Higher education is the premier knowledge institution in an...

Higher education is the premier knowledge institution in an era of exploding knowledge and knowledge technologies. It generates and diffuses conceptual frameworks that structure practices of all sorts, from global finance to parent education. It trains and socializes professionals. Higher education is thus a theater for significant strategic action if it takes up a robust democracy-building mission and identity.

But a populist movement challenges us to place ourselves as a strand of a larger movement, not see ourselves as tutoring the larger society in the skills and values and habits of democracy. All this requires a shift from critic, service provider, and outsider to what I would call a relational intellectual, embodying the craft nature of the professions. Craft is relational, contextual, and unique in its…