The Endless Loop of Democratic Accountability

• In Event: 3564 - Measuring and Managing Organizations

Abstract

This article describes contemporary college and university engagement initiatives as a complex multi-level response to market pressures in higher education. Democracy initiatives in the U.S. academic field encompass an expansive range of hybrid local-level activities drawing on research, coursework, co-curricular programs, and civic action, but the forces driving their production are decidedly non-local and top-down. The mission of democratic accountability pursued by institutions involves extensive efforts to authenticate civic empowerment for national actors in the field. An organizational perspective on community engagement in higher education shifts attention from the disadvantaged neighborhoods and grassroots transformations that are its putative focus to the larger processes driving this activity and its outcomes-- in this case, the pursuit of elite legitimacy through increasingly elaborate self-assessment strategies.

Author

• Caroline W. Lee, Lafayette College