June 9, 2013, by Graham Kendall

Night School: Mass Civilisation, Minority Culture

Sean Matthews from the School of Modern Languages and Cultures recently appeared on Sharaad Kuttan’s new BFM Radio show ‘Night School’, discussing F.R. Leavis’s seminal work, ‘Mass Civilization and Minority Culture’.

In a lively discussion, Sean explored, and defended, Leavis’s position, explaining that Leavis’s argument was not about excluding people from knowledge and culture, and certainly not about protecting the privileges of a narrow, self-appointed caste or class, but rather about ensuring that there are democratic space for disinterested and informed scholarship, and that the function of education, of universities, is not betrayed by emphases on instrumentalist or purely commercial approaches to knowledge.

The full show can be accessed from here (click on the play button).

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