The Republic of Blogs: A new phase in the development and democratization of knowledge

After a long period of monopolising academic discourse, European universities went into decline. Intellectual development moved outside the walled gardens of academia creating a Republic of Letters. Patrick Dunleavy argues that we are experiencing a similar shift towards a ‘Republic of Blogs’ that enlarges communication and evidence beyond the halls of universities.

Academic research is changing; it is moving towards a new paradigm of advancing ideas outside the confines of the traditional academic publishing model. Orthodox journals will soon be considered tombstones, end of debate certificates. In a recent presentation to the LSE’s Centre for Learning Technology, Patrick argued three points:

• Micro-blogging is not only replacing traditional news media, but becoming a tool for finding and disseminating ideas and research (active research surveillance),
• Well edited blogs are becoming core communication tools and vehicles for HE debate; while the less traditional format encourages a writing style that invites debate from academics and lay persons alike, thus cutting across ranks, locations and academic status,
• Working papers and online journals are now key, immediately accessible evidence and theory/methods development sources.

View Patrick’s slides on issuu here, or watch a video of his presentation here.

 Patrick, and Managing Editor of Europp, Chris Gilson also explain why they believe that blogging is one of the most important things that academics should be doing right now here.