The purpose of the study can in greater detail be described as makingan analysis of the role of knowledge, as well as the assumptions inscribedin knowledge, in the practices of governing academic subjects liketeachers and researchers. The point of departure is the new concepts of theinteraction between individual freedoms and social norms that emergedrecently in the context of the political governance of higher education(Management). The study also includes genealogical analyses of how thenew forms of governance are related to historical imaginaries of the Academy(past times), and how such historical material is reproduced and operatesin today’s Swedish University settings. The historical material consists of texts regarding the history of theUniversity, public material such as official reports of the State (SOU) andgovernment bills and it also includes reports from a national symposium onthe university in the middle of the 1980’s. The empirical material consists of an impressionistic ethnographic fieldstudy from 10 meetings of the deans’ council in the second part of1998 (Study 1), 27 in depth interviews; 10 interviews with deans (Study 2),11 interviews with the members of the university board and finally 4 interviewswith external informants (Study 3). The theoretical guidelines, along which this research is organised,are based on Michel Foucault´s notion of gouvernmentalité (governmentality),Nikolas Rose’s reflections regarding the emergence of new liberalrationalities of governing (advanced liberalism) and Judith Butler’s poststructuralfeminist perspective. This theoretical framework is used as apoint of departure to study how power and governance operate in thepractices of the deans’ council; how the assumptions and concepts of thedeans are inscribed in those practices where power and governance areexercised; how the deans construct themselves and each other and finallyhow the construction of identities in those practices are related to the forcesof power that operate inside and outside the university setting. The self-governing practices of the deans’ council, that are part ofthe university’s governance policy, are understood by the actors as a movementtowards increased autonomy. A closer scrutiny of those practices,however, reveals that the new management discourse governs the practicesfrom behind, as it were. The activities of the university, it seems, arenow directed towards the aim of realizing the future needs of manpower insociety, preferably within the technological, scientific and medical sector.In order to ensure oneself about efficiency and quality, the previous confidencesystem is replaced by a quality follow-up (quality control) systemwith the starting point in an economic administrative thinking.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-100169 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Bjuremark, Anna |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för samhälle, kultur och lärande (SKL), Stockholm |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, monograph, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Studies in educational sciences, 1400-478X ; 53 |
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