Liberal Arts in a Changing World

• In Event: Liberal Arts Education: Freedom of Memory and the Memory of Freedom

Abstract

Higher education is one of the social spheres where the relations of power stand out in the most direct way, and some literal authoritarianism remains legitimate in liberal societies. Therefore it plays a pivotal role in the processes of democratization. The expansion of the US-centered type "liberal arts" curriculum was an important factor in the successes of societal democratization and the post-industrial economy. However, this expansion has been stalled, even in the European Union not speaking of Northern Eurasia, and the liberal education is under political pressure even inside the US. The talk will explore the political and functional role of liberal education in a world where liberal values are on the defensive and where higher education loses its elite status, while re-industrialization and re-militarization returns on the agenda.

Author

• Artemy Magun, Inst for Global Reconstitution