The Department of Sociology is proud to support an Annual Debate, which is open to staff and students from across the university. Each year, an eminent scholar from outside the university is brought into dialogue with members of the department around a particular theme. It is always lively and provocative!

The first annual debate of the Warwick Sociology Department took place in the Arts Centre in May 2005. Its topic was ‘Is the intellectual an endangered species?’ Prof. Frank Furedi (Sociology, Kent) argued for the proposition. Prof. Steve Fuller (Sociology, Warwick) argued against. The debate was chaired by Prof. Simon Wiliams (Sociology, Warwick). After opening remarks of about 5 minutes, each speaker was given about 20 minutes to make his case, with the remaining 45 minutes open to the floor for questions.

Furedi argued that intellectual life is endangered by virtue of being ‘dumbed down’, a process in which academics have been complicit, especially by refusing to stand their ground in light of pressure, especially from government but also other parts of society that expect the wrong things from academia. For Furedi, academia is the natural, though not exclusive, home of intellectual life, which he associates with the capacity for sustained thought about important matters.

Fuller argued that intellectual life is not especially endangered, but it has always been in tension with academic life. Academia uses knowledge as a form of authority, whereas intellectuals typically use knowledge to challenge authority. The one institution of academia designed to provide the protection needed to challenge authority, tenure, has been squandered and now is in ruins. Not surprisingly, intellectuals tend to migrate from academia, but the consequences – felt in the arts and the media – enrich society, even as academia goes into decline.

Both Furedi and Fuller had recently published books on the intellectual: Furedi’s Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? (Continuum) and Fuller’s The Intellectual (Icon).

The 2006 debate can be viewed online...

The 2007 debate can be viewed online

For details of the 2008 debate click here

For details of the 2009 debate click here