ivory tower

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Academic elitism is a charge sometimes levied at academic institutions and academics more broadly; use of the term "ivory tower" often carries with it an implicit critique of academic elitism. Anti-intellectuals often perceive themselves as champions of ordinary people and populism against elitism, especially academic elitism. These critics argue that highly educated people form an isolated social group and tend to dominate political discourse in higher education (academia). Another criticism is that universities tend more to pseudo-intellectualism than intellectualism per se; for example, to protect their positions and prestige, academics may over-complicate problems and express them in obscure language.

Description

Academic elitism suggests that in highly competitive academic environments only those individuals who have engaged in scholarship are deemed to have anything worthwhile to say, or do. It suggests that individuals who have not engaged in such scholarship are cranks.

Academic elitism is also an ideological belief that only those who attended the most elite or prestigious universities (such as Ivy League schools, Grandes Ecoles or Oxbridge) are capable of obtaining wealth and power. Proponents of academic elitism justify this belief by claim that this is just a by-product of capitalism^{[citation needed]}.

Economist Dan Klein shows that the worldwide top-35 economics departments pull 76 percent of their faculty from their own graduates. He argues that the academic culture is pyramidal, not polycentric, and resembles a closed and genteel social circle. Meanwhile it draws on resources from taxpayers, foundations, endowments, and tuition payers, and it judges the social service delivered. The result is a self-organizing and self-validating circle.^[1]

See also

• Academia
• Anti-intellectualism
• Anti-intellectualism in American Life (book)
• Elitism
• Graduate Record Examination
• Intelligence quotient
• Ivory Tower
• Liberal Elite
• Model Minority
• Richard Hofstadter

References

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Notes

External references

Published articles

• Adams, Mike S. (2004). Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor. Harbor House. ISBN 1-891799-17-7. 
• Bair, Jeffrey H.; Boor, Myron (1991). "The Academic Elite in Law: Linkages Among Top-Ranked Law Schools". Psychological Reports 68: 891-94. 
• Bair, Jeffrey H. (2003). "The Academic Elite in Law: Linkages Among Top-Ranked Law Schools". The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_2_62/ai_100202314. 
• Keally, Charles T., "Academic Elitists and Elite Academics: An Essay". Sophia International Review no. 28, 2006.
• Lin, Xi, "The academic elite; Cynicism and disillusionment are protocol for UW elites". The Daily of the University of Washington, 1998.
• Newitz, Annalee (2000), "Ivory Tower. (Out of academia)". Salon.com, 2000.
• Schrecker, Ellen W., "No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities". 1986. ISBN 0-19-503557-7
• Sprain, Leah (2004), "Sending Signals from the Ivory Tower: Barriers to Connecting Academic Research to the Public", Student writing on public scholarship

Websites

• A video on Elitism in College Admissions produced by The Massachusetts School of Law