Academic perspective

Academicians are experts. They are supposed to be free from politics and work in the generalized interest of society. They are supposed to understand the issues of development better. They constitute think tanks in universities and institutions, development organization and research centers. They are expected to possess the theoretical and practical knowledge of best practices worldwide and help the action groups and planning bodies at various levels. Yet, the problem with them is that they cannot confront the reality directly. They need a theoretical framework to capture reality. This explains why they are divided along ideological lines. They work with a definite paradigm of society which may or may not be overtly stated. One may be a functionalist and look at problems more from the perspective of state, or he may be a leftist and look at the same problems from a critical perspective. Academicians are good at analysis but they cannot set priorities. They are trained to suggest remedies. They also cannot assume an extra moral authority on contentious issues. Some academicians may also work as advocates of vulnerable sections of society or disadvantageous social groups but not in the capacity of analysts. Academicians take up a problem for analysis usually when the larger society has identified the problem. If they work on poverty, inequality, HIV or communal riots it is because state, society and media have already identified them as problems. Moreover, in modern times research requires huge amount of money. To be taken seriously a research program has to be multi-centric, collect huge amount of data from a large sample, and involve sophisticated instruments of data collection and analysis. This changing paradigm of research has widened the gap between academicians and people, between experts and society. Experts are more worried about recognition among the peer groups than about problems of people. It is doubtful whether academicians can counter the growing influence of capital and international network and make society better.