Seeing Like a University: The Need for an Academic Caesar

This is very interesting. It reminds me of Milena Kremakova’s notion of the ‘troll on the bridge’. Much as university leadership can be characterised by ‘Academic Caesars’, who demand internal loyalty in return for shielding their subordinates from the political context, the ‘troll on the bridge’ secures the autonomy of those within a research centre or research laboratory. Even if both figures are well-intentioned, they point towards a growing authoritarianism in the management culture of higher education.