Knowledge for Social Change

Bacon, Dewey, and the Revolutionary Transformation of Research Universities in the Twenty-First Century

Lee Benson, Ira Harkavy, John Puckett, Matthew Hartley, Rita A. Hodges, Francis E. Johnston, Joann Weeks

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781439915196, 9781439915189
• eBook ISBN: 9781439915202
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Employing history, social theory, and a detailed contemporary case study, Knowledge for Social Change argues for fundamentally reshaping research universities to function as democratic, civic, and community-engaged institutions dedicated to advancing learning and knowledge for social change. The authors focus on significant contributions to learning made by Francis Bacon, Benjamin Franklin, Seth Low, Jane Addams, William Rainey Harper, and John Dewey—as well as their own work at Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships—to help create and sustain democratically-engaged colleges and universities for the public good.  

Knowledge for Social Change highlights university-assisted community schools to effect a thoroughgoing change of research universities that will contribute to more democratic schools, communities, and societies. The authors also call on democratic-minded academics to create and sustain a global movement dedicated to advancing learning for the "relief of man's estate"—an iconic phrase by Francis Bacon that emphasized the continued betterment of the human condition—and to realize Dewey's vision of an organic "Great Community" composed of participatory, democratic, collaborative, and interdependent societies.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: University-Assisted Community Schools and the Expanding Global Movement of Democratic, Civically Engaged, Modern Research Universities
• I. The Advancement of Learning for "The Relief of Man's Estate"
• II. The Netter Center: Higher Education and Civic and Community Engagement
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index