Abstract

At a basic level, the university is regarded in instrumental and economic terms, conflating ethical-political considerations into the economic and diminishing the function of the university in developing and sustaining culture. The political role that higher education plays has been insufficiently addressed by academics in recent decades while the development of social media means the ways in which ‘public opinion’ is formed have changed. By applying Habermas’ theory of communicative action, this book seeks to reconnect educational and political theory and provide an institutional analysis which complements the recent focus on the intersections between political philosophy and legal theory