ABSTRACT
Introduction The social structure of the academy and its implications for knowledge produc - tion form central concerns in the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Beginning early in his career, Bourdieu turned academia, academics, students and universities into objects of sociological analysis, also exploring the conditions of knowledge production in the specific areas of science and sociology. A principal conclusion from these studies was that the autonomy of academic fields – their separation from external interests in the field of power – is a precondition for the generation of objective knowledge. Recently, a new urgency has underpinned analyses of the academy. Publications for both academic and popular audiences suggest that globally universities are in crisis, and are being fundamentally redefined through neoliberal reforms that threaten their autonomy. Some representative titles include: Academic Capitalism: Universities in the Global Struggle for Excellence (Münch 2014), Everything for Sale? The Marketisation of UK Higher Education (Brown and Carasso 2013) and Whackademia: An Insider’s Account of the Troubled University (Hil 2012). This chapter contributes to the discussion by considering the extent to which
Bourdieu’s theories remain relevant for understanding and predicting the changing shape of the university. In particular, the chapter explores which forms of knowledge are becoming most highly valued within the university field, and how the relations between universities are implicated in the production of these values. Throughout, I draw on an empirical case study to focus the analysis, by examining the position of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and its relationship to conventional medicine, within universities in the UK and Australia. A focus on CAM may seem obscure, but recent developments and controversies over the teaching of CAM in universities in these two countries are, I argue, illustrative of wider issues impacting on the university. I begin by revisiting Bourdieu’s analyses of the academy, before moving on to
examine a number of specific shifts in the contemporary university, and finally, by speculating on the future of the university through a Bourdieusian lens. The chapter examines the prospects of the university as we know it, and simul - taneously, the prospects of a Bourdieusian theory of the university.
