Stephen Downes

As is well known, writes Colin Beer, there are two typoes of authority: that derived from expertise, and that derived from authority. It is ironic, then, that universities, which produce the former, are governed so often by the latter. Consequently, Beer advocates in this post for what Gary L. Anderson calls democratic professionalism, "which is neither passive compliance nor open conflict, but a persistent insistence on the value of expertise through the quality and visibility of the work itself." He adds, "For me, the irony here is not that there is a tension between authority and expertise, but that institutions capable of producing entire fields of knowledge aren't terribly good at eating their own dog food.