Can Scholarship Exist in a Non-learning Organization?: The Case of Neoliberal Universities

Earnest Boyer’s aspirational ideal of “scholarship” not only resonated with many audiences but some version of the concept is often used to contrast negatively with what the contemporary university has become: “corporatized,” “siloed,” elitist, oppressed, and oppressive. This aspirational ideal is rarely attached to concrete analyses of the organizational forms, practices, and policies required to make it possible. Universities as an aspirational ideal of scholarship and universities as organizational systems within a larger political economy tend to be written about by different authors, and the two perspectives are rarely synthesized. Because the aspirational goal of university scholarship cannot be met except under particular kinds of organizational and political economic arrangements, bringing the two perspectives together is vital.