Books
Tolerance has become a negotiable commodity Ralph Townsend reviews Frank Furedi’s What’s Happened to the University? A sociological exploration of its infantilisation. Published by Routledge 2016 ISBN 9781138212930
In March 2016, the Chancellor of the University of WisconsinMadison, Rebecca Blank, circulated an open letter in which she outlined her comprehensive programme of behaviour management. We’ve seen a troubling string of incidents reported through our hate & bias reporting system that have frequently affected and hurt members of our diverse community…these incidents affect each and every one of us and reveal that we have not made much progress as needed on building an inclusive and welcoming community. So reports Professor Frank Furedi, who in this book explains how and why the culture that dominates higher education has dramatically changed. There was a time when members of the
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university understood that the potential for understanding and truth-seeking required a no-holds barred robust attitude towards criticism and the exchange of competing views. The ideal of tolerance for dissident views was always subject to conformist pressures, but until recently the moral authority of academic freedom and freedom of speech ensured that an open-minded liberal ethos prevailed in campus life. Reading as a risky activity, the psychologically-disturbing impact of the written text and the upheavals that it can cause, give reading its authoritative power and appeal. Now students argue that some books are dangerous to their psychological well-being or that some arguments and criticisms are so toxic that it can
