RISING FROM THE ASHES - THE MICHIGAN MEMORIAL PHOENIX PROJECT AND THECORPORATIZATION OF UNIVERSITY-BASED SCIENTIFIC-RESEARCH

A plethora of books and articles have appeared recently that announce the global triumph of corporate capitalism and its attendant ideologie s. Nowhere are these articles more scathing in their critique of corpo ratization than in the field of education. However, few have taken a h istorical perspective in examining the institutional policies and prac tices that paved the way for private-sector influence and the adoption of business and administrative sensibilities in higher education. Thi s article examines the University of Michigan (U-M) between 1945 and t he early 1960s as a case study of the Kinds of physical and philosophi cal changes that occurred to usher In the process of corporatization a t a major research university. I focus predominantly on one major rese arch effort-the Phoenix Memorial Project-that set in motion many of th e forces that would effectively reshape the school's philosophy and pr actices. The article begins with a discussion of the ideological and p olitical tensions that characterized the course of U-M scientific rese arch after World War II, particularly the complex inrermingling of uni versity, government and corporate interests. Next, I document the Phoe nix Project itself and the emphasis on institutional restructuring for capital investment that it inspired Despite conflicting and contradic tory ideas about links between education and both military and corpora te research interests, U-M's top administrators restructured the unive rsity to attract venture capital by constructing innovative mechanisms for integrating investors' needs into the work of academic (mostly sc ientific) inquiry. Finally, I want to look at some of the cultural nar ratives that enabled this triumph of corporate interests to infuse its elf into the U-M's institutional and social mission.