I’m reading all the back issues

of the Higher

Education Exchange, in order to write a mini-report for the editors about

their future strategy for the journal. One generally excellent article is Edward

Royce’s "The Practice of the Public Intellectual" (1999). In passing,

Royce makes a point that I consider very important. He writes: "public intellectuals

can work with those subject to power as well as against those who

exercise power." Working with ordinary people (or with especially

oppressed people) is an entirely different form of engagement from "speaking

truth to power." It requires more listening, more quiet work within institutions

and communities, more development of personal relationships and trust, more building

on local assets—and less dramatic rhetoric. Working against the powerful

is an important role for intellectuals to play. But working "with those

subject to power" seems equally valuable (and interesting).