On relevance and norms of science in times of restructuring

• This chapter addresses the nature and consequences of changes in public research policy towards increased competitiveness and strategic funding for educational research in Sweden. Motivated by the basic fact that state interference within the realms of educational research always relates to political interests in its social value, our focus will be on the transition of arrangements and conceptions of such ideas and their implications for critical and autonomous research, long considered to guarantee the production of high-quality research of societal importance. The case we are analysing is Sweden – a Nordic welfare state in the process of rapid restructuring of higher education and research. We consider this a fruitful case with processes and practices that are common to other national and international settings, but with some specif ic characteristics in the ways in which research and higher education policy has operated in the social and intellectual organization of educational research. More precisely we put forwards three characteristics: Firstly, educational research was organized as a specif ic discipline (Pedagogik) as in continental Europe (e.g. the Nordic countries and Germany and Switzerland) and is now transformed into a f ield of educational sciences (pedagogik, psychology, political science, humanities, etc.) competing for recognition and resources. Secondly, educational research was previously to a large extent carried out outside teacher education colleges in specif ic university departments, but is now getting a more prominent position in teacher education, where, thirdly, the previous organization of teacher colleges are being dissolved and instead organized into multi-disciplinary university departments. Thus, by means of these specif ic characteristics the Swedish case has the potential to further clarify the complex and intriguing political nature of research organization more generally.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Research Policy

Academic Ethos

Research relevance

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)