ABSTRACT
This chapter focusses on alternative institutional designs in the search for the ‘real’ university and seeks to draw out progressive ideals and actions that unsettle easy sideswipes at the notion of the ‘ivory tower’. There is no quick fix and dangers lurk in the long shadows of the knowledge economy which threaten potential alternatives through co-optation and control, bolstering the status quo or bracketing politics through creating delusive bubbles that apparently keep economic forces at bay. It is only by recognising, actively confronting, and exploring and learning from efforts to transform current trajectories that change can be brought about. In this spirit, the chapter starts with alternative ideas of the university and then turns to examine critical, urban research practices. It ends by concluding that new epistemic practices are needed that contribute to an alternative knowledge commons.
