Although the university space has historically been a site of autonomy and resistance, the last few decades have seen market forces invade this sanctuary of critical thought. But is it enough to oppose the ideal of the autonomy of knowledge and science to the commercial imperatives and bureaucratic controls that govern many universities today? In this essay, first published on Contretemps in 2006, Daniel Bensaïd argues that critical forces in the university must move beyond a defence of the "sanctuary" status, towards the creation of a broader strategy of social transformation, that can only be achieved by collaborating with other centres of knowledge production.
