Commodity and Community

It is unclear, and usefully so, where the boundaries of the university community lie. Is each university a community unto itself, or do communities form along disciplinary lines, or do the universities of the world form a single cosmopolitan community? All are clearly true to some degree, and the institution is designed to manage this multiplicity. Universities and disciplines recognize one another's degrees, at least ritually. Research disciplines are global communities, the famous invisible colleges that cut across the boundaries of universities (Crane 1972), and Alpert (1985: 253) remarks on "the power exercised by the national disciplinary communities in setting the standards and scholarly goals of American universities". University governance deliberately assembles committees from faculty who work in entirely different fields. Visiting speakers from other universities are accorded ritual deference. Students are positioned as probationary members of the community, with graduation paradoxically a ritual assumption of full membership and a rite of departure at the same time.