Les sociologues des sciences "antidifférenciationnistes" annoncent ou décrivent l'effacement des frontières entre science et industrie. La figure archétypale de cette nouvelle science hétéronome serait le "chercheur-entrepreneur", imprégné d'un "esprit d'entreprise" qui lui permettrait de mieux communiquer avec le monde marchand, idée que l'on retrouve sous la forme d'une doxa dans certains discours politiques. Cet antidifférenciationnisme, très proche du constructivisme social, repose sur une radicalité épistémologique fort controversée qui s'offre en réponse aux échecs du fondationnalisme. L'objet de ce travail est de penser l'autonomie de la science en neutralisant les querelles métaphysiques qui découlent de cette radicalité. Il débouche sur la production d'une série de concepts que je mobilise pour l'analyse d'une enquête menée auprès de 81 chercheurs créateurs d'entreprises (complétée par une série d'études de cas), ce qui m'amène à nuancer les thèses antidifférenciationnistes.

A shift has occurred in the traditional type of centralised government control to a more multilevel type of governing referred to as governance. The change from government to governance can be illustrated with an emphasis on networks and social capital enhancement. In higher education this is enveloped through a larger emphasis on institutionalisation of collaboration between the higher education institutions (HEI) and the surrounding environment. In lieu of large block grants come financial incentives through semi-governmental agencies embracing collaboration projects between industry and HEI as well as municipalities.` This licentiate thesis objective is to study the collaboration task’s practical implication on undergraduate education in terms of social capital enhancement and research and teaching links. This is reported in two articles that elaborate on social capital establishment through a policy program and whether policy programs focusing on research collaborations also have an effect on undergraduate education by improving research and teaching links. In general, the findings of this thesis indicate that semi-governmental policy programs have a positive effect on establishing new social capital between regional HEI, industry and municipalities, and that semi-governmentally financed research profiles also have a positive effect on undergraduate education by introducing a link to research outside and within the HEI. / QC 20110117

Abstract In this thesis a socio-cultural perspective of medical science education is adopted to argue the position that undergraduate medical scientists must be enculturated into the profession as knowledge workers and symbolic analysts who can interact with computers in complex analytical procedures, quality assurance and quality management. The cue for this position is taken from the transformations taking place in the pathology industry due to advances in automation, robotics and informatics. The rise of Evidence-Based Laboratory Medicine (EBLM) is also noted and the observation by higher education researchers, that knowledge systems are transforming in such a way that disciplines can no longer act in isolation. They must now collaborate with disparate fields in transdisciplinary knowledge systems such as EBLM, for which new skills must be cultivated in undergraduate medical scientists. This thesis aims to describe a theoretical basis for knowledge work by taking a semiotic perspective. This is because, semiotics, a theory of signs and representations, can be applied to the structure of transdisciplinary scientific knowledge, the logic of scientific practice and the rhetoric of scientific communications. For this purpose, a semiotic framework is first derived from a wide range of semiotic theories existent in the literature. Then the application of this semiotic framework to clinical chemistry knowledge, context, logic, and rhetoric is demonstrated. This is achieved by interpreting various clinical chemistry data sources, for example, course materials, laboratory spatial arrangements, instruments, printouts, and students' practical reports, collected from a teaching laboratory situation. The results of semiotic analysis indicate that the clinical chemist working in the computerised laboratory environment performs knowledge work, and the term is synonymous with symbolic analysis. It is shown that knowledge work entails the application of a systematic structure for clinical chemistry knowledge derived in terms of the validation procedures applied to laboratory, data, results and tests; the application of logic in the classification and selection of instruments, their rulegoverned- use, and in troubleshooting errors; pragmatic decisions based on availability of space, services and budgets; discrimination among values in laboratory test evaluations in EBLM, for the cost-effectiveness and relevance of pathology services; and the recognition of rhetorical strategies used to communicate laboratory test information in graphs, charts, and statistics. The role of the laboratory context is also explained through semiotics, in terms of its spatial arrangements and designs of laboratory instruments, as a place that constrains the knowledge work experience. This contextual analysis provides insights into the oppositional trend brought to wide attention by analysts of computerised professional work, that more skills are needed, but that there are fewer highly skilled positions available. The curriculum implications of these findings are considered in terms of the need to cultivate knowledge workers for highly complex symbolic analysis in computerised laboratories; and also the need to prepare medical science graduates for the transdisciplinary knowledge system of EBLM, and related venues of employment such as biomedical research and clinical medicine. In meeting the aims to define and demonstrate knowledge work from the semiotic perspective, this thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by the application of semiotics to a field in which it has probably never been tested. It contributes to the scholarship of teaching in higher education by formulating a structure for transdisciplinary medical science knowledge, which integrates scientific with other forms of knowledge, and with real world practice.

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The study explores, through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the existence of Mode 2 knowledge and programmes in the South African higher education sector. It begins by theorising about knowledge and takes as a point of departure the propositions about theory-building which state that to explain social phenomena, a system of ideas is required, the conceptual tools of which are able to explain the essential dynamics of such phenomena. It goes on to describe a crisis in a system of ideas that, together with valid critiques, demands to be re-examined as well as the potential for advancing alternative lines of thought. A critical reading and understanding of existing theories leads me to believe that independently, they are all inadequate to explain the relationship between knowledge production and South African higher education in an era of globalisation. This includes the all-encompassing framework of neo-Marxism, the excessive consumerism of academic capitalism, the equation of the worker with modern technology in post-industrialism and the`lax relativity', complacent and, indiscriminate celebration of diversity in post-modernism. By combining the `culturally sensitive' critical post-modernism of William Tierney and George Subotzky with the concept of `late capitalism' as proposed by Frederic Jameson, it is possible to establish a relationship between globalisation and South African higher education on the one hand, and between its' policy and knowledge production on the other. Against the features of the newly proffered theoretical framework of `critical postmodernism in late capitalism', the study examines the new higher education policy and legislation and ensuing discourse, with particular reference to the Gibbons thesis. It then explores, by using an empirical investigation, the extent to which Mode 2 knowledge production exists in South African higher education. This is done through a selected programme from a former technikon in that demonstrates the key assumptions and perceptions about Mode 2 as held by lecturing staff and as embedded in the structure, design and content of the programme. With the results obtained the study finally makes recommendations for the establishment of a paradigm-shift and for new practices in knowledge production in higher education in South Africa. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)

The study explores, through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the existence of Mode 2 knowledge and programmes in the South African higher education sector. It begins by theorising about knowledge and takes as a point of departure the propositions about theory-building which state that to explain social phenomena, a system of ideas is required, the conceptual tools of which are able to explain the essential dynamics of such phenomena. It goes on to describe a crisis in a system of ideas that, together with valid critiques, demands to be re-examined as well as the potential for advancing alternative lines of thought. A critical reading and understanding of existing theories leads me to believe that independently, they are all inadequate to explain the relationship between knowledge production and South African higher education in an era of globalisation. This includes the all-encompassing framework of neo-Marxism, the excessive consumerism of academic capitalism, the equation of the worker with modern technology in post-industrialism and the`lax relativity', complacent and, indiscriminate celebration of diversity in post-modernism. By combining the `culturally sensitive' critical post-modernism of William Tierney and George Subotzky with the concept of `late capitalism' as proposed by Frederic Jameson, it is possible to establish a relationship between globalisation and South African higher education on the one hand, and between its' policy and knowledge production on the other. Against the features of the newly proffered theoretical framework of `critical postmodernism in late capitalism', the study examines the new higher education policy and legislation and ensuing discourse, with particular reference to the Gibbons thesis. It then explores, by using an empirical investigation, the extent to which Mode 2 knowledge production exists in South African higher education. This is done through a selected programme from a former technikon in that demonstrates the key assumptions and perceptions about Mode 2 as held by lecturing staff and as embedded in the structure, design and content of the programme. With the results obtained the study finally makes recommendations for the establishment of a paradigm-shift and for new practices in knowledge production in higher education in South Africa. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)