., ed. 1990 Morality, Responsibility and the University. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Caplow, T. andR. J. McGee 1977 The Academic Marketplace. New York: Basic Books.
Carey, J. 1992 “Political correctness and cultural studies.” Journal of Communication 42:56–73.
Cohn, R. G. 1986 “Derrida at Yale.” The New Criterion 4(May):82, 83, 84.
Coleman, J. 1991 “A quiet threat to academic freedom.” National Review XLII(March 18): 28–34.
Coughlin, E. 1992 “Sociologists confront questions about field's vitality and direction.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 38(August 12):A6-A8.
Dennis, E. 1992 “Freedom of expression, the university, and the media.” Journal of Communication 42:73–83.
Dickman, H., ed. 1993 The imperiled Academy. NJ: Transaction Publishers.
D'Souza, D. 1991 Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus. New York: Vintage Books.
Edel, A. 1990 The Struggle for Academic Democracy: Lessons from the 1938 Revolution in New York's City Colleges. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Elson, J. 1991 “Academics in opposition.” Time 137(April 1):68.
Epstein, B. 1991 “‘Political correctness’ and collective powerlessness.” Socialist Review (July–December)21:13–36.
Epstein, C. 1993 Women in Law, 2nd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Farrell, C. 1988 “Stung by racial incidents and charges of indifference, Berkeley trying to become model integrated university.” Chronicle of Higher Education 34(January 27):36–37.
Finn, C. 1989 “The campus: ‘An island of repression in a sea of freedom.’” Commentary 88:18.
Flint, A. 1990 “Bok assails critics of academe.” The Boston Globe (April 13):1,12.
Funk andWagnalls 1974 “Universities and colleges.” Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia 24: 155–160. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
Gerth, H. andS. Landau 1963 “The relevance of history to the sociological ethos.” In M. Stein and A. Vidich (eds.), Sociology on Trial: 26–34. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Giroux, H. A. 1983 “Theories of reproduction and resistance in the new sociology of education: A critical analysis.” Harvard Education Review 55:257–293.
Gouldner, A. 1963 “Anti-minotaur: The myth of a valuefree sociology.” In M. Stein and A. Vidich (eds.), Sociology on Trial: 35–52. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Gouldner, A. 1970 The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. New York: Basic Books.
Grabmeier, J. 1992 “Clashing over political correctness.” USA Today (Magazine) 121(November):60–62.
Greenberg, D. 1993 “The Goldberg affair.” Ann Arbor Observer (September):51–55.
Hawkins, J. H. 1993 Education and Social Change in the People's Republic of China. New York: Praeger.
Henry, W. A. III 1991 “Upside down in the groves of academe.” Time 137(April 1):66–69.
Hentoff, N. 1992 Free speech for me—but not for thee. New York: Harper Perennial.
Hooks, S. 1988 “An open letter to the Stanford University Faculty Senate.” Partisan Review 55:664–674.
Hoschild, A. R. 1975 “Inside the clockwork of male careers.” In Florence Howe (ed.), Women and the Power to Change: 47–80. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hunter, J. D. 1991 Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. New York: Basic Books.
Human, L. 1992 “Why liberals cannot be politically correct.” The humanist 52:5–8.
Jacoby, R. 1991 “The greening of the university.” Dissent 38:286–292.
Jacoby, R. 1993–94 “Does academic correctness repress separatist or Afrocentrist scholarship?” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 2:40–48.
Kerr, C. 1963 The Uses of the University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kessler-Harris, A. 1992 “The view from women's studies.” Signs 17:794–806.
Kimball, R. 1988 “Guns and other hermeneutical acts' at Columbia.” The New Criterion 6(May):77–79.
Kimball, R. 1990 Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education. New York: Harper & Row.
Kingston, P. 1989 “Bloom's appeal to the american mind.” Tocqueville Review 9:407–411.
Leo, J. 1992 “The politics of feelings.” U.S. News & World Report 112;23–28.
Littlefield, D. 1992 “American Indians, American scholars and the American literary canon.” American Studies 33:95–112.
Minsky, L. 1992 “The politics of political correctness.” Education Digest 58: 31–33.
New York Times 1990a “Rallies opposing gay students disrupt campuses.” 6(May): 51–52.
Nur, M. M. 1986 “The role of research-oriented universities in social change.” Education and Urban Society 19:42–58.
Phillip, M. 1993 “Gay issues: Out of the closet, into the classroom.” Black Issues in Higher Education 10:20–25.
Platt, A. M. 1992 “Defenders of the canon: What's behind the attack on multiculturalism.” Social Justice 19:122–141.
Roby, P. 1992 “Women and the ASA: Degendering organizational structures and processes, 1964–1974.” The American Sociologist 23:18–48.
Rosaldo, R. 1990 “Opening academia without closing it down.” The New York Times 140 (December): P E5 (N) PE 5(L). Section 4, Col. 1.
Rosenblatt, R. 1990 “The universities: A bitter attack ⋯” New York Times Book Review (April 22):3,36.
Rosmarin, A. 1985 “Hermeneutics versus erotics: Shakespeare's sonnets and interpretive history.” Publications of the Modern Language Association 100:20–73.
Rosner, J. 1993 “Discrimination is built into Standardized aptitude tests.” The Long Term View: A Journal of Informed Opinion 1:14–20.
Schlesinger, A. 1992 The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. New York: W. W. Norton.
Schrecker, E. W. 1988 No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities. New York: Oxford University Press.
Searle, J. R. 1990 “The storm over the university.” New York Review of Books 6(December):pp. 34–42.
Solomon, R. andJ. Solomon 1993 Up the University: Re-Creating Higher Education in America. New York: Addison-Wesley.
Strossen, N. 1992 “The controvercy of politically correct speech.” USA Today (Magazine) 121(November):57–59.
Sykes, C. J. 1988 Profscam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Taylor, H. 1980 The IQ Game: A methodological Inquiry Into the Heredity-Environment Controversy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Taylor, J. 1991 “Are you politically correct?” New York vol. 24(January 21):32–41.
Thelin, J. 1992 “The curriculum crusades and the conservative backlash.” Change 24:17–24.
Viadero, D. 1990 “Battle over multicultural education rises in intensity.” Education Week (November 28):11.
Weick, K. E. 1991 “The vulnerable system: Analysis of the Tenerife air disaster.” In peter J. Frost, Larry F. Moore, Meryl Reis Louis, Craig C. Lundberg, and Joanne Martin (eds.). Reframing Organizational Culture. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Wellek, R. 1983 “Destroying literary studies.” The New Criterion (December):4.
Wilkinson, D. 1982 “Black colleges and universities: The components of institutional effectiveness.”
Wilkinson, D. 1991a “The American university and the rhetoric of neoconservatism.” Contemporary Sociology 20:550–553.
Wilkinson, D. 1991b “On exercising restraint: Wilkinson's reply.” Contemporary Sociology 824–825.
Wilkinson, D. 1989 “Revitalizing the American university: A social science renaissance in problem solving.” Social Problems 36:1–13.
Wilkinson, D. 1993 “The reclaiming of culture: In search of sociology.” Culture 7:7–9.
Wilkinson, D. 1994 “Anti-Semitism and African Americans.” Society (September/October): 45–48.
Wilkinson, D. andG. King 1987 “Conceptual and methodological issues in the use of race as a variable: Policy implications.” The Milbank Quarterly 65:56–71.
Wilshire, B. 1990 The Moral Collapse of the University: Professionalism, Purity, and Alienation. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Winkler, K. 1987 “Post-structuralism: An often-abtruse French import profoundly affects research in the United States.” The Chronicle of Higher Education (November 25).
Wilson, R. et al. 1988 “For good or ill, the Reagan presidency has brought profound change to American higher education.” Chronicle of Higher Education 35(November 9):22–28.
Yllo, K. 1989 “Revisions: How the New scholarship on women and gender transforms the college curriculum.” American Behavioral Scientist 32:659.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This paper is a revision of the presidential address delivered in Boston at the 1993 annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wilkinson, D. Transforming the social order: The role of the university in social change. Sociol Forum 9, 325–341 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01466313
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01466313