Academic actors as guardians of democracy?
Photo: (c) Anthoula Malkopoulou, 2019
The purpose of this project is to examine whether and why academic actors have a special role to play in defending democracy, and how they should navigate possible tensions between this task and their educational and scientific vocation. Our focus is on universities and individual scholars as agents of democracy’s self-defence. We are interested in how academia can be defended as a democratic space in times of autocratization, and to what extent academics can and should act as a democratic force in the public realm, especially in their outward-looking role as public intellectuals.
Details
- Period: 2025-07-01 – 2026-12-31
- Budget: 2,017,702 SEK
- Funder: Research Programme Democracy and Higher Education, Uppsala Universitet
Description
The ongoing trend of autocratization in many established democracies involves a growing tendency to limit and circumvent the autonomy of academic actors. Universities and scholars are currently facing a classic dilemma: to be an active part of civil society and intervene in public debates on the one hand, and to retain their credibility and status as non-partisan actors on the other. In autocratising environments, this dilemma intensifies as governments challenge the value of democracy and attack those who defend democratic norms as being biased. The aim of this project is to examine whether and why universities have a special role to play in defending democracy and how scholars should navigate possible tensions with their educational and scientific vocation. It looks at the normative link between higher education and democracy, as well as at specific ways in which universities and scholars can and should defend democracy and their own autonomy when performing in the public arena.
Project leader Anthoula Malkopoulou:
For a long time, academics took it for granted that democracy was so highly valued that research could safely aspire to promote it. This is no longer the case. Yet we know little about how best to adapt to this new reality, in which governments attack academics for their ideas, and democracy advocacy is portrayed as a partisan endeavour. Democratic decline is not merely a threat for academic freedom. It also requires a rethinking of the role of universities and scholars as civil society actors, operating beyond partisan struggles and yet critical against abusive states.