Overview
- A superb jumping-off point for work on much-needed alternative policy paradigms for tertiary education and research
- Uniquely interdisciplinary, with studies in economics, political science, history and philosophy of science, media studies and ethnology
- Includes case studies from Sweden which provide a window on a future where these trends are more entrenched
Part of the book series: Higher Education Dynamics (HEDY, volume 39)
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About this book
This volume tackles head-on the controversy regarding the tensions between the principles underlying Academe on the one hand, and the free market on the other. Its outspoken thesis posits that seemingly irresistible institutional pressures are betraying a core principle of the Enlightenment: that the free pursuit of knowledge is of the highest value in its own right. As ‘market principles’ are forced on universities, inducing a neoteric culture of ‘managerialism’, many worry that the very characteristics that made European higher education in particular such a success are being eroded and replaced by ideological opportunism and economic expediency.
Richly interdisciplinary, the anthology explores a wealth of issues such as the phenomenon of bibliometrics (linking an institution’s success to the volume and visibility of publications produced). Many argue that the use of such indicators to measure scientific value is inimical to the time-consuming complexities of genuine truth-seeking. A number of the greatest discoveries and innovations in the history of science, such as Newton’s laws of mechanics or the Mendelian laws of inheritance, might never have seen the light of day if today’s system of determining and defining the form and content of science had dominated. With analytical perspectives from political science, economics, philosophy and media studies, the collection interrogates, for example, the doctrine of graduate employability that exerts such a powerful influence on course type and structure, especially on technical and professional training. In contrast, the liberal arts must choose between adaptation to the dictates of employability strategies or wither away as enrollments dwindle and resources evaporate. Research projects and aims have alsobecome an area of controversy, with many governments now assessing the value of proposals in terms of assumed commercial benefits. The contributors argue that these changes, as well as ‘reforms’ in the managerial and administrative structures in tertiary education, constitute a radical break with the previous ontology of science and scholarship: a change in its very character, and not merely its form. It shows that the ‘scientific thinking’ students, researchers, and scholars are encouraged to adopt is undergoing a rapid shift in conceptual content, with significant consequences not only for science, but also for the society of which it is a part.
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Keywords
- Academic norms
- Allocation of resources for teaching and research
- Application of market principles on academic norms
- Assessment and control of science
- Assessment of scholarly value
- Assessment of scientific value
- Commercialisation of scientific research
- Commercialisation of teaching
- Flourishing of science
- Free market of ideas
- Privatisation of knowledge
- Self-understanding of science and scholarship
- Training in scientific thinking
- Trends in higher education policy
- Trends in research policy
- University as a means for economic growth
Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Politics and Policy
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Front Matter
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Economic Models
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Front Matter
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Research and Scholarship
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Front Matter
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Higher Education
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Transformations in Research, Higher Education and the Academic Market
Book Subtitle: The Breakdown of Scientific Thought
Editors: Sharon Rider, Ylva Hasselberg, Alexandra Waluszewski
Series Title: Higher Education Dynamics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5249-8
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-007-5248-1Published: 28 December 2012
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-017-8408-5Published: 29 January 2015
eBook ISBN: 978-94-007-5249-8Published: 30 December 2012
Series ISSN: 1571-0378
Series E-ISSN: 2215-1923
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VI, 222
Topics: Higher Education, Educational Policy and Politics, Sociology of Education, R & D/Technology Policy, Economic Policy