"Both timely and provocative, this compelling book by David B. Downing succeeds in the very difficult task of relating the internal organization and subject matter of an academic field to the sociology of the profession." Marc Bousquet, the founding editor of Workplace: The Journal for Academic Labor "The Knowledge Contract takes up one of the most important topics in the humanities--the university and its current prospects. Its central innovation is its examination of Thomas Kuhn's conception of paradigms. Along the way, Downing takes up current issues facing the university, such as diversity, cosmopolitanism, globalism, and academic labor." Jeffrey Williams, co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism