Introduction: the Doctor of Philosophy in the twenty-first-century imagination

How do we understand how the PhD is currently imagined and conceptualised in the wider domain? Where will we find ideas about the PhD, from its purpose, to the nature of research work undertaken and the kinds of pedagogies engaged in, to the researchers who undertake it and are shaped by it? This book analyses the PhD as it is articulated in diverse areas of contemporary discourse at a time in which the degree is undergoing growth, change and scrutiny worldwide. It considers not just institutional ideas of the PhD but those of the broader cultural and social domain, and it asks whether, and to what extent, the idea of the Doctor of Philosophy, the highest achievable university award, is being reimagined in the twenty-first century.