Abstract

In this chapter, the authors introduce the book by situating the theme of intellectual leadership within the transnational political and economic context of higher education and outline a critical framework for understanding the increasing role of finance and the markets and the forms of leadership these governing instruments require. They then provide an introduction to the concept of ‘mass intellectuality’, and assert it as an alternative to existing conceptions of the role and purpose of higher education. The authors go on to provide a review of the literature on academic leadership and find it limited in its scope and critical reflexivity. The authors then provide an overview of the three-part structure of the book and draw out a series of themes that emerge from across the different contributions. The authors conclude with a critical-practical response which is taken up elsewhere in the book in the form of ‘co-operative higher education’. They assert that ‘social co-operatives’ offer an organizational form that values democratic participation and decision-making and would constitute the university as a social form of mass intellectuality reappropriated by the producers of knowledge.