Overview

The ecological university takes its interconnectedness with the world seriously. This is challenging, for the world is in difficulty and is shot through with antagonism. The university is partly culpable for those difficulties and so has responsibilities towards the world. Realizing the Ecological University spells out this thesis by charting the university’s entanglements with eight ecosystems – knowledge, learning, persons, social institutions, culture, the economy, the polity and nature. The book identifies ways in which each of the eight ecosystems is impaired and points to possibilities through which universities can help in repairing those ecosystems. This book also sets out broad principles in helping to realize the ecological university in each of the eight ecosystems. Wearing his scholarship lightly, Ronald Barnett draws widely from philosophy, social theory, comparative higher education and ethics, and advances a particular form of the philosophy of higher education, at once realist, societal, critical, worldly and Earthly. Written with wit and lots of examples – actual and fictional – the text has a compelling vibrancy, made manifest in its concluding Manifesto.

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9781350450868

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Realising the Ecological University is far-reaching and liberating. The eight inter-connected ecosystems with two-way flows between the university and society enable us as scholars and leaders to escape binary traps of thinking and acting. The idea of ecological wisdom is imbued with hope and pragmatism and the book’s culmination in a manifesto offers pathways to its realisation. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the ideas and actions in this book for all who wish to contribute to ethical and sustainable universities for the future. -- Rajani Naidoo, Professor, Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Exeter, UK For some decades, Ronald Barnett has been the world’s leading explorer of the university. In Realising the Ecological University, Barnett reveals a university with unrecognised opportunity to act in the world(s). One of Barnett’s strengths is that he helps us appreciate how the university may reflect not only the conditions of our societies but also the human condition itself. At the same time, Barnett gives us an idea of the university for the century to come – indeed, a philosophy of the ecological society awaiting in the future. -- Søren S.E. Bengtsen, Associate Professor at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark In Realising the Ecological University, Ronald Barnett blends the manifold critiques of universities into the larger systems of which they are a part. He teases out and renews the multiple missions of universities that situate them as essential components in improving and sustaining human life. A tour de force written in accessible and lively language, it is an essential and satisfying read on the future of both higher education and society. -- Davydd J. Greenwood, Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, Cornell University, USA In an era of scepticism about the modern university, Ronald Barnett's idea of the 'ecological university' - one that is hyperconnected to the ecosystems that surround it and that puts itself at the service of the whole world - is both an inspiration and a vital recuperation of the idea of a university for our times. -- John Dewar AO, Professor, Vice-Chancellor and President, La Trobe University, Australia As we have come to expect from Ronald Barnett, his latest offering dazzles in authentic depth, unafraid to confront the complex ecologies, which ultimately give shape to what the university does, and perhaps more importantly, who it is. Barnett’s writing is beguiling in its simplicity, but the message quite clearly is ‘no conflict, no university!’ -- Nuraan Davids, Professor of Philosophy of Education and Chair in the Department of Education Policy Studies, Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University, South Africa This latest book from Ronald Barnett is a timely call to arms for universities to exercise collective activism and to speak to many and with many voices. 'Realising the Ecological University: Eight Ecosystems, their Antagonisms and a Manifesto' provides a compelling way forward for universities at a time when they are being challenged to define their role anew. The antagonisms of the world in which universities exist are starkly brought into focus, in relation to eight ecosystems within and across which they interact. The book identifies responsibilities and opportunities universities have to motivate an ecological revolution and contains crucial messages for university leaders and managers and, indeed, for all engaged in higher education and the wider society. -- Lorraine Ling, Emeritus Professor, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia In Realising the Ecological University, Ronald Barnett poses a pressing question: how might universities responsibly confront their entanglement with the multiple ecological crises of our time? Without underestimating the scale or complexity of the challenge, he offers an enlivening glimpse of the range of possible futures that might emerge from such efforts, always holding out the possibility for reimagination and repair. This is the kind of deep thinking about higher education that is needed today. -- Sharon Stein, Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of British Columbia. Canada We are faced with an incredible paradox: while university laboratories are producing contemporary bioclimatic knowledge, universities are struggling to find a way to pass it on wisely and thus take their place in the transformation of society. This is the titanic challenge that Ronald Barnett sets himself in his ambitious new book, which is already an essential reference. -- Nathanaël Wallenhorst, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education, Catholic University of the West (UCO), France

Realising the Ecological University is far-reaching and liberating. The eight inter-connected ecosystems with two-way flows between the university and society enable us as scholars and leaders to escape binary traps of thinking and acting. The idea of ecological wisdom is imbued with hope and pragmatism and the book’s culmination in a manifesto offers pathways to its realisation. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the ideas and actions in this book for all who wish to contribute to ethical and sustainable universities for the future. -- Rajani Naidoo, Professor, Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Exeter, UK For some decades, Ronald Barnett has been the world’s leading explorer of the university. In Realising the Ecological University, Barnett reveals a university with unrecognised opportunity to act in the world(s). One of Barnett’s strengths is that he helps us appreciate how the university may reflect not only the conditions of our societies but also the human condition itself. At the same time, Barnett gives us an idea of the university for the century to come – indeed, a philosophy of the ecological society awaiting in the future. -- Søren S E Bengtsen, Associate Professor at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark In Realising the Ecological University, Ronald Barnett blends the manifold critiques of universities into the larger systems of which they are a part. He teases out and renews the multiple missions of universities that situate them as essential components in improving and sustaining human life. A tour de force written in accessible and lively language, it is an essential and satisfying read on the future of both higher education and society. -- Davydd J. Greenwood, Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, Cornell University, USA In an era of scepticism about the modern university, Ronald Barnett's idea of the 'ecological university' - one that is hyperconnected to the ecosystems that surround it and that puts itself at the service of the whole world - is both an inspiration and a vital recuperation of the idea of a university for our times. -- John Dewar AO, Professor, Vice-Chancellor and President, La Trobe University, Australia As we have come to expect from Ronald Barnett, his latest offering dazzles in authentic depth, unafraid to confront the complex ecologies, which ultimately give shape to what the university does, and perhaps more importantly, who it is. Barnett’s writing is beguiling in its simplicity, but the message quite clearly is ‘no conflict, no university!’ -- Nuraan Davids, Professor of Philosophy of Education and Chair in the Department of Education Policy Studies, Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University, South Africa This latest book from Ronald Barnett is a timely call to arms for universities to exercise collective activism and to speak to many and with many voices. 'Realising the Ecological University: Eight Ecosystems, their Antagonisms and a Manifesto' provides a compelling way forward for universities at a time when they are being challenged to define their role anew. The antagonisms of the world in which universities exist are starkly brought into focus, in relation to eight ecosystems within and across which they interact. The book identifies responsibilities and opportunities universities have to motivate an ecological revolution and contains crucial messages for university leaders and managers and, indeed, for all engaged in higher education and the wider society. -- Lorraine Ling, Emeritus Professor, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia In Realising the Ecological University, Ronald Barnett poses a pressing question: how might universities responsibly confront their entanglement with the multiple ecological crises of our time? Without underestimating the scale or complexity of the challenge, he offers an enlivening glimpse of the range of possible futures that might emerge from such efforts, always holding out the possibility for reimagination and repair. This is the kind of deep thinking about higher education that is needed today. -- Sharon Stein, Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of British Columbia. Canada We are faced with an incredible paradox: while university laboratories are producing contemporary bioclimatic knowledge, universities are struggling to find a way to pass it on wisely and thus take their place in the transformation of society. This is the titanic challenge that Ronald Barnett sets himself in his ambitious new book, which is already an essential reference. -- Nathanaël Wallenhorst, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education, Catholic University of the West (UCO), France

Author Information

Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK. He is the President of the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society.

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