Specialization and Fragmentation Among Faculty as Endemic Features of Academic Life

Abstract

Proposals promising integration have been offered as solutions to problems of faculty specialization and fragmentation. Despite their merits, these proposals may be premature or even misguided. A prior need is to analyze the roots and processes of specialization and fragmentation. One kind of analysis begins with the relationship among professionalization, problem setting, and paradigmatic communities. In addition to emphasizing the import of institutional and societal contexts, this analytical frame of reference calls attention to issues of power, authority, resources, and prestige in higher education. Specialization and fragmentation are endemic in higher education, and proposals aimed at integration must accommodate both.