‘Philosophy Lost’: Inquiring into the effects of the corporatized university and its implications for graduate nursing education

Abstract

Drawing on a comprehensive, pan-national analysis of the corporatization of Canadian universities, as well as the notions of 'parrhesiastic' mentorship and practice, the authors examine the effects of the corporatized university, its implications for graduate nursing education and nursing's relative silence on the subject. With the preponderance of business interests, the increasing dependence of universities on industry funding, cults of efficiency, research intensivity, and the pursuit of profit so prevalent in today's corporatized university, we argue that philosophical presuppositions so crucial to critical teaching, research, and reflection on nursing as a discipline are troublingly losing ground. We lament the erosion and fragmentation of philosophy, politics, and ethics as foundations for graduate education, which are increasingly perceived as less valuable, problematic, and in some cases, even burdensome. The effect of corporatization is the suppression of the critical engagement required of faculty in the everyday workings of institutions. We argue that, when the ideals of intellectual freedom, academic responsibility, duty, and obligation, as supported by philosophical thought, are smothered by the normalizing power of corporatized research agendas, philosophical approaches to inquiry and knowledge development become marginalized as scholars find themselves floundering in the face of a seeming 'philosophy lost'.

The Role of von Willebrand Factor in Vascular Inflammation: From Pathogenesis to Targeted Therapy

“…A1 and A3 domains are mainly involved in thrombosis: A1 binds to GpIb α on the platelet surface and microfibrillar collagen (type VI); A3 binds to fibrillar collagens (types I and III) [7]. VWF multimerization is a multistep process: monomers of VWF firstly dimerize in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER); then, they link in mature VWF multimers or “concatemers” in the Golgi and post-Golgi compartments [7, 8]. Mature multimers of VWF are packaged in helicoidally structures and stored in Weibel-Palade bodies (WPBs) in ECs and α -granules in MKs and platelets [7].…”

Necessary changes, adverse effects? The institutional patterns of adaptation of economics universities to changes prompted by the reform of Poland’s science and higher education system

“…They include such phenomena as ostensible adaptation, ‘the game of excellence’, or substantial research drift towards an instrumental approach to fulfilling the educational mission of the university (e.g. Alvesson and Spicer, 2016; Butler and Spoelstra, 2012; Rhodes, 2017; Springer and Clinton, 2017; Tourish et al, 2017).…”

“…(De Boer et al, 2017). Factors such as market competition, seeking competitive advantages, striving for financial efficiency and profit-orientation have become the benchmark parameters for a significant proportion of European universities (Askling, 2001; Parker, 2018; Springer and Clinton, 2017; Visser, 2016) and particularly business schools (e.g. Bennis and O’Toole, 2005; Huzzard et al, 2017; Koris et al, 2017).…”

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“…Elizabeth Barrett (2017) addressed the most recent challenges to the survival of nursing science grounded in nursing frameworks and theories, including the demands of funding agencies that place a high value on interdisciplinary research and biobehavioral sciences. These same demands were expressed by Springer and Clinton (2017), who pointed to the influence of corporatization of the university on graduate nursing education and called both for a critical engagement with the philosophic foundations of our discipline and for the preparation of students who can be courageous practitioners on behalf of patients, the public, and our profession. Likewise, Barrett called on nurses to take bold action to move forward as a discipline.…”