Agent of Democracy - Society for College and University Planning

The Makings of a Public
to generate public knowledge, produced by a public’s
use of reason and experience. “Knowledge,” in this
usage, is not a commodity that can be stored up and
transmitted as needed; rather, this is a kind of knowledge
constantly being generated by—and in turn
generating —new insights among citizens, experts
and elites working with each other as a community. 20
The public scholar can be an ally and a “shared asset,” as Campbell
puts it, to a public working on pulling together an understanding of
itself, of its challenges, alternatives, and possible directions. Such
public work may pull the academic away from his or her usual object
of attention—whether medieval art or astrophysics—or it
might involve reorienting one’s work in a public direction. What a
public scholar can share is not just what he or she knows but how
he or she comes to know and continues to generate and translate
meaningful work.
20 Cole C. Campbell, “Journalism and Public Knowledge,” Kettering Review
(Winter 2007).
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