Imaginary academics.

Autonomy, academy freedom and social commitment

Abstract

The figure of the socially committed academic has accompanied a long reflection on the limits between university autonomy, academic freedoms of research and teaching, and the links between teaching and research practices with the resolution of relevant social problems. This figure is the socio-institutional representation of an idea of ​​imprecise origins: that of the social and public commitment of university activities with respect to the demands and requirements of their environments. However, representation is the expression of a normative ideal that is translated in very different ways in university contexts and among existing academics. Based on these assumptions, the idea of ​​the existence of an interpretive gap between imaginary academics and real academics is explored. Among the latter, it is possible to identify different types and degrees of academic commitment based on the coexistence of three major reference models: homo academicus, homo sociologicus, and homo politicus. It is proposed that, based on these representations, it is possible to establish a differentiation between three types of committed academics: the “academic-activist”; the “public-academic”, and the “autonomous-academic”.