June 13, 2005

What is a university?

Considered with the methodology that Manuel De Landa employs in A Thousand Years of Non-linear History .

A university consists of many smaller bodies, some more formal than others, some more hierarchical than rhizomatic, networked or meshworked. These bodies attract, pass around and process the incoming streams of energy that sustain and extend the bodies. There are multiple streams. including the annual input and turnover of students, research funding and projects, academic careers, and technical and administrative mechanisms (including external legislation). As the streams are diverted and processed, the various bodies rely upon and interfere with each other, often bringing the separate streams into contact. Each individual stream also has three aspects, each of which is dependent upon the other through often complex connections. The three aspects are cash, creative opportunity, and affirmation of individuality (always a collaborative and tribal process). These three aspects feed and sustain the bodies.


Robert O'Toole : 13 Jun 2005 13:03 |  Tags:   |  Comments (2) |  Report a problem

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  1. The outstanding characteristic of a university is that out of the three aspects of the streams, the less certain and more indefinable are valued highest. Creative opportunity and affirmation of individuality are what it is all about. Obviously these aspects are only obtained through sustained and repeated activity. And this activity requires sustained and repeated funding. Therefore cash is essential all the same. But the connection is still uncertain. It can be difficult to reliably convert cash into these two qualities. The vision required to see how this conversion can happen is rare. The practical skills are even more of a rarity.

    13 Jun 2005, 20:00

  2. And that says a bit about what universities might be for, how they fit into the wider economy and ecology. There are two interesting answers to this question:

    1. a university is an 'incubator' for bodies (economic, conceptual, political, and social) in parallel to the functioning of existing bodies, but safely isolated from them;
    2. a university is a place in which the various incoming streams can interact with each other, creating turbulences and connections, possible revitalising and affirming each other symbiotically.

    Each of these answers, along with others, may be true to an extent.

    13 Jun 2005, 20:09

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