Jacques Rancière (1940–): Higher Education as a Place for Radical Equality

In this chapter, I introduce Jacques Ranciere as a philosopher of higher education. After a brief comment on the nature of his work and how it relates to the university, I discuss Ranciere’s controversial claim that education is predicated on the assumption that we are all equally intelligent. I also show that this doesn’t imply a particular method of teaching. But, his position does entail a profound critique of a dominant approach towards higher education institutions today (viz. critical pedagogy and sociology). I conclude this chapter with a few remarks about the relation between politics and education, and with an exploration of recently developed university practices that are inspired by the work of Ranciere.