Changing Nature of Knowledge and Liberal University in an Era of Neo-Liberalism: Implications for Democratic Society

In the early phase of scientific development under the influence of Newtonian empirical and mathematical physics knowledge production was in tuned with to gain recognition as scientific. It was largely influenced by community of scholars particularly scientific scholars with academic interests. It was embedded in the idea of objective knowledge and truth. Liberal higher education was offered in institutional settings with disciplinary body of knowledge relatively independent of narrow socio-cultural interests. Dissemination of knowledge happened in unity with research. Teaching and research united as a matter of epistemic inquiry which is philosophical in nature and sociological too. Therefore, higher education has the task of legitimising society’s cognitive structures. On top of that the foundation of liberal education ultimately lies in the fact of its promise of emancipatory project. This has also been characterised by Gibbons as ‘Mode I’ type of knowledge.

However, with changing economic and political structure under the neo-liberalism where ‘neo’ about neoliberalism lies in the idea of ‘perfect market’ which promises to capture the essential and basic truth of human nature. It conceptualises people as self-interested competitors, self -actualised entrepreneurs and rational consumers in a dynamic and ever- changing global marketplace. Production of new forms of knowledge within the context of ‘usefulness’ and ‘application’ takes the primary stage. In the changed situation it is not confined to the university but involves range of institutional settings with its own mission and ethos in transdisciplinary forms. Knowledge intensive companies become new sites of knowledge producing units. It demands new skills like problem solving, ability to combine things together in unique way, brokering skills. It’s characterised as ‘Mode-II’ type of knowledge. It’s is an attempt to understand this shift in knowledge production from Mode-I to Mode-II and its impact on the foundational idea of university and also for democratic society.