Qualitative Inquiry in the Public Sphere examines the relationships between public scholarship, the research marketplace, and the politics of higher education.

It is written from the perspective that higher education is under attack from multiple sides, both political and economic; that academics reside in a precarious position, one fraught with accountability metrics, funding pressures, and spiralling bureaucracy; and that scientific knowledge itself is increasingly contentious in public. These internal and external pressures have fundamentally transformed the public sphere of higher education from one of rational public discourse by and for the public good to one of private market relations and strategic research decisions. In turn, these transformations have fundamentally altered what it means to be a 'productive' scholar within this space-altered what it means to be a public researcher in this space.

Leading international voices from the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Norway collectively present a forceful rebuke to such developments, raising a clarion call to action on topics ranging from scholarly publishing, audit culture, and the privatization of public knowledge to Indigenous, arts-based, and collaborative research methods.

Qualitative Inquiry in the Public Sphere is a must-read for faculty and students alike interested in the politics of being a public researcher-of conducting research in and influencing dialogue in the public sphere.

About the Author

Norman K. Denzin is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology, and Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Michael D. Giardina is Professor of Media, Politics, and Physical Culture in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State University, USA.

Reviews

The quality of scholarship introduced at the annual International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry is consistently innovative, provocative, and scholarly. This collection of papers represents some of the finest work of international scholars who attended the 13th annual Congress and proposed how to use qualitative inquiry and the different systems of thought that differently shape it to resist the alarming politics of the global right. At once affirmative and urgent, this book serves as inspiration and a call to political action.

Elizabeth Adams St.Pierre, Professor of Critical Studies, Educational Theory & Practice Department, University of Georgia

The International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI) continues to be a major intervention into the ethics and politics of social research. Responding to a felt need for a high quality forum to debate issues of theory, method and social justice, this latest volume of papers from the Congress reflects on the development of the 'research-enterprise nexus' in universities and our own complicity in the development of a research market place. It calls for a focus on the competition of ideas rather than products, and for wider engagement with communities and constituencies which should benefit from the processes and findings of qualitative research.

Harry Torrance, Professor of Education, Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Book Information
ISBN 9781138309517
Author Norman K. Denzin
Format Paperback
Page Count 222
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 294g