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The COVID-19 pandemic is providing a stark reminder that higher education institutions, and faculty in particular, exist in a constant state of precarity. The crisis triggered by the pandemic is revealing the underlying contradictions at the heart of the employment relationship between faculty and administrative managers at colleges and universities. We suggest that without the protection provided by shared governance, tenure, and academic freedom, the core mission of colleges and universities to pursue truth and produce knowledge—as carried out by its faculty for the betterment of society—risks being eroded and eventually eliminated altogether. A brief review of the City University of New York and the evolution of the Professional Staff Congress, the union representing 30,000 staff and faculty at CUNY, as well as administrators’ attacks on faculty at Ithaca College, shows that it is crucial to organize beyond the walls of academia during moments of crisis and establish connections with broader social movements. Responses to the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic are an opportunity to fight back against the commodification of public goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aristotle is undoubtedly one of the greatest philosophers of western culture, whose influence is current in contemporary thought. One of his most important works is "Politics", where it can be found examples of his epistemological notions associated with the Greek society and the city. This work also defines the parameters for the proper functioning of the ideal city, which finite size and structure was supposed to ensure self-sufficiency and well living for everyone in the community. From this perspective, this paper analyzes and discusses Aristotelian thought and epistemology, the link between the Greek ideal social order and its associated spaces, his vision of the ideal city and the historical evolution of the concept of Aristotelian infinity of space that always turns into the notion of limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ancient Greek cities the social structure tries to adapt to its urban form. From this perspective, this article is a review of Aristotelian thought, especially the one developed in the Politics, in order to analyze the link between the ideal Greek social order and its associated space. For Aristotle (348-322 BC), the ideal form of the city is a contained, limited and finite space, built in order to avoid human overpopulation, and thus, to ensure its self-sufficiency, beauty, virtuosity and governance. This article presents the definition of Aristotle for Greek polis, followed by, a brief evolution of the concept of infinity through history is offered, starting from the Aristotelian approach to our days. It is important to state that the reflections here presented make up an initial advance of a historical research on the process of urban growth and the ways to limit its physical expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]