Controversy in the Discursive Space of the University

Debates regarding academic freedom have erupted across campuses in the United States and Europe over the past decade. In line with this, the national discourse regarding the state of academic freedom in Germany has become increasingly heated, lamenting an erosion of an open debating culture at universities (i.e., a growing “cancel culture” and state of conformity). Empirical evidence on the extent of – and much less on the nature of – such phenomena is scant. This study presents preliminary results from the first representative vignette study among academics in Germany, with about 9.000 valid cases of PhD students, mid-level faculty and professors. Respondents were presented with different scenarios of speakers giving a talk at their university, against which protests were announced. Topics of the talks varied across the vignettes and included gender, ethnicity/race and nuclear research. Respondents were asked whether the university should conduct different actions, including doing nothing and cancelling the event. Preliminary results show that the share of people who want to cancel a speaking event outright is minute across most scenarios. Regarding other actions, there is substantial heterogeneity in terms of how academics think controversial speakers should be dealt with by the university. We present group differences in the preferred actions according to academic disciplines, status groups, genders, age groups and political orientations. Our findings contribute much needed empirical substance and nuance to debates reading academic freedom at universities. The liberal and deliberative views following Kant, Mill, and Habermas, which form the dominant theoretical reference points in these debates in Germany, must be expanded by the reality of the organizational complexity at university and the plurality of academic disciplines and political interests within.