“Moral and political responsibility as well as scientific rigor demand that University turns its attention to the Fourth World, not to educate in the first instance, but to open a dialogue and learn. When we say University, we mean the university with all its departments and associated activities, and all those citizens who, one way or another, hold some stake in common knowledge. This is the time for sharing knowledge, to create reciprocity between those who hold a share of common knowledge and those who are excluded from it. This reciprocity is a tangible and uncompromising requirement. It’s not a question of lending a sympathetic ear, a semblance of listening, a form of psychological therapy. It is asking the population at the bottom of the social scale to entrust us with their thinking, their knowledge. We’re asking them to believe us, and to trust us. It’s critical that we realise what we’re asking. We are inviting a population that has been plunged into insecurity for generations to take new risks with us”.
Leave a comment