The University at the time of post-truth. Contribution to research on the basis of the book of P. Kiprianos “The magic of the Diploma: Universities, Graduates, Social Orbits (1837-2015) (full text in Greek)

Abstract

Τhe aim of this paper  is to provide a space to consider the recent research on post truth communication, especially related to research in Higher Education. More concretely, the study focuses on the work of P.Kiprianos on the perception of degrees throughout Greek history and the role of graduates in the making of modern Greece. Under this framework we concentrate on the ‘elective affinity’ between public post-truth narrations and post modernity, as a consequence of the breakdown of the twentieth century mass media order and the consolidation of disaggregated mediated spheres.

According to the theoretical frameworks of Max Weber and Jurgen Habermas the upsurge of post-truth argumentation represented by Social Media can only be overcome by the collective effort to produce agreed-upon facts and reach consensus on the correspondence between assertions and reality.

In conclusion, the fundamental position of this study is that the shift towards the post-truth public sphere ultimately concerns the political definition of the social subject itself and the democratic composition of its action. In this context, trust and truth become constitutive reasons for action that is implied by the social biopolitics as a process of normalizing the phenomenon of social exclusion (Neets) and not as a process of withdrawing it. Under this assumption, placing the University at the core of action for (lifelong?) growth and social cohesion, implies an answer to the social and, by extension, to the political importance of the University in the public sphere.