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Am I the only one to be so naive as to think that the above situation illustrates a discipline at the tipping point of dramatic change? Is it conceivable that a significant portion of tenured academics across numerous elite universities might together rebel against this regime, expose its essence and set up an alternative, exercising intellectual freedom and demanding academic freedom, along with the funding to pursue normal research?

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sun Jun 30th, 2013 at 05:40:28 PM EST
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The realisation of the amount of crap in economics and its structure does seem to be growing, and hopefully something comes out of it. Though I have a hard time to check for my own growing realisation of just how corrupt it is, and my own hopes for a revolution in economics.

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by A swedish kind of death on Sun Jun 30th, 2013 at 06:02:24 PM EST
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Theology departments did not disappear from universities nor were they reformed. New academic disciplines were created instead. The same may happen to Economics.

Finance is the brain [tumour] of the economy
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jul 1st, 2013 at 05:12:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]
In Sweden, old universities has theology departments. Newer has departments of religious studies with a social science perspective. But the line is far from clear, theology and religious studies departments educate both religion teachers (junior high and high school teachers, where the goal of the subject is to educate about different religions) and priests, though it appears priests must finish their education in Uppsala or Lund, the two really old universities.

So there is probably some kind of scale from orthodox to reformed, with theological parts of theology departments at one end and very social science parts of religious studies departments at the other.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Tue Jul 2nd, 2013 at 01:56:42 PM EST
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I'm talking about reforming 17th century (not 1970s) Theology to accomodate the scientific revolution. It didn't happen.

Finance is the brain [tumour] of the economy
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 2nd, 2013 at 02:26:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Ah. No, that did not happen.

This ties into something I have been thinking about regarding academic disciplines that are dominant in political elite discourse and thus required reading to get into the political elite. I think they tend to be tailored after the needs of the ruling elite, in terms of collective narrative to motivate teh existence of said elite, common language and tools of power. These do not always match, claiming for example that military victory is granted by God serves the narrative well regarding the victories that brought the eltie into power but serves poorly in understanding military as a tool of power.

So do empires change their dominant academic discipline, and if so how does it happen? Which leads to the question of what was the dominant academic discipline of past empires. Was history mandatory for the Brittish elite, and if so does the fall of the Brittish empire explain why the grand narratives died in history?

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Tue Jul 2nd, 2013 at 02:49:49 PM EST
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does the fall of the British empire explain why the grand narratives died in history?

I have not kept up on modern historiography - but the tell could be finding ongoing grand narratives, especially triumphal ones, and comparing those to the situation of the culture in which they arose. My problem is my gag reflex tends to prevent me from delving deeply enough into such histories to know.

I suspect, however, that the grand narrative could have been sustained for the USA at least into the 80s. And while the post-modernist critiques have seriously undercut such views, I don't think we can say that the US triumphalists have capitulated. But these are not the sorts of efforts that are widely supported in US Academia. History is still widely presented devoid of any meaningful social theory framework. This was the stronghold of Marxist historians and thus remains suspicious in the USA.  

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Jul 2nd, 2013 at 03:35:12 PM EST
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