1st Edition
Universities under Neoliberalism Ideologies, Discourses and Management Practices
The COVID-19 pandemic, the surge of populism, the climate crisis and many other destabilizing factors in our time, all point at the expectation of trustworthy knowledge and reliable organization devoted to knowledge production and dissemination. However, universities remain enmeshed in economic liberalization and ensuing cultural struggles where their funding, governance and practices reflect market imprints – even academic ideals such as originality, or social ideals such as relevance have been transformed into measurable units and thereby risk losing their historical sway. This predicament is the focus of this book.
The book explores the rise of neo-liberalization in academic system in a highly unlikely place: Sweden, a country with a strong social democratic tradition and a long history of state regulation of higher education. As an advanced welfare state with a powerful labour movement and a large public sector, market ideals and practices have been carefully curtailed historically. This notwithstanding, a neoliberal university model has evolved there, reshaping notions of academic identities, institutional directions and notions of quality. This edited collection will be of value to researchers, academics and students with an interest in organizational studies, governance, management, higher education, sociology and politics.
Mats Benner and Mikael Holmqvist
Chapter 2. Beyond Neoliberalized Research: From Auditing to Reflexive Governance
Mats Benner
Chapter 3. Publication Strategy as Ideology at Swedish Universities
Ylva Hasselberg
Chapter 4. Corporations’ Invisible Hand in Higher Education: Teaching at Business Schools and the Making of Employable Students
Mikael Holmqvist
Chapter 5. Social Media and Higher Education. On the Influx of Facebook in Swedish Academia
Alexandra Söderman & Johan Söderman
Chapter 6. The Market Liberal University and Its Effects on Academic Researchers – Survey Evidence from Sweden
Hans Englund and Jonas Gerdin
Chapter 7. Making Ends Meet: Limiting Factors for Managerial Bureaucratization at the University of Helsinki and Stockholm School of Economics in the 2010s
Janne Holmén
Biography
Mats Benner is a Professor in Science Policy Studies and the Dean of the School of Economics and Management at Lund University, Sweden.
Mikael Holmqvist is a Professor in Business Administration at Stockholm University, Sweden.