University Commons Divided: Exploring Debate & Dissent on Campus, by Peter MacKinnon
Sam Popowich · Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship · 2019
The question of debate and dissent on North American campuses has become vitally important over the last few years.It is bound up with the rise of right-wing populism and intersects with broader questions of intellectual and academic freedom within academic librarianship.Peter MacKinnon's book takes as its starting point the idea that universities are defined, at least in part, by their ability to provide a space for free debate, discussion, and contestation.While the university "commons," MacKinnon argues, can and should be a safe space, it cannot be a comfortable one."Contestation is inevitable, indeed definitional," he writes, "and with it comes unease, discomfort, and dissent" (x).