| ▲ | ks2048 4 days ago |
| Right in the headline is a word choice I've notice lately that irks me, "democratization". "democratization" doesn't mean more people have access to it. In voting, "more access" means "more governing power" (in principle), but in other things, it does not. If you want to use "democratized" applied to higher-ed, it would mean more people are involved in the decision-making, leadership, or ownership. |
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| ▲ | jasode 4 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| >"democratization" doesn't mean more people have access to it. > I just don't like it and think it is relatively new usage and a change in the older meaning of the word. People have been using "democratize" to describe "more accessible to the masses" for a long time. Here's an example from 106 years ago in 1920 : https://www.google.com/books/edition/Soviet_Russia/qflaAAAAM... And 40 years ago a 1986 article of "microchip democratizing computing" : https://www.google.com/books/edition/Procom_s_1986_1987_Dent... The additional meanings of democratize to describe "more accessible" are also documented in Oxford and Merriam-Webster dictionaries: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/dictionaries-thesaur... https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democratic#:~:tex... |
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| ▲ | 1vuio0pswjnm7 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | It could be that HN commnter replying to submission about education in the United States indicating that he is "irked" by the term "democratisation" is not located within the United States but rather in a non-English speaking country not initiallu founded upon "democratic" principles (cf. United States) and with a dissimilar history of "democracy". As such, his interpetation of this term could have different meaning to him than the journalist working for The Atlantic who resides within the United States and is employed by one of its academic institutions | | |
| ▲ | ben_w 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Indeed. Like ks2048 I find the use of "democratize" outisde of governance to be bizzare and even annoying. I am British by birth, and IIRC Hacker News is pretty much the only place I see "democratize" used to mean "make more widely available". | |
| ▲ | 1vuio0pswjnm7 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | *initially |
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| ▲ | potsandpans 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Right. But it's not my favorite nerd snipe interpretation that allows me to post low effort comments on hackernews about the headline instead of engaging in a meaningful discussion about the article. |
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| ▲ | Amorymeltzer 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I basically agree, but I think at this point it's an accepted use; see e.g. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratization_of_knowledge> and <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratization_of_technology>. Indeed, wiktionary (<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/democratization>) uses your sense as the first, strict definition, but gives "The broadening of access to something, especially for the sake of egalitarianism." as the loose definition. |
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| ▲ | caconym_ 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| "Democratize"? I thought that was when you rent an AI tool built on stolen intellectual property to write, draw, code, etc. for you because you never bothered to learn those skills yourself and convinced yourself they were being gatekept. |
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| ▲ | pandaman 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| >"democratization" doesn't mean more people have access to it It literally does, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democratic 3: relating, appealing, or available to the broad masses of the people : designed for or liked by most people |
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| ▲ | PearlRiver 3 days ago | parent [-] | | I do not know how it worked in the US but in my country until the 1960s university was for the upper class. No son or daughter of a butcher could ever hope to study law. | | |
| ▲ | tracker1 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | It really changed during the Clinton administration, where rules were established for student loans that pretty much ensured almost anyone who wanted to go to college could go to college. Since then tuition rates have dramatically exceeded inflation though. There's also the issue in that a lot of private/commercial colleges have optimized their pricing to where most people drop out to extract maximum value from the system, pretty much leaving people often unable to complete their programs the final year or half year. I think that the opportunity for funding should have higher ties to economic demand for certain degree programs over others. I'm not opposed to people that want to go to arts programs in college, but I'm not sure that they should be taxpayer funded necessarily. I have thought that areas where we bring in foreign workers should largely be offset with higher employer taxes and those taxes funding grants for domestic study into the fields in question. I also think we need a much broader set of trade schools for more industries than typical. Even with technology and programming. In terms of lower high school graduation rates, I think we've dumbed down and taken things to the lowest common denominator in an extreme fashion. Common-core has failed, along with "new math" and other more modern teaching methods. My great grandmother was a teacher, and I've seen some of the text books they used in the pre-1960s, the coverage was much more thorough and difficult even at a 5th grade level than what many kids today see through the end of high school. There should be plenty of room for vocational study as well as traditional study... but we need to stop just giving kids a pass because they're a certain age when they don't understand the core curriculem. | |
| ▲ | pandaman 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | It might have been the same until 1960s in the US. It doesn't matter in 2020s, when people who graduated before 1960s are in their 80s if still alive. |
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| ▲ | FrustratedMonky 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Isn't more people attending college, and thus choosing where to go with their pocket book, the 'control'. The people control, through voting by choosing where to attend, based on what is offered. So if someplace is not offering much that anybody wants, they don't get students, and go out of business. The word 'democratize' is often used just for 'access' through purchasing power. Not that I agree that money should control learning. I'd like to go back to more hardcore reading/writing/arithmetic/Compiler Design. But nobody digs that. |
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| ▲ | ks2048 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | > The word 'democratize' is often used just for 'access' through purchasing power. I guess I'm saying, yes, that is how it often used. I just don't like it and think it is relatively new usage and a change in the older meaning of the word. In the 90's when Linux was taking off, did people say Torvalds has "democratized Unix"? (honest question - I'm not sure.) | |
| ▲ | atq2119 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | It's a fairly weak level of control, though. Compare with the governing structures of public universities in (most of?) Germany where there is a "senate" composed of elected representatives of professors, students, and administrative and academic staff. Now that is approaching democratic control. |
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| ▲ | bananamogul 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Just wait until you realize that 99.999% of the time, when people say "methodology" they really mean "method". It'll drive you mad. |
