Steve Fuller Universities as sites of knowledge production. Universities were the original corporations, that is, they were chartered under medieval law to pursue goals that transcend the particular interests of its constituent members. In this respect, universities were distinguished from 'societies' which had fixed goals and 'nations' which had fixed origins. To be sure, the university's integrity has been historically torn by being between institutions oriented primarily to the past and the future. But interestingly, all corporations have suffered this fate, and most have succumbed in ways that make the university a uniquely resilient institution. It is important to stress this point today, since 'knowledge managers' have stereotyped the university as a 'dumb organization' that is 'high in intellectual capital but low in structural capital'. In contrast to this image, I shall defend the idea of the university as the creative destroyer of social capital: that is, as researchers we create societal advantage but as teachers we destroy it. As long as both phases of this cycle are contained within the same organizational form, the university will remain a dynamic and progressive force in society.