General Theory of Action and Higher Education and Research: Parsons/Platt the American University Revisited

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  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 9. Theorizing Institutional Challenges

Abstract

Revisiting Talcott Parsons’ last monograph The American University (co-authored with Gerald M. Platt) allows for the reconstruction and evaluation of a highly complex action-theoretical frame that the authors used for an examination of the role of cognitive rationality in modern American society respectively, with universities lying at the core of what they called “the cognitive complex.” An important theoretical tool for their analysis was the concept of generalized symbolic media of interchange. The paper examines the applicability of the theoretical frame and of essential insights of the study to the contemporary situation which is characterized by transnational competition/cooperation between universities and new challenges for trust in knowledge production in a complex global situation.

Authors

• Helmut Staubmann, University of Innsbruck

• Victor Meyer Lidz, Drexel University College of Medicine