The Democratic Role and Public Responsibility of Higher Education and Science

Abstract

In the last decades of the twentieth century, higher education policy in Europe was characterized by a growing emphasis on the sector’s contributions to economic development and its role in the innovation ecosystem. More recently, we can see a careful re-emergence of the political, social and academic interest in the contributions of higher education to democratic political order. This renewed interest in the democratic role and public responsibility of higher education features also prominently in the work of Pavel Zgaga. In this chapter, we will reflect upon the public responsibility of higher education as key knowledge institution in supporting and strengthening the democratic culture in European societies. The chapter starts with discussing central aspects of the relationship between higher education, knowledge, and society. Next, it is argued how the democratic role of higher education is manifested, and can be interpreted from an institutional theory perspective. The chapter ends, inspired by Pavel Zgaga’s ideas, with a number of reflections, amongst other things, on how the Covid-19 pandemic displays the democratic value of scientific knowledge.