Introduction: On Universities and Their ‘Places’

Abstract

A defining feature of a university has always been the ‘universal’ nature of the knowledge that it creates and transmits. Today, within so-called global knowledge societies, some of the claims to universalism arguably become even stronger, in the context of growth in both international labour and student mobility, and as a consequence of new forms of communication technologies reflected, for example, in the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs). The assumptions are that knowledge acquired in one place (or even no place) will ‘work’ in a different place, and indeed everywhere. Yet at the same time, the work of a university must always occur within a context that is necessarily a function of time and place: the current policy framework to which it is subject, the economic situation, the history of the particular institution, and the features of its location or place. And the impact of the university’s work (or at least some of it) will be affected by its location (and vice versa). This book is about universities and places, the opportunities and constraints that place provides and how the placing of universities affects and is affected by other forms of differentiation reflecting institutional hierarchies and functions. It is about the ways in which universities and places shape each other.