The Exploding Community? The University Idea and the Smashing of the Academic Atom

Abstract The paper identifies a number of centrifugal pressures which are currently operating on universities and which raise questions about their status as academic communities, so often cited in discussions of the nature of a university. Academic staff conditions of employment are now very diverse, with the increase in numbers of temporary and contract workers. This is bringing about a redivision of academic labour, and significantly affects the nature of academic intercourse and the degree of community that can be expected. Financial considerations mean that departments and individuals now look more to their own interests than to those of the collectivity, and may be forcing universities to alter their management of resources in ways that make a sense of community even more difficult. On top of this is the continuing growth and fragmentation of knowledge which makes the affiliation of academics to their institution or department still more questionable. The author uses the analogy of the atom to explo...