3 ms·
by "the universities", i meant the rituals and ceremonies performed by academics in general. isn't prestige really just a social construct? the universities lit
by smhost 8y ago
by "the universities", i meant the rituals and ceremonies performed by academics in general. isn't prestige really just a social construct? the universities literally contain all the individual high-status academics, the privileged social circles, and all the peers required for evaluation of merit. they have all the capital, is what i'm talking about.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoYes, universities are social constructs, so there is no monolithic construct to change.
- smhost 8y agothat seems like a bit of a non sequitur, because monoliths can be constructed. like how game companies create prestige among a disorganized community by sponsoring official tournaments, for example. and you don't necessarily need to deal with a monolith, you just need a popular consensus, which it sounds like there already exists. so my confusion is how did the universities lose the ability to decide their own self-worth. how did this get outsourced.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoUniversities long ago outsourced faculty evaluations based on the impact of their research measured by conference/journal impact. The system is heavily flawed, but the inability of an expert in A to judge an expert in B is a very real problem, so they just look at their academic impact instead, which is determined mostly by journal acceptance via peer review.