Towards abstraction: reflections on the university crisis

Abstract

Universities reached their apogee in the 19th century, though today they experience a paradoxical crisis over their adequacy and aptitude to contemporary demands. By using Vilém Flusser’s concept of “technical image,” this paper is related to the theme “the construction of information” by analyzing the role of images – traditional and technical – in society’s informational evolution, and consequently in that of universities. This paper aims to draw a parallel between universities’ evolution and society itself, seeking to elaborate hypothesis on the current university crisis that may allow further investigations and future actions. Through the dialectical method, this paper performs a literature review and critical analysis, mainly on the different phases of universities’ evolution and the concepts explored by Flusser, verifying their mutual interferences. This analysis reveals that today’s telematic society is built upon the rupture of fundamental university precepts, leading to question these institutions’ aptitude. To adapt to this new context, universities must review from their physical and administrative structures to scientific reasoning itself. In this process, university tradition and conservatism are their greatest triumph and vice: the university must behave as an “ameba” in a hostile environment, not as a “dinosaur.”