The Good and the Bad News about Academic Research, Communities, and Degrowth Ethics

While this article by Rachel Handforth is not strictly on this subject, there are some very helpful insights and though this is mostly about PhDs and how people think of advanced research in the UK, it feels very close to home here in the US. Handforth writes,

A 2025 report on public attitudes to science showed low public awareness of how research is funded. The wider research system and how PhDs fit within it are also not well understood.

In a new research report based on focus groups with Nottinghamshire residents, I explored people’s views on the purpose of PhDs and the extent to which they were seen as valuable.

The people I talked to were quick to recognise the potential benefits for those studying PhDs, such as the social status and career-related advantages. They found it harder to identify how PhD programmes could bring benefits for society more widely. Within my focus groups, there was little understanding that UK taxpayers had a role in funding PhDs.

There is a common joke among those in PhD programs whose families do not understand what they do or why they are doing it. But, Handforth also includes some positive indications I personally feel deals with intra-degrowth, community, open research, open science, and open access; giving back to the community in real ways, stating,

Despite some scepticism, residents were keen to understand more about PhD research being undertaken by researchers locally. They wanted to learn about projects that related to issues in their communities such as crime, pollution and housing. Yet they felt that they had few opportunities to learn about, or participate in, research happening in their local areas.

Handforth continues,

I carry out work for the Collaboratory Research Hub. This is a programme involving 5 universities in the Midlands which support PhDs designed to address local challenges, co-created by academics and community partners. We actively involve the public in these projects. One example is Local Voices in Research, which gathers insights from local communities to inform research priorities. It also aims to recruit local people with professional, community-based experience, to do PhD projects.

We hope that this may shift PhDs towards a clearer focus on public good, a conversation which we hope to have on an international scale.

As I have been attempting to argue for so long, we need to use research in methods that directly benefit communities and not out of motivations for profit or careerism. And yes, even the humanities can contribute. There are real, focused ways that academic research and community infrastructure can collaborate that begin to resemble a community of degrowth, that is, independence and mutual cooperation, not dependent on scalable costs of living increases that do not really benefit anyone in the end anyways and only further the aims of capitalism suspended in animation.

Do not conduct research for profit. Do not push designs to further a career. A well lived life is giving back, from what you know to what the community already innately understands. This is true of both the sciences and the humanities, advanced to any degree. Then academics will learn that it is the community that is already there and it is the scholars who are learning. It is deeply unfortunate that after all this time we still must beg for the ethical application of education.