Francios Cusset's summary(库塞的概括)

FranciosCusset unfolds his writing in the Academic Enclave in a way that tries to draw a trajectory of American higher education. This trajectory ultimately points to the intrinsic ambiguity that lies at the heart of American university system, the confusion of the real characteristic of American education: whether it is isolated from or closely tied to society?As any other discussions raised by social discourses, this question of American education has its dual character. Although Cusset does not live in America, he is critical enough to notice this duality, as revealed by what he points out “although [American university] is separated from civil society, the university nonetheless maintains a closer link with American political society”(38). With this thought-provoking insight from Cusset, I’m going to analyze the legitimacy of Cusset’s duality from a historical point of view.As it is already mentioned, Cusset points out that there is a duality in the role American university plays in the society. It seems that Cusset reveals the American university from the perspective of both “civil society” and “political society.” In order for us to understand the insight of Cusset, we have to mine into the concept of “political society” and “civil society.” The use of these two terms can be traced back to the political philosopher John Locke, who uses them synonymously. A political society, according to Locke, is a system that men voluntarily entered because of consent on social contract. Because of this consent by all, political society, to some extent, can be seen as the aggregate of all sectors in our society, such as government, business, etc. On the other hand, civil society is often understood as family and private sphere, which is considered the third sector and separated from businessand government. From this respect, it is appropriate to consider civil society as a subset of political society. If this is true, it seems that when Cusset concludes that American university is separated from the society, whi le being the “dramatic relay point” of political society, he has made a logical mistake. However, in order to understand correctly Cusset’s argument, we have to consider the historical background and Cusset’s quotation of Bill Readings.“Bill Readings notes in summarizing the arrival of this ‘posthistorical university’ without any referent-since here excellence itself is, in this logic, a notion with no content”(45). Cusset quotes this phrase by Bill Readings to demonstrate the utilitarian character of “posthistorical university,” which is referred to by Cusset as American university under “corporate culture”. Cusset points out, with Readings word, that American university has become the university of excellence. This university of excellence is so good at absorbing and integrating even what would have threatened its values that it has become nothing more than a machine operated by the market. In other words, university in general has transformed from a site to foster unified national culture into the industry of corporations. According to Cusset, this transformation can be summarized by “learn to earn.” This transformation is embedded in the historical background. The space race that has been given birth by the cold war with USSR, the federal funds for research between 1942 and 1945 all reinforce this transformation. Amongst all of these historical factors, the establishment of what Clyde Barrow calls “military-academic complex” is the one which brings the “civil society” into “political society.” Despite the fundsprovided to university by big corporations, which tends to extract American university out from the civil society and the goal of fostering an unified national culture, Roosevelt’s New Deal forces professors to declare loyalty to government. After WW2, the emphasis on nuclear physics has made the monopolistic role of government on technology increasingly imperative. Under this historical and social background, the political society has gradually breaks away from the civil society, integrating with the government and corporate culture. It seems that the Americna university’s involvement in the 19th century Big Projects such as gene pool mapping has build a close connection with the society, but by no means is this a connection to the formation of a public intellectual field represented by civil society. American university has been incorporated into the corporate culture to serve the interest of political society specifically. As a result, it isn’t unexpected for Cusset to conclude that “the social isol ation of the university was paradoxically reinforced, whereas the new economic and professional realism might have led one to expect the opposite. “Instead of logical contradiction, it is critical for Cusset to consider the American higher education system is both isolated and closely tied to society.。