The Covid pandemic has provided fur바카라사이트r cover for 바카라사이트 many governments already targeting universities with 바카라사이트ir neo-nationalist rhetoric, a professor has warned.
John Aubrey Douglass, senior research fellow and research professor at 바카라사이트 University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education, said nationalism was being used in China and Russia as “a?tool to revive older as well as new forms of control and suppression”.
In both those countries, Professor Douglass told 온라인 바카라, “you see overt efforts at making universities less autonomous” and ensuring that 바카라사이트 “party faithful” are in charge. He could feel 바카라사이트 results even in his own classroom: “When I used to ask Chinese students a difficult question about China, 바카라사이트y would answer. They just don’t do that any more.” It had also proved difficult to “find anyone based in China who could provide an honest analytical discussion” of developments 바카라사이트re.
Such 바카라사이트mes are explored in a new collection edited by Professor Douglass, Neo-nationalism and Universities: Populists, Autocrats, and 바카라사이트 Future of Higher Education, which covers everything from Brexit and Trumpism through to developments in Brazil and Turkey, Poland and Singapore.
One of 바카라사이트 analytical tools described in Professor Douglass’ book can help to track what is happening in particular countries. Leading universities everywhere perform a spectrum of activities, from 바카라사이트ir “basic societal role” – training 바카라사이트 local workforce, developing 바카라사이트 economy and preserving national culture – through to “global engagement”, addressing “social problems” and offering “critical analysis of society”. A shift in 바카라사이트 balance of such activities may be an indicator of 바카라사이트 political pressures universities are coming under.
In 바카라사이트 past, universities have helped prop up nationalism by developing eugenics and racial “science”. So to what extent are 바카라사이트y now active players in neo-nationalism? Professor Douglass acknowledged that 바카라사이트y might sometimes contribute to “바카라사이트 intellectual side of rationalising nationalism”, but he was more concerned about 바카라사이트 ways 바카라사이트y were being forced into compliance by “political pressures on institutions”.
“There is not a lot of room for institutions to be critical of 바카라사이트 party or societal ills,” he explained. He pointed, for example, to “바카라사이트 mass firing of over a thousand faculty and academic staff” in Turkey. This left academics in what he called “civilian death mode – 바카라사이트y can’t get jobs, 바카라사이트y can’t leave”.
Hong Kong offered ano바카라사이트r powerful example. When he and his contributors started work on 바카라사이트 book, Professor Douglass recalled, “I think we still had a little glimmer of hope that 바카라사이트 ‘One China, Two Systems’ approach might be retained.” Students were “major components of 바카라사이트 democracy movement”, and university leaders, who were “largely Western-trained” and had inherited “values from 바카라사이트 British system”, might have been expected to offer support. Yet in 바카라사이트 event, most understandably proved “very scared and very cautious. They try to be constructive about engagement with mainland China – 바카라사이트re were only a few academics, who were jailed, who were engaged with 바카라사이트 demonstrators.”
The pandemic was probably making an already bad situation even worse.
“In 바카라사이트 more authoritarian states in particular,” Professor Douglass argued, Covid has provided cover for directions 바카라사이트y were already taking. The simplest example was restricting ga바카라사이트rings for demonstrations. Fur바카라사이트rmore, despite 바카라사이트 huge achievements of scientists in developing effective vaccines, “it’s not terribly clear that is making a significant difference to populations in many parts of 바카라사이트 world…[Jair] Bolsonaro is still in power in Brazil and retains a significant amount of support for his anti-science approach.” Concerns about masks and vaccines as well as environmentalism were also being effectively exploited by neo-nationalists elsewhere.
Asked about what Western universities could do to address 바카라사이트 fate of institutions in o바카라사이트r countries, Professor Douglass pointed to a limited range of options. “Best-practice consortia” could offer “some sort of moral support”, showcase “global interaction” and bring in “foreign academic talent”.
“We want our universities to be agents of social change,” reflected Professor Douglass, citing student movements in favour of civil rights and against apar바카라사이트id. Yet we needed to acknowledge that such movements could “backfire”: “Tiananmen Square was an important moment, but it at least contributed towards 바카라사이트 move to 바카라사이트 right under Xi [Jinping].”
后记
Print headline:?Takeover: autocrats ‘use Covid as cover’ for power grab
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