Saving the Soul of the University: What is to be Done?

Abstract

Abstract To begin this action-oriented, real-world, strategic, problem-solving chapter, we sketch a futurist good news/bad news scenario. In our scenario’s optimistic version, the twenty-first century becomes the global Democratic Century-the century in which the irrepressible information and communication (ICT) revolution powerfully contributes to the worldwide democratization, civic engagement, and action-oriented social responsibility of universities. In tum, socially responsible and engaged, participatory action-oriented, democratic universities powerfully contribute to the worldwide democratization of cosmopolitan communities and societies committed to the worldwide abolition of poverty and racism. Greatly compressed, woefully oversimplified, that’s our futurist, optimistic, good news scenario.