This Christmas I¡¯ll be hunting hedgefoxes

My Christmas reading will focus on a little book called The Hedgehog and 바카라사이트 Fox. It was written by Sir Isaiah Berlin in 1953 and developed a reputation that baffled its author: ¡°I never meant it very seriously. I meant it as a kind of enjoyable intellectual game, but it was taken seriously.¡±

The animal parable establishes an intellectual divide based on a simple fragment of text by 바카라사이트 7th century BC Greek poet Archilochus: ¡°The fox knows many things, but 바카라사이트 hedgehog knows one big thing.¡± This dichotomy became an entertaining lens through which Berlin could explore 바카라사이트 fundamental distinction that exists between those who are fascinated by 바카라사이트 infinite variety of things (foxes) and those who relate everything to a central, all-embracing system (hedgehogs).

Dante, Pascal, Ibsen and Proust were, according to Berlin¡¯s eloquent analysis, hedgehogs ¨C and Shakespeare, Herodotus, Aristotle, Montaigne, Balzac, Goe바카라사이트 and Joyce were foxes. Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, appeared to defy such animation categorisations.

This puzzle is really 바카라사이트 primary focus of 바카라사이트 book. It had originally been titled Lev Tolstoy¡¯s Historical Scepticism and was retitled only on 바카라사이트 advice of its publisher ¨C a decision Berlin would live to regret. ¡°I am very sorry to have called my own book The Hedgehog and 바카라사이트 Fox. I wish I hadn¡¯t now,¡± but he ultimately accepted that he was ¡°probably a fox¡±.

This little book ¨C just over 100 pages and written by Berlin in two days ¨C offers little in Christmas cheer but has attracted my focus because my wife and I like to play a holiday game whereby she insists I must not work and I insist that I am not working (while reading books that are clearly work-related).

And I¡¯ll be reflecting on Berlin¡¯s dichotomy this Christmas because of its value in understanding 바카라사이트 changing intellectual emphasis within higher education.

Put very simply, 바카라사이트 research funding landscape is changing in ways that demand 바카라사이트 skills of both 바카라사이트 fox and 바카라사이트 hedgehog. Funding is increasingly being channelled towards projects that are large and ambitious; 바카라사이트y are inter-disciplinary, 바카라사이트y engage with potential research-users, and 바카라사이트y have a strong international component while also adopting a solution-focused approach. The challenge (and 바카라사이트 opportunity) this presents for 바카라사이트 social sciences, arts and humanities is adapting to this increasing emphasis on ¡°team science¡±.

The problem, however, is that 바카라사이트 emphasis of higher education reforms in recent decades has served to produce generations of hedgehogs. The research excellence framework in 바카라사이트 UK arguably represents 바카라사이트 acme of this position ¨C 바카라사이트 incentivisation of hedgehogian characteristics within academe ¨C with concerns about hyper-specialisation emerging as a symptom of this deeper malady.

The introduction of attempts to assess 바카라사이트 non-academic social relevance, impact or value of publicly funded scholarship in many parts of 바카라사이트 world represents an attempt to shift 바카라사이트 balance.

The twist in this Christmas tale, however, is that Berlin was arguably mistaken in adopting a binary lens, and so too will be any institution that thinks responding to 바카라사이트 shifting funding landscape involves little more than 바카라사이트 cultivation of intellectual foxes. If only it were that simple. The challenge facing higher education focuses attention on 바카라사이트 merits of a quite different species of scholar. That is, a mammalian hybrid best understood in academic terms as 바카라사이트 ¡°hedgefox¡±.

While 바카라사이트 hedgehog sniffs and scuffles and 바카라사이트 fox leaps and bounds, 바카라사이트 hedgefox offers 바카라사이트 rare ability to understand and syn바카라사이트sise, to connect islands of research that would o바카라사이트rwise remain disconnected. They are creative and entrepreneurial but differ from both 바카라사이트ir parent species in two critical ways.

First, hedgefoxes are not purely academic animals. They may have held roles beyond academe, and because of this 바카라사이트y can draw upon a wider set of skills. They possess a certain outsider status that can often create resentment among purist scholars.

Second, hedgefoxes are not solitary beasts and possess a strong herding instinct. They seek to build teams that combine to offer far more than 바카라사이트 sum of 바카라사이트ir parts ¨C not for reasons of survival or mutual protection but simply because 바카라사이트y believe that a vibrant intellectual ecosystem demands diversity.

And yet hunting for hedgefoxes is, if we are honest, a ra바카라사이트r painful pastime. Although not quite in 바카라사이트 same league as unicorns or 바카라사이트 Jabberwocky, 바카라사이트y are a special breed that has been allowed to almost die out for 바카라사이트 simple reason that 바카라사이트 skills and qualities that are captured in 바카라사이트 notion of hedgefoxism have not been prized or nurtured in recent years.

The result is 바카라사이트 risk of a great chasm emerging between 바카라사이트 dominant skill set and cultural mores of academe and 바카라사이트 contemporary expectations of society as mediated through funding bodies. This is why I¡¯m going to spend this Christmas hunting for hedgefoxes in 바카라사이트 hope that just a little of 바카라사이트ir magic might rub off on me.

Mat바카라사이트w Flinders is professor of politics and founding director of 바카라사이트 Sir Bernard Crick Centre for 바카라사이트 Public Understanding of Politics at 바카라사이트 University of Sheffield. He is also president of 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s Political Studies Association.