Government policies seek to enhance the impact of research. Whose use is valued? Whose knowledge counts and is counted? The essays in this important collection address the new forms of inclusion and exclusion that are emerging. They pose fundamental questions for public social science that all of us need to consider. - John Holmwood, President, British Sociological Association, UK
As the membrane separating the university from the wider society thins, as commodification and rationalization becomes the order of the day, so there is a struggle for the future of the university. This forward-thinking book breaks down conventional academic barriers between and within disciplines, as well as between the university and its environment, to develop critical and engaged approaches to the production and circulation of knowledge. In so doing the essays embark on the long and arduous process of reinventing the university a university accessible and accountable to a broad range of publics. - Michael Burawoy, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Berkeley, USA
This collection makes clear the challenges and opportunities that the neo-liberal university brings with it and invites the reader to take up a more critical stance towards the processes and policies that come with it and poses a whole range of questions of what public engagement currently is and what it might be. - Jon Rainford, Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research blog