8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 1/23
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 2/23
‘This is a most timely book and I welcome it immensely. There has been increasing
social science interest in the concept of time in recent decades but this book is the
first to offer genuinely deep understanding of temporal issues in relation to the
university and the academy. It brings together a host of influential scholars to discuss
how the university has been caught up in a speeded-up world of 24/7 operations
and within an increasingly dynamic and global market for higher education and
research. Contributors discuss critical contextual issues such as the retreat of the
state, weakening of the welfare state, implementation of neoliberal policies and the
technologisation of everyday life in what are a series of major statements on themodern environment of academic work. A fascinating and provocative book that
will be welcomed by scholars and policy makers alike for its insight and perception.’
— John Hassard , Professor of Organisational Analysis,
University of Manchester
‘This volume contains a number of interesting and thoughtful essays using the prism
of time, in all of its aspects, to project the spectrum of changes that are taking place
in contemporary universities and in the lives of their faculty. A theme common
to many of the essays is the triumph of neoliberalism and its impact on universities:how the cybernetic revolution has produced “fast capitalism” and the consequent
need for “fast knowledge”; how the pervasive nature of the market society has
brought new “fashions” to university management and the pernicious practice of
rankings; how the call for greater efficiency and productivity has devolved university
administration to their revenue centers, increasing the tribal instincts of departments
and colleges; and how the commodification of knowledge rewards shorter-term
projects, or “project time”, at the expense of longer-term, reflective intellectual
inquiry, or “process time”. Short timeframes, deadlines, performance goals and
annual reports shape the lives and careers of faculty in unanticipated ways.Academics who read this volume will be forced to reflect on the changing nature
of their institutions and how they spend their time.’
— Robert M. Berdahl, Chancellor Emeritus,
University of California, Berkeley
‘This book certainly gives pause for thought by delving deeply into how universities
function in, through and as time. The contemporary university is changing and in
times of change critical thinking, which also proffers solutions which are not just
slogans, is both vital and necessary.’
— Nigel Thrift , Professor, Vice-Chancellor and
President, Warwick University
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 3/23
‘Universities in the Flux of Time is one of the most insightful among the recent flood
of explorations of just what is happening to scholarship and higher education. The
very image of the scholar was long connected to the search for eternal truths and
to long hours of quiet contemplation, reading and writing devoted to that search.We work now in an era of time-management, time-tabling and constant questions
about “what have you done for us lately?”. What this means for knowledge itself,
for academic work and for the nature of universities deserves both urgent attention
and lengthy thought.’
— Craig Calhoun, Professor, Director and President,
London School of Economics and Political Science
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 4/23
UNIVERSITIES IN THEFLUX OF TIME
Higher education and the institution of the university exist in time, their essential
nature now continually subject to change; change in students, in knowledge, in
structure and in their own communities and those they service. These changes are
accompanied by a quickening of time, leading to a heightened intensity of academic
life. Yet the nature of time in all the contemporary work on the university has
been largely overlooked. This is an important omission and Universities in the Fluxof Time has gathered leading academics whose contributions to the volume raise a
debate as to the influence and use of time in the university. They do this in an
exploration of how these changes are perceived in higher education and how these
affect its temporality from local, national and global perspectives. By dealing with
the time within the university, the book opens new spaces for the development
of the university and civic society.
The book develops an interdisciplinary understanding of the temporal issues of
engaging with the past, present and future of higher education and its institutions,
through consideration of the increased speed demanded for the production of ablestudents and innovative research, to the accountability pressures from central
governments and commerce. Reflecting on these issues in the higher education
sector, Universities in the Flux of Time is split into three parts, each addressing time
and its multiple relationships with the university:
• Past, present and future
• Knowledge and time
• Living with time
This volume will provide essential reading for those on higher education studies
courses as well as a wider audience of managers, practitioners, policy makers,
academics and students from many disciplinary perspectives including sociology,
organisation studies, social psychology and the philosophy of education.
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 5/23
Paul Gibbs is Professor of Education in the Education Department, Middlesex
University, and is currently editor of the Springer Educational Thinkers series.
Oili-Helena Ylijoki is Academy Research Fellow at the Research Centre for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (TaSTI) at the School
of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, Finland.
Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela is a researcher at the Center for Advanced Research
in Education, University of Chile, and a senior lecturer at the School of Psychology,
University of Valparaíso.
Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of
Education, London.
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 6/23
UNIVERSITIES IN THEFLUX OF TIME
An exploration of time and
temporality in university life
Edited byPaul Gibbs, Oili-Helena Ylijoki,Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuelaand Ronald Barnett
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 7/23
First published 2015by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Paul Gibbs, Oili-Helena Ylijoki, Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuelaand Ronald Barnett
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorialmaterial, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been assertedin accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs andPatents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproducedor utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission inwriting from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanationwithout intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book has been requested.
ISBN: 978-0-415-73222-2 (hbk)ISBN: 978-0-415-73223-9 (pbk)ISBN: 978-1-315-73883-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo and Stone Sansby Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 8/23
This book is dedicated to Barbara Adam,
whose creative thinking, eminent texts,
and invaluable contribution within
time studies motivated this book.
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 9/23
This page intentionally left blank
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 10/23
CONTENTS
List of contributors xi
Introduction 1
PART 1
Past, present and future 7
1 The university in the epoch of digital reason: fast knowledge
in the circuits of cybernetic capitalism 9
Michael A. Peters
2 University fashions: on ideas whose time has come 32
Barbara Czarniawska
3 If time doesn’t exist, why are we learning about the past? 46Paul Gibbs
4 Organizational devolution: the old, new and future American
research universities in the age of privatization 57
John Aubrey Douglass
PART 2
Knowledge and time 77
5 When innovation becomes conformist: academic research
in network time 79
Robert Hassan
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 11/23
6 Conquered by project time? Conflicting temporalities in
university research 94
Oili-Helena Ylijoki
7 Different times: temporality, curriculum and powerful
knowledge 108
Sue Clegg
8 The time of reason and the ecological university 121
Ronald Barnett
PART 3Living with time 135
9 Discovery and delivery: time schemas and the bureaucratic
university 137
Peter Murphy
10 Competing narratives of time in the managerial university:
the contradictions of fast time and slow time 154
Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela and Roberto Di Napoli
11 Higher education and an ethic of time 168
Marianna Papastephanou
12 Academic time and the time of academics 182
Angela Brew
Coda: spaces – and rhythms – of time 197Ronald Barnett
Index 199
x Contents
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 12/23
CONTRIBUTORS
Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, Institute of Education,
London. His work, across a thirty-year span, has lain in advancing a social
philosophy of the university and higher education. His latest books are Imagining
the University and Thinking and Re-Thinking the University. He also acts as a consultant
and has recently led a major programme for the UK’s Higher Education Authority
leading to a report, Conditions of Flexibility: Securing a More Responsive Higher Education System.
Angela Brew is Professorial Fellow in the Learning and Teaching Centre at
Macquarie University, Australia, and Honorary Associate Professor, University of
Sydney. Her research is focused on the nature of research and its relation to teaching,
learning and scholarship, models of research-led teaching and undergraduate
research. Her books include: The Nature of Research: Inquiry in Academic Contexts
(2001); Research and Teaching: Beyond the Divide (2006); and Academic Research and
Researchers (2009, with Lucas). She holds degrees in philosophy, sociology andorganisational development.
Sue Clegg is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education Research at Leeds
Metropolitan University. She is a Mellon Visiting Scholar at the University of Cape
Town and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Her research draws on critical realism and feminist theory and she is currently
working on the significance of theorising powerful knowledge in higher education
and the implications for theorising diversity. She is Editor of Teaching in Higher
Education, and plays a major role in the Society for Research into Higher Educationand chairs their Publications Committee.
Barbara Czarniawska is Professor of Management Studies at the University
of Gothenburg, Sweden. She studies connections between popular culture and
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 13/23
practice of management, exploring techniques of fieldwork and the applications
of narratology in social sciences. Recent books in English: Cyberfactories: How News
Agencies Produce News (2011) and Social Science Research from Field to Desk (2014).
Roberto Di Napoli is Associate Professor in Higher Education at Kingston
University London where he is Programmes Director in the Centre for Higher
Education Research and Practice. He has covered many academic and managerial
roles in institutions such as Imperial College London, Goldsmiths (University of
London), the University of Surrey and the University of Westminster. His scholarly
interests revolve around academic and professional identities, with a more recent
focus on those of academic developers.
John Aubrey Douglass is Senior Research Fellow – Public Policy and Higher
Education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of
California – Berkeley. He is the co-editor of Globalization’s Muse: Universities
and Higher Education Systems in a Changing World (2009), and the author of The
Conditions for Admissions and The California Idea and American Higher Education.
His current research is focused on comparative international higher education,
including the influence of globalisation, the role of universities in economic
development, science policy as a component of national and multinational
economic policy and strategic issues related to mass higher education.
Paul Gibbs is Professor of Education at Middlesex University where he is Director
of Research at the Centre for Education Research and Scholarship. His interests
and publications span higher education marketing, happiness, philosophy, pro-
fessional practice and time. He is Series Editor of Educational Thinker , holds editorial
board positions on a number of international higher education journals and has
participated in a number of European projects. His most recent books include
Thinking about Higher Education edited with Ronald Barnett, Transdisciplinary
Professional Practice and Learning and Work and Practice: New Understandings.
Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela is a researcher at the Centre for Advanced Research
in Education at the University of Chile and a lecturer at the School of Psychology,
University of Valparaíso. She has been conducting research in the field of higher
education for some years, focusing on teaching and learning processes in univers-
ities, academic work, academic identity and the role of universities in neoliberal
regimes. She has obtained national research grants and collaborates with different
international research networks in higher education.
Robert Hassan teaches media and communication at the University of Melbourne.
He writes at the intersection of information technologies, politics and time. He
has published widely in the field and his latest book is The Age of Distraction (2012).
Hassan is Editor of Time & Society.
xii Contributors
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 14/23
Peter Murphy is Professor of Arts and Society at James Cook University. He is
the author of The Collective Imagination (2012), co-author of Imagination (2010),
Global Creation (2010) and Creativity and the Global Knowledge Economy (2009),
co-editor of Aesthetic Capitalism (2014) and author of Universities and InnovationEconomies (forthcoming).
Marianna Papastephanou has studied and taught at the University of Cardiff, UK.
She has also studied in Berlin, Germany. She is currently teaching Philosophy of
Education in the Department of Education at the University of Cyprus. Her research
interests and writings include political philosophy, the ‘modern vs post-modern’
divide, utopia, the Frankfurt School and epistemological, linguistic and ethical issues
in education.
Michael A. Peters is Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education at the
University of Waikato (New Zealand). He is the executive editor of Educational
Philosophy and Theory, and founding editor of Policy Futures in Education, E-Learning
and Digital Media and Knowledge Cultures. His interests are in education, philosophy
and science, and his most recent books include: Citizenship, Law and Identity: Prospects
of a Liberal Cosmopolitan Order (2014), Education, Science and Knowledge Capitalism:
Creativity and the Promise of Openness (2013) and The New Paradigm of Development:
Education, Knowledge Economy and Digital Futures (2013).
Oili-Helena Ylijoki works as an Academy Research Fellow at the Research Centre
for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (TaSTI), the School
of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, Finland. She is also a
docent of social psychology at the same university. Her research interests focus on
higher education research, time studies and science studies. She has investigated
temporal perspectives in academic work and identity building, disciplinary cultures
and student socialisation, and changing modes of research ideals and practices.
Her current research project is entitled ‘Timescapes of knowledge production:a temporal approach to academic cultures and identities’.
Contributors xiii
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 15/23
This page intentionally left blank
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 16/23
INTRODUCTION
Beginnings
‘I just don’t have enough time’; ‘I am overloaded with demands’; ‘Time flashes
by’. Such phrases about time are commonplaces of everyday life and, not
surprisingly, such sentiments too are not infrequently part of university life today;
and across the world. And yet the matter has not been much studied. By and large,while it has become a key element within universities, academic time has only
recently become a topic of systematic inquiry. This book, therefore, aims to add
to our understanding of time in the academy, bringing together scholars from around
the world each with a distinctive perspective on the matter.
The issue of academic time has taken on its present heightened presence
only recently within the academy. And this recent emergence of academic time
as a significant matter is explicable; explicable in the ways in which the university
has been caught up in massive shifts in the wider world. We shall discuss those
underlying forces very shortly but it might be helpful first to stand back and putthis matter of time into a larger context.
Human beings and time
Time is an eternal, philosophical and existential topic, rooted in the human
condition. It provides order to an otherwise amorphous life and, in the process,
provides boundaries and constraints. Time even reflects aspirations to better
understand the finitude of one’s life and to gain some form of immortality (Adam,
2004). Time constitutes a sine qua non condition of human beings. We exist intime and organize our existence and activities around time. Time is present in us
and around us but we are not always conscious of it (for example, when we conduct
mechanical or everyday tasks). It lies often in our sub-conscious but, at the same
time might become an object of reflection and understanding.
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 17/23
There are some key distinctions that can immediately help us to understand
time. Time has an objective character: clock time, a powerful human invention,
is real and bears in on life, including academic life, in a serious way. Research
deadlines and teaching timetables impose themselves on both staff and students.But time has also a subjective character, rooted in felt experiences: qualifiers such
as ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ are testimony in part to this felt nature of time. Time may also
be felt collectively, whether in informal groups or organizations: one academic
institution may have quite a different pace and rhythm from another. And it may
also be sensed individually, with individuals varying in the way in which they
experience the same temporal situation: one member of academic staff may relish
the dynamism of the email-laden day while another may feel it to be oppressive.
And time is intimately implied in the idea of history, with its intertwined dimensions
of past, present and future. Universities have their own time profiles, with their past, their presents and their futures, a time horizon that is always moving. All of
these dimensions of time will make their appearance in the chapters of this book,
but they are worthy of a little further examination here.
Time and history
The notions and experiences of contemporary time differ from periods past and
the likely times of the future. Time is objectively in flux but how it is understood
and experienced has differed too. Historians have recognized this through their discussion of the periodization of time and the chapters here situate time against
this horizon of historical time. The temporality of the history of the university can
be found in the interlocking notion of historical time and our intellectual history.
Tracing the passing of time historically, a new type of present may be detected
from that of the ancients, one not determined by a continuation of the ways of
ancient past but by ways that began to see a discontinuity between the past and
the present. This discontinuity was evident in the Renaissance where the ideas of
the modern were seen in opposition to those of the Middle Ages. Yet time remained
tied to a past, not the immediate past but to the achievement of the Ancients.The Enlightenment that followed changed this in two major related respects.
First, the idea emerged that time was abstract and not God given and second, as
a consequence of escaping from the eschatology of church teaching, the idea arose
that there was a future, empty, to be shaped (rather than predestined) that could
be intended and filled by humanity for its own purpose. The appearance of time
and temporality in opposition to tradition was the beginning of what might be
termed modernity and the growth of secular self-determination. It saw not just
the understanding of given phenomena but the realization of a power to change
things; all things.
The post-Enlightenment period, that of modernity and time of production,
nurtured social change and revolution but also time itself became reflexive upon
itself; it broke from the ever recurring present and offered new ways of being.
With the ageing of modernity, however, new temporal challenges emerged as the
2 Introduction
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 18/23
speed of change increasingly accelerated and the belief in incessant progress and
improvement begun to erode: for instance, the notion of an empty future to be
exploited for the interests of the present have created ethical problems as to the
kind of future we are leaving for our successors to struggle with (Adam and Groves,2007). It is this epoch of difference where change occurs and then continues to
contribute to change with its own moving vortex that concerns us here, albeit in
relation to the university. The new time, the present time, places a higher value
on the present over the past – with, for example, a historical myopia in higher
education planning and policy – and opens up an indeterminate future. It creates
a desire for the new and a dismissal of even the modern history of universities, let
alone their more distant past.
Much has been written about modernity, post-modernity and the ongoing
periodization within them. Such a discussion is not the purpose of our book butwithout a concept of modernity’s place in history, and an accompanying sense of
the historical periodization of contemporary university, it is difficult to make sense
of the studies of time and the university that are included in this book.
Contemporary time and universities
If we situate the analysis of time and the university in the current societal context,
there are several facts and factors that surely prompt a sense of time as a crucial
topic. Among them are the rapid and profound financial transformations that haveled to a global market (in which one part affects and is affected by other parts)
contributing to its volatility and consumerism (Gibbs, 2009), and affecting work
patterns and conditions; the retreat of the state and the diminishing of the welfare
state, and the implementation of neoliberal policies in which the private sector and
a sense of individual well-being are gaining track; the development of technology
and the technologization of everyday life and its facilitation of rapid and instant
interactions that allow new communication processes (in both synchronic and
diachronic ways); population growth and the occurrence of new diseases, natural
disasters, wars and terrorist assaults (within and among countries); and a rapidstrengthening of stratification in the world (split between the north and the south)
and within countries. As a consequence, acceleration processes in the current society,
lack of time, compression of time and time famine are key problems at all levels
of social activity. With increasing speed, new paradoxes are emerging such as
maximal acceleration leading to deceleration, and the aim to total control over
time results in a loss of control.
Whatever definition/approach to time we take and the factors we consider, time
is a topic that is a part not only of our existence but also an object of our scrutiny
and this book aims to analyse time in specific contexts and circumstances.Particularly, we are interested in what is being experienced in present-day
universities.
In academia, time has been taken as a self-evident matter, only rarely brought
into the focus of inquiry. However, over the past decades an interest in time has
Introduction 3
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 19/23
gradually become blooming in social sciences, including higher education
studies. This has happened at the same time as time has turned out to be an acute
societal problem and has affected multiple environments and contexts, including
academic work and universities. In particular, the internet age has brought massivetemporal changes. The university is itself now a 24/7 setting and a speeded-up
world. These are real changes in the structure of academic life. And, in turn, the
experiences of academic time are also undergoing radical change as, for instance,
academic time intrudes into personal and family time and concerns grow about
work-life balance.
Against this background, this book analyses time as a dynamic process in
contemporary universities giving insights and proposing new ideas about the
experience of academic time. It is a deliberate investigation into how we might
try to explain the current obsession with contemporary change, by the ‘velocityof change’ itself, of globalization, of expansion and contraction of time and by the
progressive erosion of foundational disciplines within the university. The analyses
of the chapters here include experiences of time within academia (either in a more
individual/existential way or in a collective way) and within its diverse levels (groups,
units, and institutions) and in carrying out the key tasks of research, teaching and
administration; and in the relation between academia and the broader society.
This book
This book has grown out of a concern about the future of academia. Although
drawing upon a variety of traditions of thought, all chapters share an interest in
scrutinizing academic time and the tensions that it is generating in the current
market-driven higher education context. Through this temporal lens the book offers
critical insights into current practices and the possibility of glimpsing ideals in
teaching and learning, knowledge creation, academic work, identity building, and
the overall ethos of academia. How might the coming of fast, linear and fragmented
time be changing these different facets of the university? Is academia a subcontractor for industry and business, supplying faster and faster new knowledge and a
workforce adept at handling fast time and incessant time? What alternative
temporalities might there be and how might space be created for them?
The book is structured in three parts: Past, present and future; Knowledge and
time; and Living with time. Each part addresses time and its multiple relationships
with the university but each from a particular viewpoint. The section ‘Past, present
and future’ helps us to contextualize the present of the universities taking into
account the past and opening ideas to understand the future of the universities in
relation with the wider society. Here, we glimpse both a sense of large sweeps of time – over decades or even over centuries. We lead with a wide ranging and
futuristic chapter by Peters. Here he explores the nature of the ‘epoch of digital
reason’ as it changes the very way of our being. It evidences the interweaving of
university and society. This is followed by Gibbs and Douglass, who discuss shaping
4 Introduction
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 20/23
universities in the present in which ideas of the university are but fashions, waxing
and waning (Czarniawska); but we also glimpse a shattering of such époques of
time (Peters), as the university enters a time of virtual instantaneity.
The section ‘Knowledge and time’ tackles what perhaps lies at the heart of theraison d ’être of university, namely, knowledge: its creation, transfer and audit and
its related teaching processes are presenting increasing challenges to academics. Amid
fast time, research itself may be undergoing subtle changes (Hassan, Ylijoki), with
certain kinds of knowledge being prized (Clegg) and others made problematic
(Barnett).
Finally, the section ‘Living with time’ situates the analysis in the present and in
the experiences of time, bringing our attention to those dilemmas of time that are
part of daily life in academia. Steady, thoughtful and careful time seem to be in
jeopardy (Murphy, Guzmán-Valenzuela and Di Napoli) and so an ethics of timecomes into view: just how might different kinds of time be valued (Papastephanou)?
Many are critical of academic time but perhaps a positive view of time may still
reasonably be held: some seem to be able to sustain a more human time (Brew).
Any volume of this kind, grappling with a large and complex matter, with
chapters themselves bringing into view manifold aspects, can be presented in many
ways; and this volume is no exception. Dimensions, topics and concepts criss-cross
the chapters and an attempt to identify some of the threads running through the
offerings here may be helpful.
Global phenomena of digitization, globalization and privatization (already
described) point to a university world that is characterized by fast production,
consumerism, privatization, and bureaucratic efficiency, their combined effect trans-
forming the very being of universities (chapters by Peters, Czarniawska, Douglass,
Murphy), its relationships with knowledge (Hassan) as well as individuals, inter-
actions with others and educational practices (Gibbs).
We conceive time here through a multidimensional perspective that involves
not only an objective dimension of time (clock time) but also – and this is where
this book is especially focused – a subjective dimension (experienced time and time-scapes (Adam, 2004). From here, diverse timescapes might be distinguished:
‘tempo’ or pace and speed (Ylijoki, Guzmán-Valenzuela and Di Napoli, Brew,
Hassan); ‘timing’ and synchronization (Gibbs); ‘time point’ or the instant moment
(Ylijoki); ‘time patterns’ or rhythm, cycles, periods (Czarniawska, Gibbs, Douglass);
‘time extension’ or duration and length (Barnett, Murphy); the exercise of truth,
power and legitimation in time (Czarniawska, Barnett, Clegg) and time and ethics
(Papastephanou). All these dimensions are co-present and involve conflicts,
dilemmas, paradoxes in universities that point to a missing time ; for instance: a lack
of time and creativity (Hassan); a lack of future, a loss of past and present time
(Ylijoki, Clegg, Brew); a lack of reflective time (Guzmán-Valenzuela and Di Napoli);
and a lack of epistemic time (Barnett).
We invite readers who work in universities to reflect on their own experiences
of time as managers, administrators, academics, teachers, researchers, and students
Introduction 5
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 21/23
and how they themselves negotiate the dilemmas and paradoxes that are presented
in this book. In this way, readers can examine their past to understand their present
but also can go on to imagine a new future for the university.
Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela
Paul Gibbs
Oili-Helena Ylijoki
Ronald Barnett
References
Adam, B. (2004). Time . Cambridge: Polity Press.
Adam, B. & Groves, C. (2007). Future Matters. Leiden: Brill.Gibbs, P. (2009). Adopting consumer time: potential issues for higher education. London
Review of Education, 7(2), 113–124.
6 Introduction
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 22/23
PART 1
Past, present and future
8/18/2019 University in the Flux on Time - Temporality and Universiti Life
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/university-in-the-flux-on-time-temporality-and-universiti-life 23/23
This page intentionally left blank