Akademinės bendruomenės ir universiteto kultūros

Abstract

The article is an exploration of the structure and ethos of academic communities from a comparative point of view. Discussing the ideas of thinkers such as Karl Jaspers, Immanuel Wallerstein and the anthropologist of higher education Tony Becher, the author insists that many problems caused by a lack of departamental flexibility, the tendency toward specialisation and tribalisation resulted in creating isolated and detached academic "islands" where a rigid mentality dominates. Though these developments were fostered by the general logic of modernity, in Lithuania the tendencies of isoloation of specialities and departamentalisation were much stronger than in Western universities, where during recent years there has been a shift towards broader interdisciplinarity.