<p> This dissertation examines the interrelationship between higher education and the capitalist socio-economic system in the United States. The central argument is that both the growth of colleges and universities, and the development of a sociology of higher education, have been dependent upon, and serve to support, the historical transformation of the socio-economic system from laissez-faire to corporate capitalism. A socio-economic elite which has dominated the development of scientific knowledge and the growth of college and universities since colonial times, has profitably invested its riches in reshaping higher education to serve the dictates of the new capitalism in its corporate form. An examination of college and university financing, educational philosophy, and the social science practiced by professors shows that these changed to accommodate changes in the socio-economic system. The cumulative emphasis has been, and continues to be, on the production, sale, and consumption of a practical (marketable) knowledge which furthers elite domination of the educational industry. </p> <p> The sociology of higher education, as it has developed over the past twenty years, provides an example of theory which furthers this elite domination. A review of three eminent theorists, Burton R. Clark, David Riesman, and Christopher Jencks, shows how their attempt to make colleges and universities autonomous from the surrounding socio-economic system makes higher edcation increasingly dependent upon, subservient to, that system. Clark's "active" education creates an Academic Revolution based upon the specialized expertise of academic disciplines which Riesman labels "the racecourses of the mind". The sociological raceciurse helps provide Jencks with an individualistic explanation to "accidents" of personality and luck. The argument presented herein suggests these inequalities are legitimated and sustained by the commitment of the education-as-autonomous theorists to a pluralistic ideology which ties the growth of higher education with the prevailing socio-economic arrangements of corporate capitalism. Briefly, the education-as-autonomous thesis developed by Clark, Reisman and Jencks provides a notion of pluralism (widely dispersed power) that encourages and helps to ensure the non-pluralistic domination of higher education by a corporate elite capable of transforming wealth into power. </p> </p> A summary review of the foundations of American sociology underscores the interconnections between this pluralism and German sociologist Max Weber's conception of scientific "objectivity". It is Weber's science, characterizing the sociologist as an objective analyst receptive to all data, rather than the science of Lester Ward and the Americans, which continues to be a major influence on the majority of sociologists educated in the United States. While Weber and Ward both developed a pluralistic science providing ideological support for American capitalism, Weber did so in a manner that seemed more value-natural. Weber was simply more inclined than Ward to make his values supporting the socio-economic structure of capitalism more covert. This supposed value-neutrality of Weber's sociology appeals to social scientists, legitimating and sustaining the professional practice which maintains their privileged position within the current socio-economic order. Weber attempts to make scientists as objectively autonomous from the larger socioeconomic system as the Clark-Riesman-Jencks thesis tries to make the universities. Accordingly, the pluralism of Weber's "constellations of interest" includes superman/wonderwoman sociologists capable of transcending the ordinary by pacifying passion in a professional manner. </p> </p> An examination of this sociological professionalis in two settings, the professional association and the university, indicates the importance of Weber's notion of scholarly objectivity as the central norm governing professional practice. adherence to the objectivity norm is of primary importance in giving rise to the view among many sociologists that sociology as "understanding" cannot be a practice. This conception of sociology has helped promote itself to become "the official view: of social reality--a view that encourages university professors to serve and protect elite interests, interests they recognize as becoming increasingly their own. Professional commitment and responsibility have come to mean participation in the development of Weber's "objective" science which continue to maintain the Clark-Riesman-Jencks myth that universities and professional associates are autonomous, objectively value-neutral and, therefore, apolitical. To act in a professional commitment which has come to mean service to, maintenance of, the socio-economic arrangements of today's corporate capitalism. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:22:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Barbosa Ribeiro.pdf: 4955987 bytes, checksum: 0842c1fe7061f01eb09336a7b9ace5ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-09 / This doctoral thesis analyses historical transformation and violence among the Maxakali people, whose language is classified as belonged to the branch of the Macro-Gê language family. Not too long ago, the Maxakalis used to live togheter in T I. Maxakali, situated in Bertópolis and Santa Helena de Minas, municipal districits located in the boundary between the state of Minas Gerais and the state of Bahia. Nevertheless, between 2003 and 2005 a violent conflict happened and, as a result, many people were murdered and part of the population was expelled from the territory. This scenario grabbed the attention to the necessity of understanding how the Maxakali people make this conflict part of their social life, associating the extreme forms of violence to some of the destructive manifestations which emerge from their social life. Attached to this objective, I carried out fieldwork between 2004 and 2007. Furthermore, I did a bibliographic research that could make me develop an approach to this phenomenon. By the end of this research, It is my conviction that the Maxakali people´s social life disposes of constitutive processes through the instauration of mechanisms of modification, which can assume some violent features. Thus, it is observed that both public wars and quotidian conflicts (such as, domestic conflicts) dispose of practices able to reformulate great part of Maxakali culture against the articulation of this mechanism in the symbolic system built by their myths and rituals. Thus, the aspects related to a certain type of anthropology, which privileges historical permanencies projecting these values in the concrete society analysed by them, even when everything indicates the inverse are not able to analyse the complex multifaceted sociopolitical horizon of the Maxakalis people. In order to measure this universe carefully, we needed to propose an approach open and plural, which could incorporate effectively controversial phenomena into the analyses, without reducing the explanation of these phenomena / Esta tese trata do devir histórico e da violência entre o povo Maxakali, cuja língua é classificada como pertencente ao tronco lingüístico Macro-Gê. Até pouco tempo atrás, todos os Maxakali viviam juntos na T. I. Maxakali, situada nos municípios de Bertópolis e Santa Helena de Minas, ambos na fronteira do Estado de Minas Gerais com a Bahia. No entanto, entre 2003 e 2005 eclodiu um violento conflito englobando a quase totalidade deste povo, tendo por conseqüências o assassinato recíproco de várias pessoas e a expulsão de parte da população do território comum. Tal quadro chamou a atenção para a necessidade de compreender o lugar do conflito na vida social deste povo, associando as formas extremas de violência às demais manifestações destrutivas que emergem em sua vida social. Com este objetivo em mente, fiz incursões de campo entre 2004 e 2007 e consultei uma bibliografia que me permitisse construir uma abordagem sobre o fenômeno. Ao término da pesquisa pude constatar que a vida social Maxakali dispõe de processos constitutivos através da instauração de mecanismos de modificação, os quais podem assumir por vezes feições bastante violentas. Assim, observa-se que há tanto as guerras públicas, como os conflitos menores do cotidiano (como, por exemplo, as rixas domésticas), dispõem de práticas capazes de reformular boa parte do repertório cultural, mediante a articulação deste mecanismo no sistema simbólico construído pelos mitos e ritos deste povo. Assim, os aspectos caros a um tipo de antropologia que privilegia as permanências históricas projetando estes valores nas sociedades concretas analisadas por eles, mesmo quando tudo parece indicar o inverso , não dá conta de interpretar o complexo e multifacetado horizonte sócioplítico dos Maxakali. Para dimensionar minimamente este universo, foi preciso propor uma abordagem aberta e plural, que incorpore efetivamente em suas análises os fenômenos contraditórios e fugidios da vida social, sem reduzi-los a algum tipo de explicação redutora

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:57:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Barbosa Ribeiro.pdf: 4955987 bytes, checksum: 0842c1fe7061f01eb09336a7b9ace5ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-09 / This doctoral thesis analyses historical transformation and violence among the Maxakali people, whose language is classified as belonged to the branch of the Macro-Gê language family. Not too long ago, the Maxakalis used to live togheter in T I. Maxakali, situated in Bertópolis and Santa Helena de Minas, municipal districits located in the boundary between the state of Minas Gerais and the state of Bahia. Nevertheless, between 2003 and 2005 a violent conflict happened and, as a result, many people were murdered and part of the population was expelled from the territory. This scenario grabbed the attention to the necessity of understanding how the Maxakali people make this conflict part of their social life, associating the extreme forms of violence to some of the destructive manifestations which emerge from their social life. Attached to this objective, I carried out fieldwork between 2004 and 2007. Furthermore, I did a bibliographic research that could make me develop an approach to this phenomenon. By the end of this research, It is my conviction that the Maxakali people´s social life disposes of constitutive processes through the instauration of mechanisms of modification, which can assume some violent features. Thus, it is observed that both public wars and quotidian conflicts (such as, domestic conflicts) dispose of practices able to reformulate great part of Maxakali culture against the articulation of this mechanism in the symbolic system built by their myths and rituals. Thus, the aspects related to a certain type of anthropology, which privileges historical permanencies projecting these values in the concrete society analysed by them, even when everything indicates the inverse are not able to analyse the complex multifaceted sociopolitical horizon of the Maxakalis people. In order to measure this universe carefully, we needed to propose an approach open and plural, which could incorporate effectively controversial phenomena into the analyses, without reducing the explanation of these phenomena / Esta tese trata do devir histórico e da violência entre o povo Maxakali, cuja língua é classificada como pertencente ao tronco lingüístico Macro-Gê. Até pouco tempo atrás, todos os Maxakali viviam juntos na T. I. Maxakali, situada nos municípios de Bertópolis e Santa Helena de Minas, ambos na fronteira do Estado de Minas Gerais com a Bahia. No entanto, entre 2003 e 2005 eclodiu um violento conflito englobando a quase totalidade deste povo, tendo por conseqüências o assassinato recíproco de várias pessoas e a expulsão de parte da população do território comum. Tal quadro chamou a atenção para a necessidade de compreender o lugar do conflito na vida social deste povo, associando as formas extremas de violência às demais manifestações destrutivas que emergem em sua vida social. Com este objetivo em mente, fiz incursões de campo entre 2004 e 2007 e consultei uma bibliografia que me permitisse construir uma abordagem sobre o fenômeno. Ao término da pesquisa pude constatar que a vida social Maxakali dispõe de processos constitutivos através da instauração de mecanismos de modificação, os quais podem assumir por vezes feições bastante violentas. Assim, observa-se que há tanto as guerras públicas, como os conflitos menores do cotidiano (como, por exemplo, as rixas domésticas), dispõem de práticas capazes de reformular boa parte do repertório cultural, mediante a articulação deste mecanismo no sistema simbólico construído pelos mitos e ritos deste povo. Assim, os aspectos caros a um tipo de antropologia que privilegia as permanências históricas projetando estes valores nas sociedades concretas analisadas por eles, mesmo quando tudo parece indicar o inverso , não dá conta de interpretar o complexo e multifacetado horizonte sócioplítico dos Maxakali. Para dimensionar minimamente este universo, foi preciso propor uma abordagem aberta e plural, que incorpore efetivamente em suas análises os fenômenos contraditórios e fugidios da vida social, sem reduzi-los a algum tipo de explicação redutora