scholarly journals The Responsibilities of Privilege: an Interview with Noam Chomsky on the Role of the Public Intellectual

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Louis Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Public Intellectual ◽  
The Public ◽  
Noam Chomsky

Ambiguities and Clichés in the Debate about Public Intellectuals

2007 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A. Misztal
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
New Left ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
The Public ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
The Public Sphere

This paper's purpose is to exam Turner's (2006a) thesis that Britain neither produced its own public intellectuals nor a distinctive sociology. It aims to outline difficulties with the logic of Turner's argument rather than to discuss any particular public intellectual in Britain. The paper argues that Turner's claim about the comparative insignificance of public intellectuals in Britain reinforces the myth of British exceptionalism and overlooks the significance of the contribution to the public sphere by intellectuals from other disciplines than sociology. It discusses Turner's assumption that intellectual innovation requires massive disruptive and violent change and suggests that such an assertion is not necessarily supported by studies of the conditions of the production of knowledge. Finally, the paper argues that Turner's anguish at the absence of public intellectuals among sociologists in Britain is symptomatic of New Left thinking that models the idea of the intellectual on Gramsci. In conclusion, the paper asserts that Turner's idea of the intellectual fails to note the tension at the heart of the role of public intellectual–the tension between specialist and non-specialist functions.

scholarly journals FOOTBALL, BRAZIL AND THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (esp) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Grant Jarvie
Keyword(s):  
Public Intellectual ◽  
The Public

Este ensaio trata de questões relacionadas a questionamentos sobre o papel do intelectual público e da universidade como recursos para tratar de questões públicas e assumir ativamente o engajamento público como parte do contrato universitário. O ensaio trabalha com os protestos sociais e políticos que antecederam à Copa do Mundo da FIFA, em 2014, no Brasil, como base para pesquisar duas interrogações: Para que servem as universidades? Que oportunidades são proporcionadas pelo esporte para se atuar como intelectual público e ser recurso de esperança no mundo de hoje? Este pequeno estudo sobre o futebol, o Brasil e o papel do intelectual se baseia em fontes primárias e secundárias. O artigo conclui com a recomendação de que as pessoas que trabalham no esporte e por meio dele na universidade têm um meio ideal para trabalhar com o público sobre as questões que são importantes para o público, e devem usar integralmente essa oportunidade.

Libraries and the Preservation of Public Intellectual Space and Heritage

2020 ◽  
pp. 218-230
Author(s):  
Anil Kumar Nauriya
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
The Public ◽  
Intellectual Heritage ◽  
Epistemic Justice ◽  
Primary Means

There is one aspect of Libraries that needs particularly to be highlighted, namely the role of the public library as a par excellence site that upholds the public intellectual space when contrasted to the more restricted academic space. It is a primary means by which public intellectuals and, through them, civil society, may hold even academia to account when the latter becomes confined by dead habits or restricted by institutional, bureaucratic, elitist or other, structures. It needs to be emphasized that academia and scholarship are not necessarily congruent. The interplay between academia and scholarship is crucial and that is made possible by the public library. Open libraries, especially public libraries, are at least as vital as the academia. The importance of a library or a museum is not necessarily related to its location or its size. “Preservation” and “intellectual heritage” need to be decolonized in order to realize epistemic justice.

scholarly journals ‘Very Inflated Rhetoric, Polysyllables and So On’: The Public Intellectual and Jargon in the Academy

2015 ◽  
Vol 156 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-107
Author(s):  
Cassandra Atherton
Keyword(s):  
Print Media ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Arena ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Online Presence ◽  
Large Sector ◽  
Computer Literate ◽  
The Way

The public intellectual, by their very definition, aims to reach a large sector of the public or publics. This requires proficiency, or at least the capacity to communicate in a variety of forms. As a large proportion of the public, to which the public intellectual appeals, is an online or cyber public, the importance of blogs in a computer-literate public cannot be under-estimated. The immediacy of the blog and the way in which an online presence facilitates immediate communication between the public and the public intellectual through the posting of comments online allow for a broad recognition of the intellectual in the public arena. My arguments will hinge on my interviews with contemporary American public intellectuals (Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Todd Gitlin, Camille Paglia and Stephen Greenblatt) and their views on communication in a society experiencing a decline in the publication of print media.

scholarly journals POPULAR HISTORY, POST-WAR LIBERALISM, AND THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL IN RICHARD HOFSTADTER'S THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION (1948)

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 1133-1155 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICK WITHAM
Keyword(s):  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
Liberal Politics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Tradition ◽  
Middlebrow Literature ◽  
The Status ◽  
Post War

ABSTRACTThis article examines the status of Richard Hofstadter's classic work The American political tradition (1948) as a ‘popular history’. It uses documents drawn from Hofstadter's personal papers, those of his publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., as well as several of his contemporaries, to pursue a detailed reconstruction of the manner in which the book was written, edited, and reviewed, and to demonstrate how it circulated within, and was defined by, the literary culture of the 1940s and 1950s. The article explores Hofstadter's early career conception of himself as a scholar writing for audiences outside of the academy, reframes the significance of so-called ‘middlebrow’ literature, and, in doing so, offers a fresh appraisal of the links between popular historical writing, liberal politics, and the role of public intellectuals in the post-war United States.

Responding to the Call(ing)

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayanna Jackson-Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Faculty Of Color ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
The Public ◽  
Turbulent Times ◽  
Black President ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Time And Energy

In an interview with Ayanna Jackson-Fowler, Houston Baker, Jr. reflects on the progress and challenges of diversity in and out of the academy—from his time a Yale in the 1960s to his current position as Distinguished Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. Baker, the first Black president of the Modern Language Association, discusses the shifting role the idea of “community” has played in his career and how he answered colleagues who subtly undermine faculty of color he has championed over the years. The interview concludes with his thoughts about the role of the public intellectual during turbulent times, offering advice about how young scholars can, and should, conserve their time and energy.

Failing the Masses in Syria

Women Rising ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 135-142
Author(s):  
Asaad Alsaleh
Keyword(s):  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Political Control ◽  
The Political ◽  
Women's Liberation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Reform ◽  
Women’S Liberation ◽  
Syrian Revolution ◽  
The Masses

In this chapter, Asaad Alsaleh discusses the problematic and double-sided role of the public intellectual Buthaina Shabaan in the Syrian revolution. Shabaan was a writer, professor, and advocate of the Syrian regime who spurred the populace to embrace the possibility of democratic reform. However, this feminist intellectual accepted—even embraced—the political control employed by the Assad authoritarian one-party regime, which used her as a representative of its supposed progressive and women’s liberation agendas.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document